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The Party Line
The Baxters do not know their place.
On the first of June every year, sharemilkers load their trucks with their families, pets and possessions and crawl along the highways towards new farms, new lives. They're inching towards that ultimate dream — buying their own land.
Fenward's always been lucky with its sharemilkers: grateful, grafting folk who understand what's expected of them. Until now, when grief-stricken Ian Baxter and his precocious daughter, Gabrielle, arrive.
Nickie Walker is enchanted by the glamour and worldliness of Gabrielle. Nickie's mother finds herself in the crossfire of a moral battle she dreads to confront. Each has a story to share.
This is a coming-of-age story for two young girls who hold a mirror up to the place and people they love. It's a coming-of-age story, too, for a community forced to stare back at the image of a damaged soul.
The question is: who will blink first?
The Party Line is an enthralling novel of individual bravery versus silent, collective complicity, set in a vividly drawn farming community in 1970s New Zealand.
On the first of June every year, sharemilkers load their trucks with their families, pets and possessions and crawl along the highways towards new farms, new lives. They're inching towards that ultimate dream — buying their own land.
Fenward's always been lucky with its sharemilkers: grateful, grafting folk who understand what's expected of them. Until now, when grief-stricken Ian Baxter and his precocious daughter, Gabrielle, arrive.
Nickie Walker is enchanted by the glamour and worldliness of Gabrielle. Nickie's mother finds herself in the crossfire of a moral battle she dreads to confront. Each has a story to share.
This is a coming-of-age story for two young girls who hold a mirror up to the place and people they love. It's a coming-of-age story, too, for a community forced to stare back at the image of a damaged soul.
The question is: who will blink first?
The Party Line is an enthralling novel of individual bravery versus silent, collective complicity, set in a vividly drawn farming community in 1970s New Zealand.
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 26, 2015
16 people are currently reading
186 people want to read
About the author
Sue Orr
7 books20 followersSue Orr is the author of two short story collections. Etiquette for a Dinner Party (2008) won the Lilian Ida Smith Award and From Under the Overcoat (2011) was shortlisted for the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards and won the People's Choice Award. Her fiction has been published in New Zealand and international anthologies and translated into Spanish. In 2011 she was the Sargeson Buddle Findlay Fellow.
She has taught creative writing at Manukau Institute of Technology and Massey University and is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at Victoria University, Wellington. She lives in Auckland with her family.
She has taught creative writing at Manukau Institute of Technology and Massey University and is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at Victoria University, Wellington. She lives in Auckland with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
December 20, 2015
I devoured this book in one day - which is a rare feat for me these days. It's so evocative of NZ in the 1970s and the don't rock the boat mentality that I think still prevails here to some extent. And as I read it I kept imagining the film version of it - also something I don't generally tend to do. Def one of my best reads for 2015.
November 12, 2015
We are in a rural farming community in New Zealand. It's 1972. It's a small community where everyone knows everyone's business, thanks in part to the "party line", the shared telephone system which enables people to eavesdrop on one another's conversations if they feel so inclined. And yet, there are unspoken rules about turning a blind eye to other people's business, even when perhaps the right thing would be to step in and help.
Ian Baxter has come to work on one of the farms, bringing his precocious pre-teen daughter Gabrielle. Ian's wife Bridie recently died of cancer, leaving Ian engulfed in grief and struggling to parent his daughter. Gabrielle and her new best friend Nickie are left to their own devices. When they make a discovery about a local family, a situation that the community has been feigning ignorance of, their subsequent actions will send a shockwave rippling through the area.
This is a beautifully written book and I savoured every page of it. The characters are real and rounded and the community is vividly brought to life. The story focuses on three main characters: the grieving Ian Baxter, impressionable Nickie and her mother Joy. Interestingly, although Gabrielle is a main character and the catalyst for much of the plot, her character remains somewhat inscrutable and I thought this was a shame.
This is a debut novel (the author has previously published two books of short stories) and it is a fine one.
Ian Baxter has come to work on one of the farms, bringing his precocious pre-teen daughter Gabrielle. Ian's wife Bridie recently died of cancer, leaving Ian engulfed in grief and struggling to parent his daughter. Gabrielle and her new best friend Nickie are left to their own devices. When they make a discovery about a local family, a situation that the community has been feigning ignorance of, their subsequent actions will send a shockwave rippling through the area.
This is a beautifully written book and I savoured every page of it. The characters are real and rounded and the community is vividly brought to life. The story focuses on three main characters: the grieving Ian Baxter, impressionable Nickie and her mother Joy. Interestingly, although Gabrielle is a main character and the catalyst for much of the plot, her character remains somewhat inscrutable and I thought this was a shame.
This is a debut novel (the author has previously published two books of short stories) and it is a fine one.
December 19, 2015
If you were in your formative years in the 1970s then you will totally relate to the pop culture in this book. Instantly familiar with the TV shows and music that is mentioned. The story of two friends, both young girls in a rural township. This is one of those firmly rooted in rural New Zealand books that took me back to my early teen years. Along with all that, this is a great novel about social issues and rural isolation and a bunch more stuff as well. A very enjoyable book.
June 26, 2023
Reflective and realistic take of kiwi farming - very much a memory of farming life with the community that comes with it. The outsiders bringing all their gauche and never quite measuring up is like a non fiction memoir. It was OK. I was a bit ho-hum about the end, but enjoyed the open kiwi rural insights.
September 24, 2016
A book read for my book group. I enjoyed it however I don't feel like I got to know the characters indepth and didn't feel like I connected with them. It was a tragic story but I didn't feel like there was a main story lots of little ones and the referral back to 2014 I didn't see the point.
June 3, 2019
The setting for this book is crucial, rural New Zealand in the 1970s. The farming culture is portrayed as dour, closed and unimaginative, or to borrow a word in the book "suffocating". As I was reading the book I also felt suffocated. I realised that the author was deliberately making things drag to enhance this dark aura, but I was still relieved to fight through the all the molasses and finally get to the end.
The title most obviously refers to the shared telephone exchange system they had, when the operator could listen in to your conversation, but the other meaning from politics when people are forced to follow a particular policy, works equally well. Both add to the feeling of being trapped.
I guess this is a coming-of-age book, with a couple of 13 year old girls, but the oppressive conservative culture dominates that particular narrative.
Gabrielle is the pivotal character, the "agent of chaos", who doesn't conform. Unfortunately that role makes her hard to believe, the audacity she shows surely can't exist in a 13 year old girl. All of the other characters ring true, and each of them can be seen as tragic, even the black villain Jack Gilbert, and perhaps the "grey" villain Eugene Walker. Heroes are in short supply though, only Gabrielle and maybe Joy Walker have the courage to stand against the system.
Sue Orr uses flashbacks, looking back from 2014. The technique shows the longs shadows of what happened and allows a more mature perspective to be expressed. Clearly though the real action is in the past.
Well-written and worth reading, you'll remember this book. You may not enjoy reading it.
The title most obviously refers to the shared telephone exchange system they had, when the operator could listen in to your conversation, but the other meaning from politics when people are forced to follow a particular policy, works equally well. Both add to the feeling of being trapped.
I guess this is a coming-of-age book, with a couple of 13 year old girls, but the oppressive conservative culture dominates that particular narrative.
Gabrielle is the pivotal character, the "agent of chaos", who doesn't conform. Unfortunately that role makes her hard to believe, the audacity she shows surely can't exist in a 13 year old girl. All of the other characters ring true, and each of them can be seen as tragic, even the black villain Jack Gilbert, and perhaps the "grey" villain Eugene Walker. Heroes are in short supply though, only Gabrielle and maybe Joy Walker have the courage to stand against the system.
Sue Orr uses flashbacks, looking back from 2014. The technique shows the longs shadows of what happened and allows a more mature perspective to be expressed. Clearly though the real action is in the past.
Well-written and worth reading, you'll remember this book. You may not enjoy reading it.
July 25, 2024
Do people today know what a party line is? There's the political meaning i.e. the collective understanding of a political party's ideology and policies, coupled with an expectation that party members will conform to them. But it can also mean a local phone circuit that is shared by multiple users. In the 1970s, if you lived in the bush in some parts of Australia, you shared a telephone line with your community whether you wanted to or not. There was usually some kind of loose community cooperation to ensure that the line wasn't tied up for too long by one caller, and there was an implicit understanding that you could interrupt to call in an emergency, but the greatest constraint was that there was usually some obnoxious busybody who listened in on other people's calls.
(Of course in those days not everyone had a phone anyway. Our parents had phones, but we didn't have one of our own till the late 70s, and none of our friends did either. But public phone booths were ubiquitous, and news that couldn't wait for the post came by telegram.)
Sharing a party line is relevant to Sue Orr's debut novel because the characters include an obnoxious busybody who makes it impossible for a victim of domestic abuse to get help. Yet despite the setting in 1970s New Zealand, the story remains relevant today.
The Party Line takes place in a farming community where the annual influx of sharemilkers and their families swells the population of Fenward each year. The sharemilkers 'know their place': they are not part of the community and won't be unless and until they can buy their own land. But everyone knows everyone's business, except when it comes to the domestic abuse perpetrated by Jack Gilbert, a prominent member of the community. That's nobody's business, and the 'party line' is for everyone to turn a blind eye.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/25/t...
(Of course in those days not everyone had a phone anyway. Our parents had phones, but we didn't have one of our own till the late 70s, and none of our friends did either. But public phone booths were ubiquitous, and news that couldn't wait for the post came by telegram.)
Sharing a party line is relevant to Sue Orr's debut novel because the characters include an obnoxious busybody who makes it impossible for a victim of domestic abuse to get help. Yet despite the setting in 1970s New Zealand, the story remains relevant today.
The Party Line takes place in a farming community where the annual influx of sharemilkers and their families swells the population of Fenward each year. The sharemilkers 'know their place': they are not part of the community and won't be unless and until they can buy their own land. But everyone knows everyone's business, except when it comes to the domestic abuse perpetrated by Jack Gilbert, a prominent member of the community. That's nobody's business, and the 'party line' is for everyone to turn a blind eye.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/25/t...
August 7, 2023
Book Club*
This book has a magnetic pull to attract the reader to read on. However, the ending is a letdown for me. Moreover, the characters seem equally underdeveloped, and I find it peculiar that a child (even an adolescent child) would refer to their parent(s) by their first name. Either the character(s) just meant to be rude, or the writer forgot to immerse in the individual's personality accordingly. I don't know. The story highlights a cliquey culture common in New Zealand society, not just in the farming community, as it were; those outsiders/newcomers who wish to be accepted in the group in the community must toe the party line; there's no two-way about it. I'm not in favor of such a social norm. This book makes me aware of the existence of peat fires and the danger of it, and it's not unique to New Zealand but across the world.
Some references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU4xb...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qYzT...
This book has a magnetic pull to attract the reader to read on. However, the ending is a letdown for me. Moreover, the characters seem equally underdeveloped, and I find it peculiar that a child (even an adolescent child) would refer to their parent(s) by their first name. Either the character(s) just meant to be rude, or the writer forgot to immerse in the individual's personality accordingly. I don't know. The story highlights a cliquey culture common in New Zealand society, not just in the farming community, as it were; those outsiders/newcomers who wish to be accepted in the group in the community must toe the party line; there's no two-way about it. I'm not in favor of such a social norm. This book makes me aware of the existence of peat fires and the danger of it, and it's not unique to New Zealand but across the world.
Some references:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU4xb...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qYzT...
July 15, 2025
In Fenward ( evidently, that is between Ngatea and Kerepehi but I have missed the road signs)
Gabrielle and her father arrived to take up a sharemilking job.
The Fenward locals were surprised at Gabrielle's pierced ears, her confident attitude and her determination to put wrongs right.
I've got some questions: 1)How did Audrey become a confident and beautiful speaker? That is a change in character, it was more than two decades and you don't know what happened in between.
2) where did the Baxters go and what happened to them?
3) was it Mrs Shanks who alerted the community that Mrs Gilbert was ready to sell the farm?
I did enjoy this story. It is nice to read about the Hauraki region.
Gabrielle and her father arrived to take up a sharemilking job.
The Fenward locals were surprised at Gabrielle's pierced ears, her confident attitude and her determination to put wrongs right.
I've got some questions: 1)How did Audrey become a confident and beautiful speaker? That is a change in character, it was more than two decades and you don't know what happened in between.
2) where did the Baxters go and what happened to them?
3) was it Mrs Shanks who alerted the community that Mrs Gilbert was ready to sell the farm?
I did enjoy this story. It is nice to read about the Hauraki region.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 11, 2018
The Party line - refers to a time when you shared a phone line with a community through an operator that would ease-drop and connect you to the caller. The novel takes place in Rural New Zealand in the mid 70’s and revolves around a small town where share mikers come to stay for short periods of time. A book about guarded reserved culture and the consequences. I am living in NZ and was really a slice of life read. Characters are so well developed you feel like you are beside them. Only downside was let down a bit by ending
July 11, 2024
I remember the days of the party line and the issues it could create . Sue Orr has captured o snapshot of rural New Zealand in the 1970s in The Party Line and has done it very successfully The opening chapter has Nicola Walker leaving the city to travel to Paeroa for a funeral in 2014 . But than the author delves back into 1972 and the reader is taken on a journey with droughts , death and abuse amongst a tight knit dairy farming community A very worthwhile read and I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys reading about rural New Zealand
June 1, 2020
I give this three and half stars but it's more a four than a three so here we are. This is such a kiwi book, it really took me back to my rural 70s childhood. The characters were realistically portrayed although I did find myself having to think carefully about which farmer she was writing about as there was not that much to distinguish between them! The more I read this book the more I wanted to read.
January 26, 2022
I loved this book and am now very eager to read Loop Tracks. A simple(deceptively so) coming of age tale from small community 1970s New Zealand. It resonated with me and my memories. The writing is sparse but clever and the story has enough twists to making it into the "hard to put down" category.
March 23, 2022
4 1/2 stars. Wow, what an incredible book. The only aspect that didn’t quite work for me was the chapters set in the present day. But there weren’t many of them and the majority of the book was set in the 1970s. Don’t want to spoil the story but will certainly be recommending to friends and family.
November 25, 2018
This was our book group book for this month. I wouldn’t have finished it but I am so glad I did. I really enjoyed the premise of it, domestic violence in a small farming town and how no one wants to try and help. I learnt more about dairy farming too.
August 12, 2021
Easy to read. Interesting storyline. Good movement from early 1970's to 2014 and back - keeping things in context. I could relate to being a pre-teen in the seventies, so that was fun. Only 3 stars as it just didnt "hold me tight".
May 10, 2022
A rather disturbing coming of age story set in rural 1970s New Zealand, and a real page turner. I was left wondering how much has really changed though in our ability to look the other way, ostracise outsiders and (perhaps men especially) to band together rather than confront bad behaviour.
August 26, 2024
Loved this. A quiet book, a beautiful character study, and an apt examination of 1970s NZ in a way that still felt contemporary. Expected this would take me a while but it was easy to pick up at every moment.
July 13, 2025
I really enjoyed this. It was a quick, evocative read. Sue's crafting of sentences is really clever, and I felt that I got into the characters' heads well.
Also how does goodreads say this was 600 pages?! It's only 250!!
Also how does goodreads say this was 600 pages?! It's only 250!!
September 28, 2017
So evocative of 1970s NZ. A little sloppy structure wise and some gaps in character development, but great on setting and feel.
January 4, 2018
The issues around domestic violence in a 1970s NZ farming community... I enjoyed this - it captured the ethos of the times well from the different perspectives of well-drawn characters.
September 21, 2019
3.5 stars. A really Kiwi NZ in the 70s story, with the intricate social niceties of a rural community. Good story.
October 10, 2019
Book club read. Bit simplistic; not much of a storyline; odd ending.
January 3, 2022
I loved this book!
July 31, 2023
Lovely writing
A very NZ story with lovely, evocative writing. The reader really gets to sink into the characters and the story keeps you reading. Highly recommended.
A very NZ story with lovely, evocative writing. The reader really gets to sink into the characters and the story keeps you reading. Highly recommended.
January 11, 2024
Picked this up second hand. What a score! Really enjoyed the moody coming of age story and a convincing representation of 1970s rural New Zealand.
August 19, 2021
Ms Orr's storytelling is exceptional. The story itself was a hard read because it dealt with the issues of physical, mental and sexual abuse, raw grief, sexism, intolerance and the dairy industry. I'm not a fan of dairy farming, but it was interesting to read about share-milking and how families shift around farms. The story itself is centered in the year 1972, rural New Zealand. At every turn you are reminded of the attitudes of the time especially those of men and their crap ideals of how women should live their lives and their 'she'll be right' attitudes.
I know I should have given this book five stars, but I came away from this book feeling very sad and depressed, no doubt because of the subject matters. Ms Orr really knew how to twist the knife. It won't stop me from reading another Sue Orr novel though!
I know I should have given this book five stars, but I came away from this book feeling very sad and depressed, no doubt because of the subject matters. Ms Orr really knew how to twist the knife. It won't stop me from reading another Sue Orr novel though!
September 22, 2016
NZ Book Council recently announced results of a survey taken on readership of NZ fiction. Disappointing and alarming probably sum up the results in as few words as possible. Which is a shame because there is amazing NZ fiction being written and published. Such as this one, the first novel by well known short story writer Sue Orr, a fiction finalist for the Ockham NZ Book Award 2016. It is an outstanding book, a very, very good story and hopefully at least one person reads it from this review and then tells others. As well as a great plot and interesting diverse characters, it is easy to read, bit of a page turner even, and is so quintessentially NZ in its setting, the mores of the time, and how we lived in the 1970s. This ability to so accurately and beautifully capture the essence of a small town/farming community is largely due to the author having grown up on a farm. Her ability to communicate that childhood and what she remembers of it is wonderful. Even if you didn't grow up on a farm, you will no doubt have visited and spent time with relatives and friends on a farm, and this writing will instantly take you back there.
Every year in June, the share milkers move around the country, moving to new jobs, farms, houses, schools, taking their wives, their children, their pets, belongings, vehicles. The farming community of Fenward, somewhere between Paeroa and Thames, always has a number of share milkers: good workers, good neighbours, everyone mucking in together, children and adults alike. Nickie Walker is a 12 year old girl who lives with her farm owning parents Eugene and Joy. Next door is Jack Gilbert and his wife Audrey. Jack, it would seem, is not a particularly good farmer, and for the first time, this year he has employed a share milker - Ian Baxter, recently widowed, who arrives with his 12 year old daughter Gabrielle. For Nickie, and the other girls at school, and the boys, Gabrielle is a wonder to behold. Beautiful, dazzling in fact, very smart, almost precocious, she has the school in her palm from the day she walks in the place. For the adults, however, especially the mothers, Gabrielle is going to be trouble, mark my words, far too big for her boots, the type of girl they are not used to dealing with, and who needs to be brought down a peg or two. She wears lipstick!
Naturally Nickie can't resist being in the Gabrielle orbit, and the two rapidly become best friends. In their efforts to rescue some bobby calves from being sent off to the works, they unwittingly observe an act of brutality and violence that immediately shoves them into the adult world, a world of complexity that at 12 years old, they are not equipped to deal with. With Ian still grieving for his dead wife, he is unable to deal with his wayward daughter, and with Nickie, who is desperately trying to break away from the confines of her tightly controlled life, she and Gabrielle set about trying to put right what is so obviously very wrong. And the layers slowly peel away from the rigid conventions that keep small communities ticking over, forcing people to rethink long held ways of doing things, their views and the collective complicity that results. The party line is what links everyone - the telephone system that has a number of phone numbers on the one line, making it very easy and very common for users to eavesdrop on others' phone conversations - a perfect source of gossip, news, intrigue and danger. Our need for privacy is compromised by something like the party line, which just encourages further the belief that what goes on behind closed doors stays behind those closed doors.
'The Party Line' is a coming of age story, not only of the two girls, but also of the community of Fenward. People change, some for better, some for worse, and Nickie's return to the town some 40 years later for a funeral shows some of these changes, helping her acceptance of what happened all those years ago. Many issues are touched on in this book, greatly helped by the never-below-the-surface violence and death so much a part of daily farm life. So we have callous care of animals, domestic violence, misogyny, depression, grief, community conformity and clearly defined roles for the sexes, a strong drinking culture, tough men, strong women, school calf day. It is a such a good book, giving the reader such a strong sense of the 1970s, the farming landscape, and the people living on and working the land.
Every year in June, the share milkers move around the country, moving to new jobs, farms, houses, schools, taking their wives, their children, their pets, belongings, vehicles. The farming community of Fenward, somewhere between Paeroa and Thames, always has a number of share milkers: good workers, good neighbours, everyone mucking in together, children and adults alike. Nickie Walker is a 12 year old girl who lives with her farm owning parents Eugene and Joy. Next door is Jack Gilbert and his wife Audrey. Jack, it would seem, is not a particularly good farmer, and for the first time, this year he has employed a share milker - Ian Baxter, recently widowed, who arrives with his 12 year old daughter Gabrielle. For Nickie, and the other girls at school, and the boys, Gabrielle is a wonder to behold. Beautiful, dazzling in fact, very smart, almost precocious, she has the school in her palm from the day she walks in the place. For the adults, however, especially the mothers, Gabrielle is going to be trouble, mark my words, far too big for her boots, the type of girl they are not used to dealing with, and who needs to be brought down a peg or two. She wears lipstick!
Naturally Nickie can't resist being in the Gabrielle orbit, and the two rapidly become best friends. In their efforts to rescue some bobby calves from being sent off to the works, they unwittingly observe an act of brutality and violence that immediately shoves them into the adult world, a world of complexity that at 12 years old, they are not equipped to deal with. With Ian still grieving for his dead wife, he is unable to deal with his wayward daughter, and with Nickie, who is desperately trying to break away from the confines of her tightly controlled life, she and Gabrielle set about trying to put right what is so obviously very wrong. And the layers slowly peel away from the rigid conventions that keep small communities ticking over, forcing people to rethink long held ways of doing things, their views and the collective complicity that results. The party line is what links everyone - the telephone system that has a number of phone numbers on the one line, making it very easy and very common for users to eavesdrop on others' phone conversations - a perfect source of gossip, news, intrigue and danger. Our need for privacy is compromised by something like the party line, which just encourages further the belief that what goes on behind closed doors stays behind those closed doors.
'The Party Line' is a coming of age story, not only of the two girls, but also of the community of Fenward. People change, some for better, some for worse, and Nickie's return to the town some 40 years later for a funeral shows some of these changes, helping her acceptance of what happened all those years ago. Many issues are touched on in this book, greatly helped by the never-below-the-surface violence and death so much a part of daily farm life. So we have callous care of animals, domestic violence, misogyny, depression, grief, community conformity and clearly defined roles for the sexes, a strong drinking culture, tough men, strong women, school calf day. It is a such a good book, giving the reader such a strong sense of the 1970s, the farming landscape, and the people living on and working the land.
January 16, 2016
(Currently on the New Fiction shelves in New Zealand).
Hmmm. Disappointing.
On the plus side, I found its picture of NZ rural life interesting and, I suspect, pretty authentic. The gossiping, the party line, the 'sharemilkers' and the various rituals like - I'm guessing - 'Calf Club'. (I'd even heard of 'Country Calendar' and it sounds every bit as shite as UK equivalents).
Otherwise, this wasn't great. I sometimes find it hard to read a novel with young adult protagonists and not feel like I'm reading YA fiction - and this is a pretty typical example. (Arguably, that could be a mark in its favour).
But 'YA' because, well, many of the characters felt'stock': the tut-tutting mother; the grieving permanently-on-the-edge-of-tears father; the prickly teen girls; the bad 'un farmer with the farm dog that, erm, attacks farm animals (bad move, mate). The characters often felt inconsistent too. Here are two rebellious young adults, yet they still embrace 'Calf Club' (can you imagine a 14 year old doing that?) and one of them believes her dead mother is communicating with her and her dad in their dreams. That friendship too - I was expecting this to be about that passionate friendship - is pretty much forgotten when Gabrielle moves and another girl gets a diving board (so much for that). Audrey too is introduced as a gorgeous Audrey Hepburn-esque kook, then turns OCD battered wife.
I dunno - it felt patchy. That 'Calf Club' episode, in fact, felt laboured and over-staged- I didn't ever 'get' why the girls would honestly give a crap about it, or how fielding a couple of male runts would have ever fooled the yokels. It seemed a peculiar thing to build a plot around. Not sure about the 'conversations with ghost mum' device either.
Likewise, the idea of the 'party line', I felt, could easily have been more interesting and meaningful. It could have been a much more powerful plot deviceYes, they were listening in - but not all that much. Little hung on it. It didn't really play much of a role.
Lastly, the prose. Fine, but quite purple in places. Lots of rather laboured turns. I think I recall a few 'lumps in throats' and 'hot tears' (I think 'hot tears' is one of the crappest formulations in the English language) and a word 'escaping...like a poison tipped arrow'. Again, it's that YA tonality.
So, fertile territory - but all a little arid. By all accounts, Orr's previous novel was far better and worth a look. Don't give up yet.
Hmmm. Disappointing.
On the plus side, I found its picture of NZ rural life interesting and, I suspect, pretty authentic. The gossiping, the party line, the 'sharemilkers' and the various rituals like - I'm guessing - 'Calf Club'. (I'd even heard of 'Country Calendar' and it sounds every bit as shite as UK equivalents).
Otherwise, this wasn't great. I sometimes find it hard to read a novel with young adult protagonists and not feel like I'm reading YA fiction - and this is a pretty typical example. (Arguably, that could be a mark in its favour).
But 'YA' because, well, many of the characters felt'stock': the tut-tutting mother; the grieving permanently-on-the-edge-of-tears father; the prickly teen girls; the bad 'un farmer with the farm dog that, erm, attacks farm animals (bad move, mate). The characters often felt inconsistent too. Here are two rebellious young adults, yet they still embrace 'Calf Club' (can you imagine a 14 year old doing that?) and one of them believes her dead mother is communicating with her and her dad in their dreams. That friendship too - I was expecting this to be about that passionate friendship - is pretty much forgotten when Gabrielle moves and another girl gets a diving board (so much for that). Audrey too is introduced as a gorgeous Audrey Hepburn-esque kook, then turns OCD battered wife.
I dunno - it felt patchy. That 'Calf Club' episode, in fact, felt laboured and over-staged- I didn't ever 'get' why the girls would honestly give a crap about it, or how fielding a couple of male runts would have ever fooled the yokels. It seemed a peculiar thing to build a plot around. Not sure about the 'conversations with ghost mum' device either.
Likewise, the idea of the 'party line', I felt, could easily have been more interesting and meaningful. It could have been a much more powerful plot deviceYes, they were listening in - but not all that much. Little hung on it. It didn't really play much of a role.
Lastly, the prose. Fine, but quite purple in places. Lots of rather laboured turns. I think I recall a few 'lumps in throats' and 'hot tears' (I think 'hot tears' is one of the crappest formulations in the English language) and a word 'escaping...like a poison tipped arrow'. Again, it's that YA tonality.
So, fertile territory - but all a little arid. By all accounts, Orr's previous novel was far better and worth a look. Don't give up yet.
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