Attraction

by Ruby Porter

The present reckons with the past in Attraction, Ruby Porter’s debut novel.

Three women are on a road trip, navigating the motorways of the North Island, their relationships with one another and New Zealand's colonial history. Our narrator doesn't know where she stands with Ilana, her not-quite-girlfriend. She has a complex history with her best friend, Ashi. She's haunted by the spectre of her emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend. And her period's now weeks late.

Attraction is a meditative novel of connection, inheritance and the stories we tell ourselves. In lyrical fragments, Porter explores what it means to be and to belong, to create and to destroy.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, Contemporary, LGBT, Book Club

275 pages, Paperback

First published May 7, 2019

About the author

Ruby Porter is a prose-writer, poet and artist. She tutors creative writing at the University of Auckland, and in high schools.

Reviews

[Marchpane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set during a road trip across New Zealand’s North Island, Attraction by Ruby Porter relates the thoughts of an unnamed narrator, a self-conscious young woman stuck in an anhedonic fug while holidaying at the family ‘bach’ with her girlfriend and another close friend. Things don’t go well from there, with kind of an angsty time had by all.

The narrator’s self-loathing manifests in her thoughts as a sort of generalised ugliness that pervades her surroundings, in the form of stains, bodily functions, squalor, decay and the almost necrotic effect of human activity on the landscape - very different from the ‘pure’ NZ promoted to the world.

The narrator dwells on her relationships with the other two women at the bach as well as an ex-boyfriend. In general, I find sexual entanglements and jealousies quite a dull topic in fiction (the rare exceptions are almost always 5-star reads), added to which I really failed to see the, well, attraction of any of these characters, whether it be physical chemistry or magnetic personalities. Even if the ardour dulled before the novel begins, it's helpful to see a flicker of what drew them together in the first place.

The novel's other themes – family inheritance, legacy, the narrator’s feelings of guilt over New Zealand’s colonial history and living on stolen land – were for me, much more interesting. The narrator takes te reo lessons and peppers the novel with the Māori language. She berates herself for using colonial European place names, rather than their original Māori names, and discovers her own ancestors were more directly involved in the New Zealand Wars than she’d previously realised. It is very much a ‎Pākehā perspective and I’m curious to see how New Zealanders react to Porter’s approach.

Comparisons will be made to Sally Rooney and it's easy to see why: Porter's style comes across as a little ‘Rooney-esque’ ('Rooneyan'? Is it too soon for Sally Rooney to have her own adjective?). If anything, Porter's characters are even younger and more plugged-in than Rooney's, but the similarities only go so far.

Attraction suffers at times from an overuse of figurative language that disrupts the narrative. It’s also kind of cluttered (realistically so, after all people’s lives are messy) which makes it hard as a reader to find a focal point: is it the extended family dynamics? Her post-colonial guilt? Her relationship with Ilana? The pregnancy scare? A search for artistic expression? That’s a lot to tackle at once, especially in a debut. It’s clear though, that Porter is a greatly talented young author, and I look forward to her next novel with interest. 3.5 stars.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved everything about this melancholic examination of postcolonial guilt, female relationships and memory. The fragmented form married perfectly with the content. New Zealand fiction has been hugely impressive this year.

[Sarah]

DNF @ 10%

Nope. Too bitty and fragmented and navel-gazing for my liking.

[Trudie]

Ah ... snippet central !
DNF @ page 100. I am either not in the mood or just not the right reader for this one ... plus the Booker longlist keeps calling me back.

[Text Publishing]

‘[Porter’s] writing has the intensity of Sally Rooney, the rawness of Andrew McGahan’s Praise and 1988 but is also distinctly original…[A]n utterly amazing debut.’
Jon Page

'Attraction is an assured debut and a promising start to a new writer’s career.’
Readings

‘Auckland-based writer Ruby Porter’s debut novel Attraction, winner of the inaugural Michael Gifkins Prize for an unpublished novel, is a melancholic and haunting meditation on postcolonial guilt and the stories we tell ourselves in order to keep going…Attraction is a novel about the weight of personal history and will appeal to readers of postcolonial stories and queer novels.’
Books + Publishing

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am slightly conflicted in my feelings about this book. There are elements that I like a lot, and others that didn’t work so well for me. But, I am the first to admit some of that is a matter of personal taste. I like novels that have a plot, something that you are following, that are going somewhere. That is not to say that I don’t enjoy books with no plot, but…

Attraction is a bit of a Sunday drive. Perhaps some people won’t understand that statement. When I was a kid my parents used to go out for a Sunday drive, an aimless ramble around the countryside by car, with no particular purpose or destination. These days with the price of petrol so high, it is unlikely anyone is going to drive around for a couple of hours for no reason.

‘Attraction’ is something of a road trip. Three women drive from Auckland to Gisborne, where they stay at a family bach. We see parts of the journey, hear snatches of New Zealand history, names and places. This is one of the things I like about the book, little snippets of the past creeping into the story. Te Kooti pops up frequently as he is hunted across the country, having first fought alongside the Government forces and later against them. We stop for snacks at Pak’nSave. The stories of relationships emerge. The narrator has come out of a difficult and troubled relationship with Nick, but now is involved with Ilana, one of the other road trippers. Their relationship, if it can be called that, is also strained. There is a permanent tension between them and the third party Ashi, who Ilana seems to fancy while the narrator has been her friend since school. The permanent tension hangs in the air and often overshadows events. It rains a lot, adding to the strain.

One of the pleasures of the book are the descriptions that paint such vivid pictures. “The bach is a puzzle of corrugated iron and repurposed wood. If you squint, you can see it’s on a lean. It’s small too, only four rooms, including the bathroom. But the porch is wide and flat and faces the sea.”

When the narrator receives a call about her sick grandmother, she and Ilana head across country again, this time to Levin. I’m not sure the book will win many plaudits from Levin, given a rather severe character assassination that takes place. I loved this bit of narrative:
“A TV architect once said Levin was the ugliest town in the world. He said the Liquor King was the only redeeming building. Helen told me this, but she couldn’t remember the architect’s name.
I said, - Kevin McCloud?
Who?
Grand Designs.
No, not that one.
Restoration man? The shed guy?
No, not them.
I didn’t know any more TV architects.
Like everything else that happens here, this man’s words had fallen into some parochial hole, too deep for memory, too small for Google.”

That excerpt will means nothing to most of the world who are not expose to British architects on TV. New Zealand gets all the British TV shows, and repeats them ad nauseum.

The town’s aging population is captured in the line “Everywhere, daytime TV can be seen through pulled lace curtains.” The experiences of retirement homes in Levin are beautifully painted. For example, “Retirement homes are dead-ends. They are places tired of living, places sick with it. That is why they are easy to die in.”
On a visit to the hospital, this phrase turns up out of the blue, “People clot in the waiting rooms and all down the halls.” Clot, what a great word to use about a hospital. I am sure I have never heard it used before. That is what you get with ‘Attraction’, little flashes of magic.

[Sonia Nair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Auckland-based writer Ruby Porter’s debut novel Attraction, winner of the inaugural Michael Gifkins Prize for an unpublished novel, is a melancholic and haunting meditation on postcolonial guilt and the stories we tell ourselves in order to keep going.

Read my full review on Books+Publishing here: https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au...

[Jules · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whatever the opposite of “sparse prose” is, this is it. Every line and paragraph is trying to say more than what is on the surface and while it’s sometimes quite lovely, it is tiring. I liked the format of the narrator’s fragmented thoughts. The mood is consistently bleak, as you’d expect when ruminating on abusive relationships, post colonial guilt and the imminent death of a family member, but could have done with some light and shade. It feels like there’s just too much misery going on - eating disorders, broken relationships, broken cars, suicide attempts, creative self harm and most randomly - a stranger’s dead baby? I didn’t connect with this.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three young women set off on a road trip to spend some time on a family bach together, and the complexities of their relationship one with the other are explored as the trip progresses. The unnamed narrator is not particularly likeable, is self-obsessed to a fault, and the book is an introspective, and occasionally insightful, look at female friendship, sexual attraction – both gay and heterosexual – and what happens when relationships disintegrate. It’s a meandering journey, both the physical and internal one, and I found myself impatient with all the angst at times. Nothing much happens and there’s little character development. It all seemed a bit pointless and inconsequential and it’s no surprise to see that Ruby Porter has been compared to Sally Rooney, another writer whose work I find inconsequential. However, the writing is fluid and the narrative rattles along at a good pace. It’s very much a New Zealand novel, firmly rooted in that country and with many NZ references, and therefore some knowledge of NZ history, culture and colonial past is pretty much essential to fully appreciate much of the book, especially the post-colonial guilt and shame. Even the word “bach”, so central to the story, will be unfamiliar to some readers. Personally I found the Maori themes more interesting than the narrator’s coming-of-age odyssey, but it does make the book of perhaps local and particular relevance rather than universal. Overall I enjoyed it, even if I found the narrator irritating at times, and as a debut novel I found it impressive indeed.

[Nick Edkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the prose style. The narrator is an incisive judge of shortcomings - both her own and her friends'. Being entirely in the head of a person like that was a little suffocating, but now, having finished, I think the direct emotional access was worth the discomfort.

[ns510reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

“And I know it’s time to go. Only decades too late.”

What a gorgeous read. Luscious sentences that melt into your consciousness like butter. Full of feeling, imagery and sense of place. There are so many levels in which to love and appreciate this novel, a winner of the Michael Gifkins Prize. Reading it in summer, it’s perfect for those of us who adore NZ roadtrips, each recognisable place a delight, each new tidbit about a familiar place hungrily devoured. Then there’s those sentences that flow and flow and flow before you realise you’ve reached the end and there’s no more. And then the layers, the depths: characters, relationships, dynamics and more weighty themes. Plus it’s blurbed by Patricia Grace who is Queen ❤️

At the heart of the novel is our narrator who goes on a summer roadtrip with her maybe girlfriend and best friend slash maybe girl she might be in love/lust with. In the wake of this is memories of her ex-boyfriend, who she may or may not be pregnant to. The narrative tension is driven by her interior self, laden with anxiety and insecurities, informing her relationships with those around her. The anchor is the land, the history. Immovable, undeniable even as memories may fade in their fickleness. But when you know it, you can’t not know that you are on stolen land, that colonisers have brutalised what was not theirs to take. Every place she goes is with learned knowledge of what was done to Māori. Inasmuch as this novel is centred around a Pākehā female character descended from perpetrators of such horror, is the prevailing guilt that comes with the privilege this allows her and her family. Whether this guilt is linked to ill mental health is up for contemplation, but certainly it is hereditary, at least in this case. Our narrator tries for healing and redemption, to try and be a better person, to nurture her own cultural awakening, to perhaps be able to believe better stories about herself because more than anything, this is a story about stories. The ones we tell ourselves, the ones we are taught, the ones we hold to be true, the ones that are closer to truth. There is no one single story ❤️

[Jan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this will be one of the more memorable and challenging reads I have had, but not an uplifting one! Evocative and raw. I am still sifting through all the themes that were raised and wondering how the title came about. A lot of processing to do!

[John Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this!

[Benjamin · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is so much to digest in this book. Firstly, I did enjoy it. There's a lazy quality to it, the story meanders in and out of reality and memories in a really fluid way. Her analogies are at a level of creativity I could only dream of.

One thing I did struggle with is how lyrical the writing was. Ruby Porter is clearly an amazing writer. There is no question about that. Some parts just felt more like a poem than a novel. That being said, who am i to decide where the line is. This is probably more of a reflection on my reading capacity than anything else.

Worth a read. Ill be keeping an eye out for her next one

[Laura - The Literary Londoner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having never visited New Zealand myself, the author's descriptions of the land and colours really enabled me to feel as though I was travelling through the landscape alongside the characters on their road trip. The writing style and slang didn't make it the easiest of reads at times, but what it lacks in flow, is made up for by the conversations focusing on landownership, family history and the impact of colonialism.

[Clodagh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this, because hello, North Island road trip? But I couldn't stand the fragmented first-person, present tense narration. And the main character was so unrelateable and unlikeable, I just wanted to shake her into growing up and actually communicating with people.

[Leslynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book description sounded really intriguing and I was excited to start this. Unfortunately, the writing style and slang was a huge deterrent. I struggled through the first few chapters, but when the story still didn't flow I abandoned the galley.

[Polly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a gorgeous book, I devoured it in two days. The characters were skillfully drawn and their interactions and dialogue felt deep and real. The book captured the drama and difficulty of young adult relationships without simplifying or falling back on cliches. The narrator and her friends are trying very hard to be ‘good people’, and are hyper-aware of power structures and privilege, but still end up hurting each other and behaving badly in very recognisable and realistic ways. I love novels that capture the messiness of human relationships without making moralistic judgments, and Attraction achieved this very well.

Fragmentary narratives, especially when they incorporate flashbacks, can risk losing the reader’s interest, but this was so well done that I couldn’t put it down. The tension was beautifully executed, especially the gradual slide from idyllic group holiday into claustrophobic nightmare. Porter writes the NZ landscape in a way that conveys its beauty while giving it an undeniable edge of menace - and she does it through subtly evocative writing that shows rather than tells, a sadly rare quality in contemporary literary fiction.

A very specific thing I appreciated - many books, especially about young women with some kind of artistic leaning (painting, writing, music, etc.) end with them being ‘discovered’ or having a major professional breakthrough. Attraction has the courage to turn this trope on its head - towards the end of the book, the narrator has an idea for an art exhibition that would tie together many threads of the narrative, but soon realises it would be pretentious and falsely performative. When the book ends, she’s still an unemployed art school graduate with no career prospects, and I found this a brave and refreshing narrative choice.

Drawbacks - about two-thirds of the way through, I did begin to get frustrated with the determinedly anhedonic narrator and her chronic passiveness, depression, self-destructiveness, etc. I prefer books with a touch of humour, but this is a matter of taste, not a failure of the author, and arguably humour would’ve cut through the tension and atmosphere that the book built up so beautifully. It also lacked a strong plot and so there was no satisfying ending, it just sort of stopped. Again, though, this is arguably a feature not a bug, and the writing was so skillful that it carried me along even without much of a plot. I really loved this one and can’t wait to see what Ruby Porter does next.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a difficult one to discuss. There was just so much going on, theme-wise, even while nothing much was going on plot-wise. As other reviewers here have stated, I felt the dominant theme was the legacy of colonialism. As a white Australian (a country which has addressed the horrors of its colonial history to an even lesser extent than NZ has), I was particularly captivated by the passages describing white guilt and shame, the deeply felt knowledge that although you were born in this land, you really have no right to call it your own and no authentic connection to the land itself, to the feeling of inauthenticity which hangs over your national identity. It is a bleak read, and I suspect this is intentional. In analysing what made it quite so bleak, I realised for me it is the passivity of the main character that is particularly difficult to stay with. She is entirely passive in the face of her misery and self-loathing and unable for the most part to even speak about what she wants or doesn't want, as if she has no right to speak up for herself or indeed to have preferences at all. That sense of being stuck I feel ties closely with the colonial discussion - what right do we as privileged white people have to feel this bad about the situation (but bad we do feel, at least those of us who actually face up to these issues)? If we stand up for indigenous issues, are we simply more white people encroaching on indigenous spheres? Do we hinder more than help? Ultimately, these concerns can lead to inaction or, if we do act, to yet more feelings of inauthenticity and guilt. Porter addresses these concerns quite viscerally. It doesn't make for a pleasant read, but it probably makes it an important one.

[BreeAnn (She Just Loves Books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt that Attraction was filled with so much raw emotion. There is a lot of guilt and angst as the main character reflects on their relationships.

The narrator is actually unnamed making it a bit hard to connect to the book the way I would have liked. They are also not all that likable. However, I was still intrigued and wanted to know more about past relationships and history.

The writing offered a well-paced story that I don’t feel dragged at any point. I struggled with some choppy writing that felt a bit disjointed at times, which led to the three-star rating for me. The setting for Attraction is New Zealand, which I always enjoy reading about. This story offered a great New Zealand setting as the plot surrounds a road trip through the country. I liked reading about the locations and some of the history referenced.

The story features three women who are taking a trip together for some family time. As the trip progresses, there is a lot of reflection on relationships. The emotional baggage that comes with a deteriorating love story was portrayed really well. I enjoyed that the perspective was discussed for both LGBTQ and heterosexual relationships.

I would recommend Attraction for readers that enjoy a story with less plot and more beautifully written prose. If you enjoy an exploration into a character’s thoughts and feelings, this would be a great book for you.

I was provided an advanced reader's copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

My full review will post on 4/10/20. All of my reviews can be found at https://shejustlovesbooks.com/all-boo...

[Paul Ransom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The impressive thing here is the risk that Ruby Porter takes. By telling her tale in a long sequence of paragraph-size bites, (cutting from context to context as she goes), she creates a lucid literary dream. The narrative is poetic, mosaic, like half-formed snatches of thought and memory. At times it is superb, at others awkward and too deliberate. Same goes for the drama and the characters. 'Attraction' veers between clunking and gliding, frequently breaking the trance. There is also an ambient sterilty, as though the work has been over-edited or has fallen victim to vogueish 'professional writing' mantras. Thus, for every page of lyrical magic, there are telltale signs of both aesthetic and cultural orthodoxy, like sand in the bed. However, grit notwithstanding, 'Attraction' moves with both grace and psychological power, as a summer road trip across New Zealand's north island turns into slow burning noir, where sexual, familial, and philosophical tensions twine and contort as love and other modes of belief break down.

[Alex Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

This New Zealand based book is strongly character driven and contains the underlining theme of colonial guilt which manifests in many forms throughout the novel. This manifests in both descriptions of the built environment as well as the characters own disconnection with the land on which she was born. Questions surrounding "land ownership" and belonging are raised throughout.
I love the way she describes the industrial/suburban landscapes of new Zealand and the way it sits uneasily on the beautiful natural sites, like "blemishes". It revealed a darker side to a country known to many as one of the most beautiful sites in the world. It wasn't always easy to connect with the main unnamed character and as her flaws are revealed gradually, which makes you reconsider earlier moments in the novel and distrust the narrator. At times it was a claustrophobic read as there was very little shift in the tone and decisions made by the narrator frustrated me.

[Venice White · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like from the beginning I went from a hot, vibrant January summer when everything is exciting and new, to that feeling in late February when everything feels bleached out and melancholy despite the heat, and I always get more reflective then. I got such an education on NZ history in this book - an insight into the complexities of colonial history that I want to pursue further. Also the complexities of family and inheritance and legacy. The characters, both past and present felt haunting. Despite their distance, in Levin and Auckland, they had such a strong presence and influence over the narrator.
I also loved the fragmentary nature of the text, it made reading feel like I was experiencing my own thought process, going from one idea to the next and interspersed with reflective or more poignant statements.

[Rosetta Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each section acts like little bites to the skin with the pain and pleasure of the figuring out of the physicality and the psychology of relationships. I see triangles and important family connections, but no straight lines, and no binaries — this I love most especially about the book. And yet, there is much more there to admire, the poeticness of the prose for one. The refusal to answer all the questions for the reader — again, in my mind, a huge strength. There are shifting memories, crisscrossed time, heritage and inheritance, and always the consideration of the footsteps of those who were here on this land first.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, though it did take me a little while to get into a reading rhythm due to the fragmented structure and the brevity of some sections. The narrator was both infuriating and extremely relatable, very human in her flaws. I particularly enjoyed the way that elements of the main character's back story were gradually revealed in a way that called into question her reliability as a narrator, prompting the reader to reconsider memories and moments from earlier in the book and to rethink our perspective on both the narrator and her relationships.

I also found the use of Māori words really interesting and appreciated learning more about the history of colonisation in New Zealand and the examination of the narrator's postcolonial guilt. I'm very aware of the context within Australia but know very little of the situation across the Tasman.

[KtotheC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Examining white guilt, belonging and what it means to live now Attraction is a read that you'll get out of what you put in.

Told in fragments that slot next to each other or build on previous fragments or contradict them, the novel is an interesting read but not an easy one.

I am very unfamiliar with New Zealand but still found this an insightful exploration of post-colonial guilt.

I wish that there had been a bit more of a solid throughline but that wasn't the type of book this wanted to be.

Thanks to netgalley and Text for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Libby Brickell · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is so much in this book that has got me thinking and I am sure will rise to the surface again over the next little while. Beautifully written and the characters all felt so real. I loved the New Zealandness of the road trip and all the small towns. I travelled there in my mind as she wrote. I found all the references to land ownership and Maori the most captivating part of the book and am inspired to learn more. It's about time. The themes feel a little open ended but that's a good thing.

[Helen Varley · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed the familiarity of this book - the settings, the protagonist's emotional struggles, the kiwiness of it all. the gentle pace makes it very readable and it explores the issue of land rights as well as other contemporary and universal themes from a fresh young perspective. at times it's a bit too vague, drifting around in an untethered way, but perhaps that's part of the emotional landscape. i did feel a bit empty at the end.

[Caroline Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Startlingly good, utterly original.

Fav quotes:
It takes Ashi two hands to count the guys who are probably (definitely) in love with her. She is like a bucket of water in a house fire. Everyone around her falls to flames, on their knees with love, but somehow she never catches. (page 69)

I know what it's like to be a vessel that never spills. But someone's turned Francine on her side, and she's draining. You can't put back what's lost. (page 190).

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The thought I kept having through most of this book was that the main character is seriously passive aggressive. I don't even know why she agreed to go on the original trip, as she seemed sullen and unable to enjoy herself even before everything happened.

It was okay, kinda boring. This would be a high 3 out of 10 so I'm rounding to a 2 out of 5. I feel like a 10 system would be more accurate for my ratings but whatever I don't own goodreads I can't do anything about this.