Pearly Gates

by Owen Marshall

This entertaining and insightful novel both skewers and celebrates small-town New Zealand.Pat `Pearly' Gates has achieved a lot in his life and evinces considerable satisfaction in his achievements. He has a reputation as a former Otago rugby player and believes he would have been an All Black but for sporting injuries. He runs a successful real-estate agency in a provincial South Island town, of which he is the second-term mayor. Popular, happily married, well established, he cuts an impressive figure, especially in his own eyes. But will his pride and complacency come before a fall?

Genres: Fiction

406 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 2, 2019

About the author

Owen Marshall has written, or edited, over twenty-five books. He has held fellowships at the Universities of Canterbury and Otago, and in Menton, France. In 2000, he received the Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit (ONZM), and in the same year his novel Harlequin Rex won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction. Marshall is an adjunct professor at the University of Canterbury, which awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 2002. He was awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2012 for services to literature, and in 2013 received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction.

Reviews

[Marcus Hobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is beautifully written. The characters are finely observed and very real, and the story and situations are realistic, but the pace of the story is so very slow that I am slightly disappointed with the overall effect. I have read and enjoyed other novels by Own Marshall, but this was not a favourite.

That comment calls for some consideration. What is it about this novel that is not quite up to scratch? The whole story revolves around Pat ‘Pearly’ Gates. Living in a small South Island town, Pearly is a successful real estate agent as well as the mayor of the town. He has comfortably won the last two elections to the position of mayor, but as he comes closer to standing for a third term, challengers emerge and he starts to have doubts about his ability to win a third term. His deputy mayor will be his main challenger, campaigning on more environmental issues, attracting the votes of the young.

Pearly is an interesting character. Old school. Every town has one. Head boy at school, captain of the rugby team, on to university and more rugby exploits as well as some provincial games for Otago. Perhaps he could have gone further, perhaps he could have played for the All Blacks national side. A knee injury prevented all that and so there is always that lingering doubt. Was he good enough? Now, he is balancing his own business with being mayor. He is a people person, jovial, plenty of stories and anecdotes, always called on to give the speech at any event. Sixty-four years old with niggling back problems and high cholesterol. Recently he has noticed the appearance of a bald patch.

All this information is slow to emerge; we follow Pearly around seeing his schedule and listening to the people he has to deal with. We listen to his self-doubt and the way that he deals with his loyal wife Helen. We hear about relations with their grown up children, and as old-boys gather for the 125th school anniversary, others who have achieved greater fame begin to arrive in town. All this make Pearly reflect on his own situation.

At the heart of the book is a questionable action. While visiting a house on afternoon, Pearly observes the wife of his mayoral contender entering the house of a lover. There is no real proof of infidelity other than the familiar ease with which she enters the house. Pearly decides to send her an anonymous letter, saying that if she doesn’t get her husband to withdraw from the contest for mayor, he will spill the beans about what he has witnessed. It does the trick and the challenger pulls out of the election, allowing Pearly to win an easy third term in office. But with his victory comes guilt. He feel bad about what he did and also about not telling or consulting his wife Helen. She is his sounding board and also the person who helps to keep him grounded when his ego threatens to get carried away.

So there we have it. Not much happens, and it takes a long time not to happen. Pearly rues his decisions and events gradually move to make his consider his actions further.

There is nothing wrong with the book, it is a very true representation of small town New Zealand life and a surprisingly accurate picture of small town politics. It is just not very exciting, rather like real life. And that is my gripe. Not exciting enough, too much like the everyday life that I am reading this novel to escape from.

[Angelique Simonsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was more taken with this book than I expected. Pearly's a great character as is his wife Helen. Just described nz rural towns and their characters so well

[Kiwiflora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quietly enjoyable, nothing flashy or alarming, a relaxing yet thoughtful novel about a man, an ordinary man with many good points, and many failings, just like all of us. Human. And that is what the appeal in this novel is. Not a lot happens during the course of the book, but a lot happens to Pearly Gates, the 64 year old second time mayor of a provincial town somewhere in the South Island, somewhere like Timaru, Cromwell or Balclutha. Pearly has lived his whole life in this town, his old school is about to turn 125 years old, a successful rugby player as a young man until injuries stopped that, he has a successful real estate business, still married to Helen, two grown children - one done ok, one not so much, and of course carries around the kudos of being mayor. Popular, affable, definitely a favourite son.

The stars are aligning however in a way that throws Pearly slightly off his nice straight lineal track. Nothing major, just a few little spanners falling into the works that make him question his life and his purpose here on earth. The upcoming election for a third mayoral term makes him do something morally questionable that lingers at the back of his mind, his son forces him into some reanalysis of his performance as a dad, the impending school reunion takes him back to those years and his fellow students now all in their mid-60s, measuring the success of their lives. The stunning Otago landscape is beautifully evoked by Marshall, as is the small town nature of life in the provinces - Pearly is a big fish in a small pond. The other characters are equally interesting and well rounded - Helen, his old friend Gumbo, his political opponent Philip, his relationship with the town clerk David, his brother Richie who now runs the family farm. There are some beautiful moments in this - the disastrous trip he makes to Christchurch with his town clerk, his loyalty to his friends, his growing awareness of his own inner self. He already is a good man, but somehow he has become a bit smug, a bit full of his own self-importance. I loved how Pearly learns about his self, and manages to find a better man, leading of course to a good outcome by the time I reached the end.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quiet, gently humorous novel about a man in a small New Zealand town. Patrick Gates is a big fish in a small pond. Two times mayor of the town while also running a successful real estate business, Pearly trades in part on his youthful reputation as a rugby player even though he didn't quite make the big time.

The novel is an extended character study of a man who is "ordinary but better at being ordinary than many". The pace is slow but I remained interested in Pearly, his wife Helen, his colleagues and old school friends. There are probably too many flashbacks to his past (rather annoyingly written in italics) but Marshall gradually builds up a nuanced portrait of a man who is more complex than he appears. Pearly is rather too satisfied with himself and justifies crossing a moral line in the name of winning the next mayoral election. How this then plays on his conscience and what decisions he reaches are subtly drawn out by the author.

Some of the loveliest writing is of the country out of town, where Pearly grew up and his brother still manages the family farm. It is in this setting that Pearly is able to reflect and reach emotional depths otherwise brushed aside. "It wasn't so much that Pearly wished to be a farmer, just that the place was always with him, and lit with the special glow that is the backdrop to unclouded boyhood." The descriptions of the windswept sheep country of the N Z South Island are very evocative and provide a balance to the small town concerns in which Pearly is usually immersed.

All in all, a satisfying read, even though I sometimes felt a little frustrated at the novel's pace. Worth persevering though and also worth looking out other novels by this highly regarded New Zealand writer.

Three and a half stars.

[Anne Fenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

NZ book, set in a small town on the South Island. Main character Pearly is the local mayor and also a real estate seller. For a while I wondered where the story was going, it’s was so humdrum about his daily life. It’s not a short book and it took a long time for me to be invested in Pearly’s extremely ordinary life. From halfway through more happened, that’s the trick. I was unusually patient in my reading, the NZ background kept me going. By the finish I quite enjoyed it.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished: 12.11.2020
Genre: novel
Rating: B+
#AusReadingMonth2020
Conclusion:

Delightful!

My Thoughts

[Jan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a slow moving but whimsical kind of read. Beautiful descriptive writing and a great character study of the Mayor in a small NZ town. Thanks for sending it to me Anne, I would never have thought to choose it!

[Georgina Moorcroft · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an enjoyable read but very uneventful and no real story ark, and some bits that were never really concluded. But enjoyable and easy none the less

[Tony Nielsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confession time. I have read far too few New Zealand novels. Guilty as charged. Despite the totally random and ridiculous name I really enjoyed Owen Marshall's depiction of a big man in a small pond, which is essentially the story in Pearly Gates. But I mean what parents with the surname Gates would call their son Pearly. But I'll let that go now.

Pearly is a success on dual fronts. He is the mayor of a small South Island town, and also the co-owner of the local real estate company. He's the big guy and he's been one for quite awhile. And as he has to finally admit to himself he's lost the plot somewhat. He made a decision to blindside his opposition candidate for the upcoming mayoral elections. But then he realises he has broken his own moral compass and regrets his underhand tactics.

Its a pretty straightforward really but it does have some panache. The setting is good, the characterisations stack up. In fact I was surprised at just how quickly I settled in and related to the place, the time, and the people. Pearly Gates is an OK read. Better than OK actually.

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven’t read many New Zealand authors, so this was a pleasant change. Also, I rarely read books where a middle aged man is the main character. Pearly Gates is a successful man, but a series of events shake his complacency about his judgment. This is a gentle novel that covers Pearly's realisation that he needs to make amends for his shortcomings. This is a sensitive portrayal of a country life. I kept waiting for a really big denouement, but that didn’t happen. But in reality it wasn’t needed.

[Josie Laird · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book to read. We know people like Pearly, rather full of their own importance. It was good to see inside his head, and how well-meaning he was, even if a little pompous.
A satisfying ending, too.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Owen Marshall (b. 1941) is a well-known author in New Zealand, with a very substantial body of work and some impressive accolades from the KiwiLit community, not to mention mentions in three shortlists noted on this blog — but it was not until I came across John McCrystal's review of his new novel Pearly Gates in the New Zealand Review of Books (about which I have enthused before, see here) that I got round to chasing up one of his titles. (Which just shows you the value of an enticing review, eh?)

It's a surprisingly interesting book, given the quotidian nature of its characterisation and plot. It's very everyday, just the tale of an ordinary man in small town New Zealand and his late life crisis of conscience, but I couldn't put it down. It's a remarkable achievement to make a reader care about the ethical fate of a man whose success in life has made him complacent and a little too proud of his somewhat mundane achievements.

Aged 64, Pat 'Pearly' Gates is a real estate agent, and in his second term as mayor of the small provincial town he lives in. He is comfortably married to Helen, and they have two adult children regrettably living far away but not estranged either. Pearly is a recognisable face around town, and admired for his long ago feats playing rugby for Otago although injury forced him out before he could achieve his ambition to play for the All Blacks. He's a good 'people person', comfortable with listening to the inevitable complaints from constituents, and with a good team around him at the council, reasonably responsive to reasonable requests. He's mildly obsessive about appearances, becoming unduly irritated by a scratch on his car and passing over a best-qualified job applicant because his shoes were dirty, but not realising that he's not exactly a smart dresser himself until late in the day when out-of-towners more successful than he, return for a school reunion.

But he is a bit smug:

Pearly reviewed his decision to stand for a third term. He enjoyed being mayor, although he was now fully aware of the tedious nature of many of the responsibilities and functions. And his satisfaction in the role wasn't just an expression of his sense of achievement, of entitlement. Pearly had real affection and concern for his home region. Indeed for the country as a whole. He liked to see decent intentions and decent people succeed, as he had himself, and he rarely doubted his own judgement. Pearly was his own role model. (p.10)

So it comes as a surprise when this basically decent if complacent man stumbles across political advantage and slyly uses it for his own benefit. Actually, it's more than a surprise, it's quite shocking. No one know about Pearly's role in it, not even his victim, but it preys on his mind. Along with some other stupid out-of-character things he's done...

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/09/05/p...

[Felicity Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody can draw out the essence of a character better than Owen Marshall, and in Pat (nicknamed Pearly) Gates, he has magically brought to life a quintessential provincial Kiwi fellow, with all his quirks and flaws. Pearly is a well-enough liked small-town, second-term mayor, a family man, former head boy and First XV captain, who knows everyone in the town and what they’re up to. “Sometimes Pearly himself was impressed by all he had accomplished.” He runs a reasonably successful real estate agency (though he’s so busy his female partner does most of the work), and is fairly happily married with two adult children, one adored and adoring, the other distant and disliked. In other words, his success is qualified, and is not quite as glowing as he imagines. But he is also totally frank about himself, increasingly aware that not everything is rosy and that his complacency and hubris might have something to do with that.
Until his self-awareness is tickled into life, his only regret is having to give up representative rugby due to an injury, dashing his All Black expectations. His wife Helen gave up her nursing career when she married and has apparently been happy with her domestic lot. But now she plans to retrain and return to work. His son Kevin arrives unexpectedly asking yet again for a business loan – the only time Pearly gets to see him. But the distance between them remains, even though Pearly and Helen agree to help him. “’Could do better,’ Pearly said.”
What makes Pearly Gates so warmly appealing is his direct candour, his ability to see his failings and his humanity in finding it hard to overcome each one. He can understand Helen’s dissatisfaction with her life, and also with him (she calls him out as “a small-town, tin-pot, part-time mayor”); he knows Kevin has distanced himself because Pearly always favoured daughter Leann; and, when his deputy challenges him for his third election as mayor, he is all too aware that his subsequent unethical behavior to put him out of the race is a step too far. “’It won’t do,’ Pearly said.”
It is at the local school’s 125th anniversary that pride comes before Pearly’s fall. He should have held prime position, but it’s the famous visiting old boy Sir Andrew Nisse who unwittingly brings Pearly to the realisation that by comparison, Pearly’s clothes were “lumpish” and ill-fitting and his speech was self-absorbed and provincial, while Sir Andrew’s was urbane, challenging the school to make changes for a better future. Pearly tries to compensate by daring his friend Gumbo to climb up to the top of the ropes in the high-ceilinged gym, trying to show Sir Andrew just how loyal the slightly simple Gumbo is to Pearly. The consequences make Pearly take a long overdue look at his ethics and self-awareness and work out what he needs to do to make amends and to change. It’s a delightful slow build towards realisation as he reveals his innermost thoughts; it draws out the nature of the people who touch his life, and it defines his relationships with them. Marshall has the perfect light and at times witty touch to fully engage us with the sort of people we feel we know already, because he makes them so very real.

[Sammyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a like zooming in to small town New Zealand - but brings wider questions of community, success, mateship and regrets over lives not lived as it does so. The pace is slow moving - but so then are the small towns that inspire the novel. Pearly is a very well developed character - overall likeable and a good man, but also perhaps not quite of this time. It was refreshing to read a novel that did not want to particularly challenge boundaries, or say something important. Instead it describes a time, place and personality that is very real in Aotearoa. That makes it significant, rather than any direct message that is sent.

Most of all however, I just really enjoyed reading this book. I have struggled recently with "important" books - tomes of history or a real focus on an unfamiliar culture. This book kept me up into the small hours reading - which surely is the best commendation of all.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well described picture of a South Island town with interesting characters. The mayor (Pearly) and the people he comes into contact with. But nothing happens! There are hints that something dramatic will happen, but it feels a bit underwhelming when it does occur.

I was born in a town a lot like the setting for this book. The town is fundamentally a bit boring, and maybe that is what Marshall is trying to convey. I prefer his short stories.

[Sophie Rattanong · Rating 2 out of 5]

My first - and last - Owen Marshall. 288 pages, but felt like 900. This novel should have been a short story. It's a "slice of life" about a man in a small New Zealand provincial town. That's it. This style of book only works if a) something dramatic happens (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce), b) it's comedic (A Man Called Ove by Frederick Backman), or c) it's short (So Late In The Day by Claire Keegan). Pearly Gates is none of those things.

[Susan Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written, acutely observed story of an ordinary man with ordinary human failings. I loved this book - the characters are well drawn and insightfully described. I have no experience of a small town in New Zealand but I could well imagine it.

[Kelly Callaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in small town New Zealand, but it could be small town anywhere. Pearly at) Gates runs a real estate agency, is a two time mayor and played Rugby Union at a high level. So Pearly is feeling pretty pleased with his life - smug even. But a couple of small events threaten to upset his world.

[Tinanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet novel where not much happens except that someone is changed, irrevocably. Very much enjoyed this vignette of small-town life and the big fish therein.

[Jean Potter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful inconsequential story about small town NZ. As one reviewer said "magical heightens ordinary things".

[Prue Kennard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superbly written stories of ordinary NZ life

[Sylvie Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my usual thing, better than expected. A simple story.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd always read about how well regarded Owen Marshall is by other writers and so for my book group I finally got to find out for myself. Marshall is one of those writers that make other writers look like hacks. He is really superb, he slices right into the heart of things and delineates characters in an unerring way that put me in mind of Dickens. People said that when Dickens met someone he would sort of scan to see if they were interesting, he had a profound understanding of peoples character. I feel Marshall is the same, he seems to penetrate below the surface and writes it all up in a kind omniscient tone that is godlike.

The titular character Pearly Gates is beautifully nuanced, he's so 3 dimensional, he's great guy, but also kind of a jerk, selfless but also vain - in other words a real person. Being from Canterbury and having connections to TImaru and Oamaru where the book is set (one or the other or an amalgam of both, Marshall has live in both places) added another layer of interest and I thought alot about my dad who grew up in Timaru. Really great and I'm a real Marshall-head now and look forward to reading more.