Victory Park

by Rachel Kerr

Kara lives in Victory Park council flats with her young son, just making a living by minding other people’s kids – her nightly smoke on the fire escape the only time she can drop her guard and imagine something better. But the truth is life is threadbare and unpromising until the mysterious Bridget moves in to the Park. The wife of a disgraced Ponzi schemer, she brings with her glamour and wild dreams and an unexpected friendship. Drawn in, Kara forgets for a moment who she’s there to protect.

Genres: Fiction

243 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this touching book down. I empathised so much with Kara, dealing with the wearying relentlessness of life as a low-waged single mum. I worry about her life in the future (all those women in her position), although I appreciated how the story didn't end with her life all tied up in a bow. I was cheering her on as she grew to stick up for herself in her relationship with Bridget, and those small moments where she found dignity in her life despite at times desperate circumstances. This story takes a look at privilege, entitlement, and what it really is to grow up and take responsibility. It starkly demonstrates the reality for many working in the low-paid caring professions - the lip-service paid to the importance of this work, contrasted with the pay and working conditions for many of the (mostly women) who actually do it.
I can see why it was long-listed for an Ockham...sad it didn't make it to the short-list.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book - and loved Kara, sharp and funny, doing her best, kind, generous although she has so little, always living her ethics. The ending had a hopeful feel but I'm not completely convinced she will be ok. I'd like to read more from this author.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was set in Wellington, probably Newtown. Kara is a solo mum, living in a claustrophobic flat in a building with neighbours who look out for each other but are all struggling to get by. Bridget has recently joined the building. Shes newly poor as her husband faces high profile fraud charges for running a ponzi scheme.

We get to know Kara in contrast to Bridget. Kara is a great mother and carer to other people’s children. She’s caring and responsible. But money is always really tight. And she inevitably has low expectations and small horizons. Bridget is entitled, lacks self-awareness, and is a terrible mother. Opportunity finds her, probably because she expects it.

I loved aspects of this book. It was an easy read and fun to read about neighbourhoods I know well. It was interesting seeing life through the eyes of a woman living pay to pay, the reality of her precariousness. The characters were well developed and I was cheering for Kara.

[Ashley Lamont · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like reading novels by local authors and especially like recognizing the places described in this one.

[Karen Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story has an all too familiar Aotearoa ring about it. I loved the book but it's able told too often in our cities to day. This bought it a ring of truth. The characters were so well drawn, you knew them.

This book deservedly is shortlisted for this year's book award (fiction) - read it and cheer for Kara

[Yvonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

All I wanted from this book was more. I loved the real people. I loved the little things that made it truly kiwi. It was pure nostalgia for me.

[Chloe Fergusson-Tibble · Rating 3 out of 5]

📚📚📚REVIEW (NZ Author) 📚📚📚
🐈: All the single ladies, all the single ladies…….
👩🏽‍⚕️: ⭐️⭐️⭐️Victory Park by Rachel Kerr (debut novel). Thanks @makaropress for this review copy #gifted
•
This is an important story about Kara, a superstar single Mum, who lives in the Victory Park apartments with her son Jayden. Her story bubbles in the background throughout the novel but is never fully spelled out to readers. Through this ‘holding back’ we get a sense of Karas character as she constantly avoids opening up to others. Regardless, she’s a wonderful mother and stay at home caregiver of other children too. If that isn’t enough she befriends Bridget and her son Rafe who move into Victory Park. Bridget has recently separated from her husband after a major fraud tears their relationship apart. As Bridget struggles through the separation, related media coverage, and many other dramas, Kara is there as a friend to her and becomes like a second Mum to Rafe.
•
I think Kerr does a superb job of portraying the life of a single Mum via Kara, the loneliness, and the insanity of it. The yearning for the evenings of alone time which Kara spends on the fire escape with a cigarette in hand. The internal dialogue as parenting decisions are made and guilt is worked though alone. The staying away from the doctors because poor single mothers ‘will get better or die trying.’
•
I loved the grittiness of Kara. She was a tough woman in low socioeconomic position and yet she remained full of warmth and tenderness throughout the story - even when Bridget seemed to be taking the piss. I noticed her connection to the community she’d lived in for many years. She knew every nook and cranny and all the people too but seemed totally disconnected from it all. Very sobering.
•
Bridget was acclimatising to a new way of life after previously being really wealthy. She could’t nail the single mum life with the same flair as Kara. But she was interesting and I liked hearing about the ways she struggled in her life too. She coped differently with the struggle, but she coped, and I liked that Kerr explored more than one way of coping.
The boys, Rafe and Jayden, had their own struggles - and often these came out in child like ways - such as in their behaviour. There were other characters like Karas mother Robyn and her daughter Alisha who were lovely additions to the plot and made the poverty feel more bearable.
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I think this story makes you stop and realise how much single mothers make the world go round. And how little society values that.
.
#victorypark #rachelkerr #nzlit #readnz #newzelandliterature #aotearoareads #books #ilovebooks #catsofbookstragram #readallday

[Jacqueline Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not always an easy read, this book had an emotional honesty about it, that makes me want to recommend it, and put it above other recent New Zealand novels. The relationship between Kara, a solo mother, a widow with a young child who ekes out a living, and Bridget, the self-centred ex-wife of a disgraced financier, is very true, as is the depiction of New Zealand social classes, the pretension and virtue-signalling and the treatment of people who have been pushed to the bottom. Actually deals with being poor as a real thing that affects lives, not a comic predicament of someone being down to their last three avocados and bottle of boutique chili sauce. Deals with depressing material sometimes, but has a satisfying ending. I hope to see more from this author.

[India · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent writing, vivid characters and setting (and not just because it's mostly set in the few blocks surrounding my flat). Can imagine a version of the book where she really relaxed into the comedy; the irreverent moments were the strongest for me.
I wish she hadn't resisted plot quite so much, e.g. by (1) beginning the book when Bridget has already moved in and met Kara, rather than the more obvious approach of showing us Kara's normal life and then letting us see how Bridget interrupted that, and (2) introducing the possibility of a big climax (with Kara's phone call) but not letting us see the aftermath of that.
Also, minor point, but it frustrates me how NZ authors so often avoid naming the streets/suburbs/etc they're writing about. Specificity is good! Always! Are they worried it'll make the book too niche for international audiences? Or are they trying to avoid being criticised for any inaccuracies? Whatever the reason, it always feels self-conscious and evasive to me.

[Carol Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kara and her young son Jayden are the main characters in this book about life in Wellington. There is not much to come and go on and Kara makes a living doing childcare. Bridget, who is married to a man accused of fraud, moves into the same building and the novel describes the situation that develops as the various lives intersect. I thought the writing was clever and witty and despite everything there is an optimistic ending.

[Anne Herbison · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much to think about in this book after I'd put it down. I'm planning to read it again so that I can enjoy again the skill of the writer. It's absorbing and gives plenty of room for the reader to work out how two mismatched characters have something to learn from each other. It's about social inequality and about the true quality of life. And it's about parents and children - being ruined by privilege or made great by a mix of adversity and love.

[Helen Cummings · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed getting to know Kara and her life as a single mum caring for other people‘s children. And Bridget too displaced from her previous comfortable lifestyle and reduced to living in a council flat.
An Interesting story and I found it easy to relate to with its New Zealand setting and culture.

[Susan Wilson]

I loved it. Such well developed characters that I couldn’t put it down. My only complaint was that it seemed to end abruptly. I often find this and don’t understand why stories aren’t more rounded out. I appreciate leaving some thing’s to the reader works well but, in this instance, it felt like a “now everything is perfect ending” and we know nothing is ever perfect.

[Bruce Hamill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivating story which gives a persuasive glimpse into the complexity and joy of life in the Council (HNZ?) Flats of South Wellington. I'm still trying to guess whether Rachel Kerr has Victory Flats or Newtown Park in mind as she writes.

[Claudia Small · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters are engaging, the writing is gripping, but it maintains an awkward tension that feels very real. I liked it a lot.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am NOT sweaty.

[Alex Devine · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Christine Pedersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing ending.

[Becks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written and piqued my interest because it was based on the area locally, it wasn't something I'd normally pick up though.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t stop reading this book . It was like a warm hug and so clever.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, tight read, but never really takes off as a concept.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why is this book so similar to Emily Perkin's Lioness? Who came up with the idea first?

[Karen Kozuls · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[Gavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the grim environment & some character's behaviour, the feel of the book & the main character (Kara) is wonderfully drawn with heart and sympathy. A delightful book with light, hope & optimism. Believable dialogue & no caricature characters. Let down a little by the abrupt ending.

[Warisara Thomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a nice read! Ending was quite abrupt but good story about knowing who to prioritize in life.