Refuge

by Richard Rossiter

Quentin 'Tinny' Thompson and his German neighbour, Greta, have at least one thing in common. In their tin sheds close to the coast, they are attempting to live out of the firing line of modern society. Tinny's sons are growing up and one of them, Rock, wants to head to the city and live with his mother, who is sometimes Prue and sometimes Peaches. Greta's dream of life in Australia began with a school project on the explorer, Ludwig Leichhardt. Heedless of his fate, she decides to follow in his footsteps. However isolation does not guarantee safety. Violence - so visible in a disintegrating Europe - is not contained. It arrives at her shed in the bush in the figure of the disturbed Clive. Lives do not remain static, even for those who resist change. Refuge is a tender exploration of love and friendship, families, race relations, the consolations of the natural world and, above all, what it means to belong.

346 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 2019

About the author

Richard Rossiter lives in Perth, Western Australia, and is an Associate Professor at Edith Cowan University. For several years he lived in a bush dwelling in the south-west of the state where he wrote full-time.

Richard has taught literature and supervised postgraduate creative writing students, as well as judged numerous literary and writing awards (including the WA Premier’s Book Awards).

Rossiter has published 3 books with UWAP; his most recent novel Refuge (2019) as well as Arryhthmia: Stories of Desire (UWA Publishing, 2009) and Thicker Than Water (2014). He judges the Margaret River Short Story Competition, and has edited the short story collections: The Trouble with Flying and other stories (2014); Knitting and other stories (2013); and Things That Are Found in Trees and other stories (2012). He is a consultant editor for Papers and has been the fiction editor for Indigo and Westerly.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb doesn't suggest this, but Richard Rossiter's novel Refuge turned out to be an absorbing exploration of the tension between taking responsibility for the past and getting bogged down in histories, both personal and cultural.

This is a multi-layered, multi-perspective novel with settings in different places and timescales, so it demands attention if the reader is not to lose the connections between multiple characters and sub-plots.  However, it was Quentin and Greta interested me most.  Both were people who chose to live in the peace and isolation of the coast, and neither could achieve it.  Perhaps it isn't possible to disconnect entirely any more...

Tinny is a single parent to his sons because his wife Prue a.k.a. Peaches left them to 'find herself'.  (Her names symbolise the tension between being responsible Prudence and playful Peaches.)  To join the counselling/wellness industry she had to have counselling herself, and since deserting the family has had little or no contact with the boys until they are teenagers...

Tinny, understandably since he's done the hard yards, is a bit resentful when the boys become warily interested in developing a relationship with their mother.  Talking about it with the boys, he explains that her therapy helped her discover things about herself, and how her role as peacemaker limited her own control of her life.  But when asked if he might need a counsellor himself (because he does have some odd behaviours), he rejects the idea, betraying the resentment he still feels about her leaving them:

'All I know is that I feel happy living here with you boys.  Maybe I have problems that I don't know about—they're not problems.  You see, Peaches was okay too, until she discovered she had problems.  Then she wasn't okay and needed counselling and therapy and support groups and a special diet and some happy pills just to make her feel like used to feel, before she found herself.  Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?' (p.90)

Tinny believes that counsellors create a need for counselling.

They talk to people about being fulfilled, how they're not as happy as they could be, how they have problems they didn't know about, and they talk to their friends and neighbours, and they talk to other people and soon everyone thinks they have these problems that they need to see a counsellor about and so the counsellor has lots of work. It spreads like smoke through the bush—you can see and smell it even if the fire's a hundred kilometres away.  It starts somewhere and then keeps going, depending on the wind.  Stories about what you need get carried along, like the smoke does. (p.91)

He's more than a little cynical about it, eh?

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/02/15/r...

[Gavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully told story about two neighbours - covering many themes including regret, love, family, outsiders, relationships, indigenous issues, growing up in the bush. The main characters are lovingly drawn & believable. My only criticism is that the book follows through many threads from the "supporting cast", which meant it lost me a bit during the middle as I was trying to remember who was who & their relationships to each other. But very well written & structured to lead the reader through the various back-stories.