Quirky characters tell their stories
Novel highlights the nuances and intricacies of a small-town milieu with deftness, grace, and sympathy, writes Felicity Price.
This is the perfect read for this time of year when we’re still happy to escape into a good book at the beach or under a shady tree and take the time to savour, in this instance, the leisurely revelation of the people who live in Gabriel’s Bay.
Quite possibly a blend of the author’s own favourite small beachside New Zealand towns, the fictional Gabriel’s Bay harbours the sort of quirky, complex and warmly human characters that have become Catherine Robertson’s trademark – characters who tell their own story in their own clearly distinguishable voices, which is quite an art in itself.
Kerry Macfarlane, the central character, has escaped the United Kingdom, running away from jilting his bride the morning of the wedding, trying to start anew in a small seaside town where no-one knows his shame. He brings football skills which he puts to good use in training a fledgling team of 9-year-olds, the gift of the gab, and some bright ideas for saving the town from its slow decline into unemployment and lack of visitors, due to the daunting, winding mountainous road.
It’s not long before he meets financially stretched single mum Sidney and romance inevitably blossoms before fading in the wake of Kerry’s apparent fecklessness from taking on too much and dropping the ball once too often.
Then there’s downright direct doctor’s receptionist Mac, clandestinely recruiting a replacement GP before the much-loved Doc Love works himself into the grave; Mac’s massive husband Jacko, who runs the local cafe-bar; teenager Sam, soon to leave for city life, and his dodgy mates; 9-year-old Madison, whose narcissistic mum and dad are so busy with their irresponsible, improvident schemes they neglect their daughter daily; single-minded Bernard, stuck in a groove for an old flame; Kerry’s employer Meredith and her unpleasant husband Jonty; and King, the scavenging, overweight dog, who bookends Gabriel’s Bay as he roams the town or hangs round the New Year’s Eve barbecue and sniffs out the characters one by one.
Robertson’s creative talent has shifted once again with this novel. Known initially for her bestselling warmly funny chick lit novels, she followed with the more serious The Hiding Places, also a bestseller, and has now honed her character studies even more finely with Gabriel’s Bay.
It’s a tribute to the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University that authors who have made a name for themselves in chick lit find a new mojo after a year completing the MA in Creative Writing. Because that is what Robertson has achieved: Gabriel’s Bay has once again lifted her writing to a new level, exhibiting a true flair for inhabiting an ambitious range of characters and revealing the nuances and intricacies of a small-town milieu with deftness, grace, and sympathy. Yet she never loses that witty insight that makes each character’s journey of rediscovery, self-realisation and second chances feel very real.