Passing Through - launched at Marsden Books

Report by Maggie Rainey-Smith

                On Tuesday evening at Marsden Books in Karori, Coral Atkinson's latest novel  'Passing Through' was launched.  It was a truly splendid affair.  First of all huge gratitude to Marsden Books, an independent bookseller in the suburbs, and one of the few left in Wellington. What would writers do without Independent Booksellers?  And, deliciously, it turns out that Anna Hunt, the owner of Marsden Bookshops remembers Coral Atkinson when both of them were a lot younger and Coral was Anna's History Teacher.  A nice touch.

                Coral has published this novel under the 'Dancing Tuatara' imprint, her own and she went to the most extraordinary lengths to make both the publication and the promotion, a very memorable experience.  To begin with, here is the cake, that I, as 'launcher' had the honour of cutting..

                The shop was packed with well-wishers, customers and friends, a truly warm and supportive crowd.  Coral described a novel as being akin to a Fair Isle jersey, the drawing together of colours and threads to make a pattern.  And this novel is a very fine Fair Isle jersey that is for sure.

(Above - left to right-Anna Hunt, Maggie Rainey-Smith, Coral Atkinson)

                I'm wearing two hats this evening, one of the friend and launcher and the other of reviewer.  Coral and I have known each other for some years now, as Black Swans during our Random days. At the same time as Coral asked me to speak at this launch, Graham Beattie sent me a review copy. And look, isn't it a beautiful book... replete with a dust jacket, an art deco theme and a striking detailed pattern on the inside cover. The book was taken from manuscript to bookshelf by students of the Whitireia New Zealand publishing programme, who worked on  editing, production, design, publicity and marketing.  What a job!

                But the real job, is the writing of a novel and Coral is a craftswoman.  She is a true writer.  She knuckles down and she does the hard yards.  She is gifted, determined, and has that special quality that being both Irish and a Kiwi brings.  I quote from Coral herself  ‘I have forged a style in my writing that draws on two traditions – New Zealand and Ireland.’  She is a story-teller who captivates and who understands her reader.

                'Passing Through' is a very, very good novel.  It tackles the tricky themes of war, post traumatic stress and the occult.   It opens  with a prologue, Christchurch 1923 and we meet Nan one of the central and intriguing characters who years voices from the other side, both a gift and a burden.  And if like me you are a non-believer, then bear with me, Coral is clever.  She walks the fine line with the believer and the non-believer, drawing the reader in with just enough to tantalise the non-believer, and she makes all her characters wholly believable. 

                Nan ends up in tow with Ro, an Englishman who has moved to New Zealand after the war.  He was once a young man who with his brother Ham had thought war would be a bit of a lark.  He is now a bitter rogue willing to feed off the desperation of the recently bereaved and hoping to make a fortune offering contact with the deceased with the help of Nan, who genuinely does hear voices.  Coral juggles nicely the fraudulent and sometimes hilarious practices of the fake psychics without undermining the true gift that Nan has.   So believer or non-believer, as a reader, you will be seduced.

                We meet Louisa Craddock who was a New Zealand nurse working in England during the war and whose husband Teddy is 'missing in action'.  Ro is a charmer who attempts to woo, and she is just bereaved enough and vulnerable to be drawn to him and although you know she shouldn't be, you understand.    And then there is the shell-shocked Harry who finds refuge in Louisa's garden shed. All of the characters inhabit a world fresh from the wounds of the Great War, new territory, wounds of the psyche, as yet not fully understood, and yet to be named.

                There is love, the beginnings of true love, and here Coral excels.  She has the gift herself ... that of writing well about intimacy, one of the trickier terrains that writers negotiate.  She reminds me of Fiona Kidman the way she writes so well, the unexpected earthiness at times.  I quote Siobhan Harvey  "Again and again, Atkinson's portrayal of realistic love reflects the kind of passion a 21st-century reader can believe in"

                And too, this novel ends on a note of hope. Not a nicely wrapped up parcel but a nuanced ending leaving room for the reader to bring their imagination to the story, to write their own scenario as I have (not telling).  In this novel, the characters are never one-dimensional and you keep hope in your heart for them all.

                Don't judge a book by its cover they tell us, but in this instance, you most certainly can. I love that my friend, Coral, once a Black Swan, has morphed into a Dancing Tuatara - let's dance with her tonight and too, I have a feeling that this novel will be dancing off the bookshelves all around New Zealand.