The Colour [Paperback]

Perhaps I was reading a different book to the one described my most of the Amazon reviewers here. The one I read was a lyrical, majestic tale of human frailty set against an epic backdrop of cruel mountains and with meticulously researched attention to historical detail.
The threads of the book are woven skilfully and we, as readers, are kept guessing until the end, the principal characters - each real and vulnerable - taking us along with them as they struggle to come to terms with the cold consequences of their past choices. The writing is subtle and measured: I get the feeling that the author chooses each word with great care, and her selections are invariably right, as we both explore the psyche of people living on the edge and enjoy a rollicking good tale of gold and greed and hope.
So, don't be off by adjectives such as 'brutal' and 'depressing' - this book is compelling, vivid, and most satisfying - as a professional writer myself I can only admire greatly what Rose Tremain has achieved here.

Strong women may not usually capture the centre of attention in a wild west survival story - it's a men's world after all. Yet, Harriet deserves her spotlight! Set against the background of New Zealand's gold rush in the 1860s, Rose Tremain has crafted a memorable, vividly coloured historical drama, that revolves around immigrants Joseph Blackstone and his new wife, Harriet. New Zealand's spectacular landscapes and the country's havoc creating extreme weather vagaries, powerfully evoked throughout the novel, are merged as an integral part into the story and adding to its sense of drama.

The young couple, together with Joseph's mother, Lillian, embark on a farm life that none are prepared for. Tensions abound as the precariousness of their survival becomes evident, in particular during their first winter in the wilds around Christchurch. Three isolated and solitary people, each is preoccupied with attempting to overcome unresolved issues of their past life back in Norfolk, England. Joseph hides some shameful crime from his former life that comes back to haunt him with increasing intensity and is revealed to the reader in small portions. His secret is isolating him even more from his wife in particular. He becomes wary of his wife's positive attitude and growing self-confidence - "a woman as tall as he". When, by their creek, he discovers a few specks of gold, the 'colour', he is ecstatic and frantically searches for more. While no more gold is found and he manages to hide his find from his wife, his obsession can no longer be contained. He abandons the faltering farm and declares that joining the new wave of gold diggers on the other side of the country will be their financial rescue and salvation.

Harriet, while still expecting ongoing domestic contentment, has also been changing. Discovering Joseph's gold secret adds to her increasing disenchantment with her current life. Tremain sensitively captures Harriet's character and evolving personality. She conveys the new sense of confidence that sees Harriet blossom and explore new and sustaining friendships in the neighbourhood. Eventually, the young woman decides that seeking clarification in her relationship to Joseph will be essential for her own future. She embarks on a journey across the mountain to the South Island to find her husband among the gold diggers. The author's description of Harriet, the solitary woman on a horse, in the midst of a wild bunch of rough and reckless diggers is vivid and shows Tremain's deep empathy for the fate of the young woman.

Harriet had agreed to undertake another task during her solitary quest across the country: her young friend Edwin, gifted with unusual spiritual powers and in something resembling a mental dialogue with his former Maori nanny, Pare, needs Harriet to find her in the mountains. It is a life and death situation. While the sub-plot of Edwin and Pare moves the story possibly a bit too much into magical realism, the rest of the narrative is very strongly grounded in the realities of the time. Tremain's detailed description of the desolate living conditions that the diggers endure, their fixation to find "a homeward bounder" of gold that would relieve them, in one stroke, from all their worries and suffering, makes gloomy reading. Some characters, though, stand out, exquisitely captured by the author: young Will Sefton, a street urchin transported into the diggers' camps and especially Chen Pao Yi. Pao Yi came from China to seek his fortune, less as a gold digger than as a gardener and supplier of essentials to the different camps along the river. His life stands in stark contrast to that of the diggers. And then, one day, a sudden natural disaster threatens the survival of all those digging and living along the river and its vicinity... There is a moral undertone to the novel: in the end, those individuals who are least obsessed with the 'colour' have the author's attention and they have the best chance to gain the most in terms of humanity, dignity and happiness. [Friederike Knabe]

There are some harsh reviewers out there. I found this book a highly compelling read, with well-drawn characters and strong, interlinking storylines which kept me interested right to the very end. No doubt those who have been to New Zealand's South Island (particularly in winter) will find this a more satisfying book than those who have not - I am sure it helps to have some sort of mental image of both the beauty and the harshness of the landscape in which the story is set.

It has its faults. It suffers from the apparent belief among contemporary authors that, unless a book contains a strange element of magic and mysticism, the reader will lose interest. This is not so - most books which try this obvious and tired trick fall down as a result. In this book, this unnecessary flummery arises in the relationship between the Maori woman, Pare, and the English boy, Edwin. On one level, this strand of the story is a touching (and ultimately tragic) tale of childhood imagination and clashing imperial and indiginous cultures, and it would have been better left at that. The introduction of Maori spiritualism seemed to me to be somewhat forced and shallow, and wholly unnecessary.

And why, oh why, do publishers of books set in strong geographical locations NEVER include a map? I dug out my own map of New Zealand, which greatly assisted in conceptualising the action, but a one-page map in the book itself would be so easy to include and would make such a difference.

But otherwise, a thoroughly good read - a little depressing, but not without its upbeat moments. The three main Blackstone characters are all a little bit useless in their varying degrees (and so more believable and engaging), and they all make mistakes, and the changing relationships between them seemed to me to be both convincing and sympathetically human. And the descriptions on nineteenth-century New Zealand life and landscape are truly excellent. Compared to the other books I have read by Ms Tremain, it is certainly streets ahead of the dreadful "The Way I Found Her", if not quite as rich and unusual as (although probably more compellingly readable than) "Music and Silence". I recommend it strongly.