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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"He saw it again, a minute patch of shining yellow dust",
By
This review is from: The Colour (Hardcover)
In THE COLOUR Rose Tremain creates a wonderful insightful portrait of individuals drawn into the lure of the New Zealand gold rush in the mid-19th century. Newlyweds Joseph and Harriet Blackstone immigrate to the south island of New Zealand with Joseph's mother Lillian in order to begin a new life on a farm in the untamed countryside. As the Blackstone family settles down to their new life it soon becomes apparent that Joseph and Harriet's marriage is not based on any deep sense of love or devotion. In fact, they are becoming increasingly emotionally distant from each other each day. In addition each is fleeing from a disturbed past in Norfolk, England. After their first year in their new homestead their lives are forever changed when one day Joseph spots a glimpse of the colour, a New Zealand euphemism for the glimmer of gold, in their creek. Keeping is discovery a secret from his wife and mother Joseph soon abandons his dreams of farming and joins the thrust of the gold rush occurring throughout the country in his dreams of striking rich and securing a better life. After he leaves his farm and heads to the west coast Harriet is not far behind with her own agenda.This book is filled with wonderful images of the hard painstaking life of establishing a farm in the midst of the untamed New Zealand countryside. I felt sympathy for their ever-increasing struggles to remain on their farm. The descriptions of the harsh winters made me appreciate my warm apartment. One of the most interesting parts of this book dealt specifically with the gold rush. I was entranced by the descriptions of men buying mining licenses and claiming a spot of land in order to pan for gold while living in squalor - all the while clinging to the dream of striking rich and cashing in their fortunes. Also intriguing was the varied individuals who developed a business to accommodate the miners such as selling food, lodging, and sometimes their bodies. But despite my enjoyment of this section of this book, I was dismayed by the inclusion of the Maori woman and her connection with the little boy Edwin. Tremain appeared to feel a need to include a Maori storyline but it felt too forced for my own tastes. Furthermore, I felt the story of Pare didn't coincide well with the other storylines and her relationship with Edwin was eerie and unsettling. Regardless, THE COLOUR is a book that quickly grabs your attention and had me guessing the ending until the last couple of pages. I will definitely now read more books from Rose Tremain.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Roast Dinner of a Book,
By
This review is from: The Colour: A Novel (Paperback)
If stories were meals, this would be a roast dinner with steamed treacle pudding for afters! "The Colour" is a filling read.Tremain has delivered a story with a stunning landscape - New Zealand in the gold rush - a strong, believable female main character, and a story arc that keeps you reading to the bitter, sad, yet liberating end. Someone told me that a good book teaches you something concrete about life you didn't know when you read the spine. Tremain has taught me about the sharpness of grass, the fickle quality of gold and how to keep a cow warm. Priceless. Bunny
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elegant, passionate adventure,
By
This review is from: The Colour (Hardcover)
Set during the 1860s New Zealand Gold Rush, Tremain's elegant, passionate tale of a British emigrant couple's fresh start in the rural outback, grabs the reader from the first page with its effortless evocation of place and character.Newcomer Joseph Blackstone has built his house in a summer spot, despite expert advice. As the season changes, he lies awake, worrying. "He rebuilt it in his mind in the lee of a gentle hill. But he said nothing and did nothing. Days passed and weeks and the winter came, and the Cob House remained where it was, in the pathway of the annihilating winds. "It was their first winter. The earth under their boots was grey. The yellow tussock grass was salty with hail. In the violet clouds of afternoon lay the promise of a great winding sheet of snow." With Joseph is his new wife, Harriet, 34, grateful to be saved from a stultifying spinsterhood as a governess, and his widowed mother, Lilian, who spends the cold days mending china, broken on its long journey from home. Uprooted, alienated by this inhospitable place, Lilian is miserable, but Joseph and Harriet both have ardent hopes. Joseph has fled England with a terrible secret to put behind him. He believes that strong, capable Harriet will renew him "and living sensibly with her, without loathing and without damage, then, he believed, his past would slowly vanish. He would be able to grow old without it, just as, if a man is careful, he can grow old without yearning." But, a product of his times as well as his nature, he begins by stifling Harriet's dreams, first refusing her desire to help in building the Cob House (a structure meant to be temporary, built of mud and grass), then denying her longing for a child. Though growing disappointed with her marriage, Harriet retains her optimism. She surveys her hard-won garden with satisfaction or looks out at the distant mountains with wonder and desire. Then, during a thaw after a devastating snow storm, with Harriet gone to get help from their richer, more established neighbors, Joseph finds gold in their creek. It's not much, but it sends him into a frenzy of feverish work and secrecy. Instinctively he hides the dust he's found and takes pains to keep his work from Lilian and Harriet. Though he finds no more, his obsession builds and when gold is found on the other side of the mountains he seizes the chance to escape his failed life and eroding marriage. The narrative continues to move between characters, primarily Harriet and Joseph, but also Lilian, and their neighbors, the Orchards. Tremain brings alive the privations, filth, obsession and excitement of the Gold Rush; the struggles of the two women to maintain their Cob House holding in the face of an onslaught of New Zealand elements; the even, tranquil tenor of life at the Orchards' ranch. Eventually Harriet gets to fulfill her longing to go into the mountains, only to find them impassable. Joseph's failure to find gold inflames his self-absorption with hatred for the world, and young Edwin Orchard becomes afflicted with a strange, Maori-inspired illness. Harriet perseveres, obligated to meet up with Joseph one last time and the novel rises to new heights of cataclysm and a romantic obsession so intense it moves at times into the surreal. With its majestic, forbidding landscapes, passionate characters and precise imagery, "The Colour" is a beautifully written novel and a riveting read. Though the setting couldn't be further from the ultra-civilized 17th century royal court of her last novel, "Music & Silence" (winner of the Whitbread Award), Tremain's deft depictions of self-defeating narcissism, and (on the other hand) the human longing for experience beyond the ordinary, remain elemental themes. Not that the book is without flaws. The mystical connection between Edwin Orchard and his Maori nurse is more alienating and puzzling than intriguing and Joseph seems, at times, overwrought. Quibbles aside, this is a masterful novel with a story, setting and characters that will stick with you long after the last page is turned.
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