The dark subject matter of Landscape with Solitary Figure is not written about often enough in novel form but appears too often in judicial matters and is commented about in society as a whole.
This is a must-read for any lover of New Zealand literature in general, and of Shonagh Koea in particular.
The solitary Ellis is re-entering and reviewing the many landscapes she has lived through as she seeks contentment, realising as she does so that the unexpected mail sent to her by a former lover, and read uneasily, could help in understanding her current feelings.
The near ferocity with which Ellis tries to establish order in her unkempt garden mirrors the realisation that she, and not someone re-entering her life, will be the person who finds peace.
The reader is taken back to what appears to be a normal way of life but the writer is able to show, in her usual quirky and compelling way, that what appears to one as a child, somehow seems to have shrunk and become small and less frightening.
The landscapes of beaches and gardens, beautifully written about, play a large part in this search for an understanding of a solitary life - solitary largely because the narrator has, for much of her life, been a quiet, accepting figure.
But in reading the mail and thus becoming a target, Ellis reviews her friends from her early life and realises her own quiet attitude has somehow not worked in her favour.
Ellis further realises this when she remembers invitations to dine with a person for whom she has mixed feelings, and his questions about her feelings and her attitude to things which frighten her.
The chilling outcome of the specific dinner which Ellis attends will leave the reader feeling fearful of any way in which she can resolve both her mental and physical escapes.
Happily, the clivia depicted on the cover, and a subject in the book, grows in any sunny, frost-free area of Otago.
- Colleen Hartley is a lifelong devotee of New Zealand literature.
