Published: Jan. 22, 2012
Words: 54,092 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781465775856

Short description

Will travel fix Ann's broken life? Suddenly bereft of both partner and job, Ann needs to find a new direction. Connecting frayed threads of family and finding herself in what she calls "art events" in America is rewarding, but no preparation for the totally unexpected—in more ways than one—things that happen in London. Ann returns home to New Zealand both shaken and stirred.

Extended description

It was her mother's idea that forty-year-old Ann should go traveling. Ann's parter has walked out and she's been made redundant from a university job she enjoys, teaching the Romantic poets. She can combine her love of art museums with visits to family members in Washington DC, New York and London, mending frayed connections. A final few family-free days in Paris will round off her trip. Travel will give her a break from well-meaning advice and a chance to think about future directions for her fractured life. After all, she has a willing father to take care of the sale of her once-shared house, and the dog was always more her partner's.

Unexpected "art events" begin in New York, where her experience of the art works she admires take on a whole new dimension. In London, Ann finds that her cousin's competent wife could actually use some help with two-year-old twins, so she extends her stay and her knowledge of young children. A decidedly non-familial encounter with a dynamic librarian.. (Read more) It was her mother's idea that forty-year-old Ann should go traveling. Ann's parter has walked out and she's been made redundant from a university job she enjoys, teaching the Romantic poets. She can combine her love of art museums with visits to family members in Washington DC, New York and London, mending frayed connections. A final few family-free days in Paris will round off her trip. Travel will give her a break from well-meaning advice and a chance to think about future directions for her fractured life. After all, she has a willing father to take care of the sale of her once-shared house, and the dog was always more her partner's.

Unexpected "art events" begin in New York, where her experience of the art works she admires take on a whole new dimension. In London, Ann finds that her cousin's competent wife could actually use some help with two-year-old twins, so she extends her stay and her knowledge of young children. A decidedly non-familial encounter with a dynamic librarian in London and an impetuous mistake in Paris mean that Ann returns to New Zealand and her future both shaken and stirred.
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Tags

friendship, poetry, family, arts, london, new zealand, new york, paris, washington dc, lesbian characters

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Reviews

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Review by: Alison Kagen on March 12, 2012 :
Ann is an interesting woman. She is abruptly catapulted into single status by the former partner who is mostly "Ex" throughout the book, rather than named, in the first few lines. Ann manages to keep her work and personal life going, although it's clear to everyone, including her family, friends, we readers, & herself, that really she's not really engaged.

Then she loses her job, & that's another abrupt transition. Rosier shows us that it's happening, & we can see it coming - it's much less of a surprise to the reader than to Ann, who has been drifting.

But Ann has interests in painting & poetry, & now she has an opportunity to indulge her artistic interests as well as engage in an activity very familiar to many New Zealanders: visiting relatives (or friends) overseas.

In a not-unfamiliar literary mechanism, Ann gets to know more about herself as she gets to know some of these distant relatives. This is a conscious & deliberate process however: Ann knows she doesn't know quite who she may be in the future, now she's no longer got the established identities of partner & employment.

The pace of the novel varies, which is in keeping with Ann's emotional/mental state: sometimes a lot happens in short order, at other times small details take time to reveal themselves.

The story ends satisfactorily: not a "happy ever after", not absolutely settled, but with plenty of possibilities - for Ann as well as the reader.

One of the reasons for this [aside from Ann's own resources & resilience] is that she has the love & support of a wide range of family [wider range than she started with] & friends. Ann's interactions with NZ-based friends are not intensive - no surprise since for most of the novel she is traveling overseas: but the connection is there, & well-illustrated in a community birthday celebration.

A technical note: although I chose to [mostly] keep reading without checking references for books, poetry & art works on the first reading, I like that it's possible to easily follow those references up. And if the reader is online while reading, then connecting to the works or searches is even easier.
(reviewed within a month of purchase)

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