Middle-Aged Fantasy: The Winter Sea

The Winter Sea by Di Morrissey

Pan Macmillan

Pp. 416

This novel is pure escapism and wish fulfilment. Cassie decides to leave her high-paid but unsatisfying legal job and husband in Sydney for a holiday on the coast. On a whim she buys a dilapidated restaurant and turns it into a roaring success with the help of the local fishing community. The spanner in the works (of course there has to be one) is in the form of a historic family incident with far-reaching repercussions. Because it's a typical holiday read there is a caring community for affirmation, an abandoned dog for company, and a handsome vet for romance. It contains a lot of stereotypes which are completely undemanding.

One of these stereotypes is the notion of Italy and the history of emigration. There are several flashbacks, which direct the reader to the old country where “Italian families are always there for each other” in a sort of Sicilian Godfather-like way. Italians love fishing and women, and they have romantic notions of both.

Characters describe things to each other in a manner that is clearly meant as exposition for the reader, and historical nuggets are dropped into the narrative with resounding clangs. The transition to being Australian is not easy; as someone worries that their English might not be good enough to pass the test they are told, “It could be in any language. If they don’t want you, they will make it impossible for you to pass.” We are reminded that Italians were put into internment camps during the war. “People are in here just because they’re Italian. Doesn’t matter what their political convictions are – Fascists, Communists, neutral. It almost makes you cry when you think of the poor buggers who left Italy to escape Fascism only to end up here.”

Cassie is a modern woman who decides to make a break, in parallel with these characters from the past. We are meant to see her as an independent woman, who is better-off without her overbearing husband, Hal and patriarchal career. This burgeoning feminism is not extended to other female characters, however – more Italian stereotypes. Moving home and setting up a new business is remarkably easy to do as Cassie buys a place in Whitby Point, by the sea (Ulladulla, NSW coast), with a more relaxed pace of life than in her previous Sydney home, which suits her interests. She extends this minimalism to her restaurant, which she decides to run with no real business plan. It is busy but idyllic and the dream of many a middle-aged idealist.

By trying to force a modern character into a tried and tested romance formula, Morrissey’s character’s credibility strains at the seams, but she has enough fans who will love it anyway and there’s no point in ruining a perfectly good fantasy with realism and detail.

Ulladulla Harbour and Foreshore

Holding Back the Nausea: The Boundary Fence

The Boundary Fence by Alissa Callen

Mira

Pp. 343

This outback romance is full of clichés rather than character.  All the women like baking and organising events, and they all want to get married and have babies. All the men like rounding up cattle (or, in our hero’s case, bison), and fishing. They also all want to get married and have children; they have “dreams of finding someone to love and to raise a family with.” Ella is the local vet who has had heartbreak in her life – we are told this repeatedly – and she has a scar on her thigh to prove it (an attractive one, obviously). She is beautiful and smells of cherry blossom. Saul is a local dude who runs a bison herd, has had trauma in his life – we are told this repeatedly as well – and is devastatingly handsome. Of course they should be together but keep inventing spurious reasons why they can’t be – “As hard as it was, for both of their sakes, he had to stay on his side of the boundary fence” – which drag the book out until they fall into each other’s arms at last.

There is little danger that we shouldn’t see this couple as dreamy but slightly damaged. Ella is “Dressed in loose black running shorts and a fitted white tank top, she was all long legs, curves and tousled blonde hair.” To be fair, Saul is equally objectified. “Even though he wore a loose royal blue shirt, as she drew near she had trouble looking away from where the cotton pulled tight across his biceps.” Ella has a lot of trouble looking away.

For some reason – there would be no book otherwise – they decide they will only cause more heartache if they fall in love, so they try so hard not to. It is a hardship for us all. With supposedly selfless passion, Saul wants Ella to be happy, even if this means not being with her. She cuts her hair to try and see if he will still be interested in her when she’s got short hair – which is, of course, beautiful. Yes, it really is that superficial. While the author falls over herself trying to explain how they are so noble and altruistic, they are incredibly self-absorbed, to the point that Ella seems to think everyone is studying her so closely they remember what she looked like the last time she wore a certain dress. “Bethany had already once remarked that she looked different and it hadn’t been due to her haircut… She’d wear something no one had seen before to mask anything else that could appear different.”

The book makes an effort with the setting – the town of Woodlea near Dubbo, NSW – and it’s all red earth and dusty boots in the outback. There are bush dances and rodeos; country weddings and hay bale competitions; beer nights and convoys of hay runners; snake bites and sick horses. It is very hot and dry verging on drought and this conveys a soupçon of atmosphere. There are lots of characters in the book but they have no individual features and are impossible to tell apart; sometimes it’s even difficult to know if the characters are human or animal.

It is no spoiler to say that Ella and Saul get their happy ever after, as that is the only point to this pap. “Nothing could have prepared him for kissing Ella. Her sweetness and warmth moved him in ways that went beyond the physical. She filled the lonely and dark void within him with laughter and warmth. Emotions he’d banished and refused to acknowledge flared into life. Being with Ella made him feel complete.” Well, good for him; being with them has made me feel nauseous.