Characters without shape

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 20

Characters without shape

Meeting the Americans. By Yolanda Drummond. Hodder and Stoughton, 1983. 248 pp. $14.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Joan Curry) One of the three women whose stories are told in this book says, in a rare moment of plain-speaking: “We’re a great little society. We know nothing about one another, we ignore, conceal, sneer and compete. Our conversation is about weather, sport and ailments.” The society she is talking about is New Zealand society some time after World War 11. The three women were teenagers in the early 1940 s when the American servicemen invaded New Zealand in their search for rest and recreation. And now, more than a generation later, the effects of those youthful contacts with the Americans are still important in one way or another. Important to the women, perhaps, but not to the reader, I’m afraid. The back cover of the book describes it as a “dramatic and perceptive first

novel.” Perceptive it is, with some sharp observations of New Zealand society in general and with a feminine insight into the minds of women, or at least of two women. The third, Jane, is seen through the eyes of the other two and it may be significant that it is Jane who seems most in control of her own life simply because we are not invited behind the facade. However, “dramatic” it is not. The exposition at the beginning of the book is conducted in flashbacks, logically enough and even skillful. But the characters never take on shape and substance, which is ungracious of them considering the art that has gone into their making. And without an interest in all that background the reader must try hard to care about the outcome. Anne and Ellen and Jane communicate imperfectly with each other and with their friends and relations, but they haven’t a great deal to communicate anyway so it doesn’t seem to matter very much.