Dissecting relationships

Press, 21 October 1989, Page 27

Dissecting relationships

Unsuitable Friends. By Fiona Kidman. Picador, 1989. 169 pp. $15.95 (paperback). (Reviewed by Brian Prendergast) Fiona Kidman is firmly established as one of New Zealand’s foremost novelists and short story writers. She

writes best about sexual encounters, marital tensions, and the pitfalls which await men and women when they meet on intimate terms. Relationships are observed, dissected, and almost always found to be flawed. As narrator she is frank,

straightforward, and free from stylistic tricks. She is, nevertheless, a versatile writer and the 16 stories in this edition by Picador embrace a wide range of topics. The cover, from a Jane Evans painting, “Larks in Parks,” sets the scene nicely for the first story, “At the Lake So Blue,” about a beauty contest in Rotorua. “The Courting of Nora” has an authentic rural setting. The hired man waits 15 years for the farmer to die so that he can marry his daughter and inherit the farm. Quite different from the author’s usual themes, it demonstrates her familiarity with the country as well as the city scene.

“At the Homestead Hotel” is one of the best stories. Husband and wife are at dinner; the atmosphere is strained; a young woman joins them. The interaction is defined, but not explored, in an excellent example of short story writing.

In "The Prize Ring” Peter Dixon, whom we met previously in “Mrs Dixon and Friend,” pays another visit to his ex-wife Bethany. There is a rare lapse of style here: “... her wonderful breasts even fuller and slung lower than the last time he saw her ... When would he ever get over the surprise of her, each time he saw her again?” This apart, the author successfully overcomes the risks inherent in returning to the original story. The collection finishes on a rollicksome note with “Pudding” in which a couple put on a display of sexual prowess before an admiring crowd outside their motel window. The story is obviously an indulgence and not to be taken seriously. “Unsuitable Friends” contains a variety of interesting and amusing stories which maintain Fiona Kidman’s considerable reputation in New Zealand literature.