Kehua! by Fay Weldon
Allen & Unwin $29.99
The book that has everything, Kehua! offers murder, adultery, incest (and plenty of it), redemption and ghosts. Not just kehua, the wandering dead searching for their marae, but taniwha, wairua, kelpies, banshees, and a selection of Victorian shades and hallucinations.
But the greatest of these are the kehua. Without proper rituals to send them on their way into the hereafter, they are forced to wander the earth, following the living and helping them, in their way. But kehua are not infallible - they get things wrong and their advice is not to be trusted. They persevere, whispering and chittering, appearing as flashes in the corner of the eye, hanging about in trees like bats as they wait for something to happen.
The kehua share the book with Beverley, the matriarch of a family that lifts the word dysfunctional to new heights. Beverley is the daughter of Kitchie, murdered by husband Walter, who then shoots himself and the dog.
"Run, run, run," say the kehua, and 3-year-old Beverley does, little white knees going one-two, one-two, to the local doctor and his wife.
At 15, Beverley heads off to England with the kehua as unseen but not unfelt travelling companions. The whanau expands. First Alice, Beverley's daughter, then Alice's daughters Cynara and Scarlet, their various partners, offspring and friends.
At the beginning of the book, it is Beverley's family revelations to Scarlet that help the narrative and back-story unfold. Scarlet the lovely announces to her great-grandmother that she is about to leave her partner Louis for a glamorous actor, Jackson Wright. Unfortunately, Wright's chance at the big time has been wrecked during a drunken altercation with his director, described in a very funny piece of writing, and Wright is broke. ("Run, Scarlet, run, run.")
Later, Weldon herself becomes part of the novel, setting her attempts to finish the book against the family dramas and the problem of finding somewhere in her house to write that is not inundated with ghosts, apparitions, sundry smells and noises.
Weldon's own New Zealand upbringing is apparent in Kehua! References to trees such as the kowhai and pohutukawa, the township of Coromandel and macrocarpa hedges give it relevance to local readers without threatening to lose those not so au fait with Maori language and tradition.
Various characters appear at unlikely times, including a prospective fourth husband for Beverley, and a grandson whose existence was hitherto unknown.
In the end family connections and feelings triumph, whether or not it is an outcome that all members hope for. The sins and calamities of the past are accepted and absorbed, and the kehua are set free even as Beverley's hair is set on fire over a family barbecue. The kehua return to their kowhai tree, Scarlet returns to Louis, and all is well.
An excellent book by an established writer from whom we have come to expect wit and a wry reflection on the human condition. Kehua! does not disappoint.
Phoebe Falconer is a Herald staff writer.
