Purging the cupboard of skeletons

Swimmers' Rope by Stephanie Johnson. Photo / Supplied

It is the early 1970s: the musical Hair is playing at His Majesty's Theatre while Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch is being disseminated at bra-burning rallies. It is a great time to be young. It's a pity, then, that the protagonist of Swimmers' Rope, Norman Martingale, is well into his dotage. He whiles away the days drinking tea, smoking and wondering about all the sex young people get "these days".

With his life entering its twilight, he is no longer looking to the future but to the past. He needs one of these young things through which to channel his life story.

Readers of Maurice Gee will be more than familiar with the "old guy retells his life story" plot. And they will also be keenly aware that at the back of Norman's closet there will be a skeleton or two, rattling.

Norman feels the need to purge his soul of one of these skeletons - thus he has chosen a young stranger to confess his sins to. The question is: what has Norman done? To find out, we leave the 70s and head back to 1905, where we meet Lyn Comfort, Norman's childhood friend and neighbour. But hang on folks, because it is a short stop and we are soon off again, like Marty McFly, back to the future.

These quick-fire, episodic time jumps continue relentlessly for the remainder of the book. While they enable Johnson to succeed in drip-feeding us the story, they do test the patience of the reader, who must constantly readjust and reconnect with the changing narrative. Unfortunately, Norman is not a character with whom one can easily identify or sympathise.

In fact, by the time we finally discover what dear old Norman is trying to tell us, we have lost interest - we just want to leave him to his teapot, tobacco and his disjointed memories. Swimmers' Rope is a book about one man's history, about friendship, and about dark secrets.

While Johnson's short fiction always sizzles with a fusion of ideas and panache, her longer works can fall short of the high standards her stories set. Unfortunately, Swimmers' Rope is proof of this.

Swimmers' Rope
By Stephanie Johnson (Vintage $29.99)

* Steve Scott is an Auckland reviewer.