Andrea Barrett: The Forms Of Water

Reviewed by GERALDINE WHITEFORD

The tensions of family interactions and misunderstood dreams are the driving elements of this fine novel. Its key characters are flawed and ever so human, but Barrett defines them with warmth and assurance.

Brendan, an elderly rest home resident, has crippling arthritis and is dying of cancer. The plot starts with a visit from his nephew Henry, a failed property developer, divorced after a brief affair and constantly fantasising about overseas travel he can't afford.

On a previous visit, Brendan had told him about a piece of land he intends leaving Henry and his sister, Waloma, near a reservoir that flooded the valley where his grandparents and parents used to live. To a failed property developer, it represents another chance at redemption.

Brendan wants to see the land one more time and deceives the absent-minded Henry into taking the rest-home van and driving him to the reservoir.

Barrett expertly draws the other family members into this mischievous adventure. Waloma, Henry's sister, is divorced from Waldon and, as part of her recovery, has embraced the Church of New Reason and its spiritual precepts. She is determined to nurse Brendan herself using the Church's local spiritual nutritionist. So, on learning of Brendan's departure from the rest home, she and Waldon take chase to find him. Henry's children Lise and Delia, distrusting everything their father does, also join the chase.

Barrett buries into the consciousness of her characters as they struggle to come to terms with their pasts. Waloma, on hearing her uncle has disappeared, "focuses the full power of her detoxified intelligence through space toward him, marvelling at the way a grown man could allow his thinking to be so clouded by fear and confusion."

Despite Barrett's careful characterisation, the book clips along at a lively pace. The dialogue crackles with wit and the irritation of family interactions. Each section ends with a Letter to the Editor from Henry's late grandfather, recording his plaintive protest at the pending flooding of the valley. Thus we are constantly drawn back to the valley that is the both the starting and end point of Brendan's journey.

Flamingo, $24.99

* Geraldine Whitford is an Auckland reviewer.