Maartje Quivooy: Right as rain

Reviewed by MARGIE THOMSON

It's just as well this is subtitled "a novel" as, with its ring of authenticity, it may well be mistaken for memoir, particularly as the author is, like her protagonist, a nurse who emigrated to New Zealand from the Netherlands in 1954.

However, novel it is — enjoyable, straightforward (something peculiarly Dutch about that). Lottie arrives in her new land, marries a fellow immigrant, they quickly have four children and work hard to make a home and future, so far away from the rest of their families. A simple but crucial tale of the
immigrant experience, and also of that innocent, suburban age of the 1950s and 60s when women stayed home to bring up their children, "made do", formed communities of friendship with other mothers and knew little of what their husbands were up to.

And therein lies the more sinister side of this tale: the secret life of Lottie's husband, and his breathtaking disregard for the day-to-day concerns of Lottie and the children. This was a time when women often
had to ask their husbands for the housekeeping money, and had little financial independence.

Quivooy has an acute sensitivity for this side of women's lives, and tells her tale with a kind of
subdued bitterness that brings the story disquietingly to life.

Publisher: Exisle

Price:, $24.95