Stephanie Johnson: Belief

Vintage

$24.95

Review: Laura Kroetsch*

I would reluctantly call Belief a historical novel, even though it is extremely evocative of a time and rings true. I would prefer to call Stephanie Johnson's novel a haunting portrayal of love and desire at the turn of the century.

It is the uneasy story of two people seeking hope and redemption in a world governed by grief, violence and despair.

It is a powerful story that wrangles with faith and fraud and the hopes of men.

For William McQuiggan, our hero, hope first lies in his young Australian wife, Myra, whom he reluctantly takes to a homestead near Pukekaroro.

Banished by his father, a judge, to create a farm from the wilderness, William takes to the bottle as his young wife grieves for the loss of their first child.

Deep in the bush, with the aid of a considerable amount of whisky, William has a vision in which he discovers that he is without doubt one of God's chosen.

Filled with the fury of the chosen, William torches his house, abandons his wife and returns to Auckland.

Distraught and once again pregnant, Myra stays near the farm until she is summoned to Auckland, only to discover that her husband is about to take flight.



In this unfamiliar world Myra gives birth to twin girls who William sees only once before he boards a steamer for America.

Myra, frail and dependent, slowly begins to make a life for herself and the girls. While she settles with the Williams family her husband continues his search for God and redemption, first with the Mormons and later with the followers of a Dr Dowie.

Myra and her girls are eventually reunited with William and the odyssey of their difficult love continues. They roam from Australia to New Zealand to the United States to Canada and back again. They experience the Old World conventions transported to the antipodes, only to head to the even brasher New World of the Americas.

They suffer, often almost unbearably, as a result of William's determination, his cruelty and his frustration. Both discover love and forgiveness but it is Myra alone who discovers the strength of self.

William is throughout the novel a difficult and fascinating character. With this man's spiritual quest Johnson creates a compelling journey through demanding and occasionally corrupt religious worlds, be they Mormon, Anglican or the evangelical world of Dr Dowie.

As with William, the worlds which draw him are fundamentally flawed. By their very nature, they insist on faith.

Trapped within her husband's tortured worlds, Myra is forced to find her own faith. Myra is a frail woman who becomes strong as she begins to understand her husband's frailties. She is an only child who gives birth to eight children. She is a woman who loves a man who is seeking God - and she forgives him.

Belief is a wonderful novel, powerful and often deeply disturbing, filled with New World landscapes, ambitious prophets and reluctant explorers.

In her often quite claustrophobic worlds, Johnson tells stories of desire, escape, and believing.

* Laura Kroetsch is a Wellington bookshop manager.