Suzanne Berne: A Perfect Arrangement

By JAN TRELIVING-BROWN

The cover boasts a white picket fence, badge of the all-American dream: contemporary home for two-parent, double income family with two kids (girl, boy) and one long-haired dog. The Yankees are playing the Red Sox, the nanny has whisked the children off for educational play at the town green. Turkey burgers and fried cheese balls sizzle on the stovetop. Uncle Richard, Aunt Vivvy and Cousin Danielle are due to arrive for a Fourth of July weekend catch-up.

Phew. So much domesticity and so little time to enjoy it. While the Cook-Goldmans appear to have it all, Mirella is pushing personal stress boundaries in her high-flying law firm and husband Howard, a local architect, has his own set of problems as he attempts to convince the New Aylesbury townsfolk they need a new housing development.

Planning board meetings usually attract four or five citizens. Not tonight. To a packed hall, Howard shares the TownCommon Proposal: 20 clustered buildings leaving 3.2ha for environmental reserve. The town wants the whole 6ha au naturel. Howard is alone and the final damning submission of the evening brings him to his knees.

On the home front, cracks are appearing. New nanny Randi is hired to look after the Cook-Goldman offspring Pearl and Jacob. Howard's three-year affair with associate Nadine is unceremoniously exposed. Mirella discovers she's pregnant again.

Randi is a godsend. She's taking control of the children and the chores. Nutritious meals materialise from the spotless kitchen. Pearl and Jacob are secure, stimulated and spit-polished.

What then is this raw emotion Mirella is feeling with such potency? Could it be old-fashioned jealousy? And what appears to be ailing little Jacob? Randi seems to be gifted with a rare spirituality that can reach his deepest inner place. Mirella is distressed that she is not. Now there's the added revelation of her husband's infidelity.

Howard must move out, and Cook-Goldman baby No 3 is on the way.

Suzanne Berne has succeeded in turning a somewhat ho-hum theme into a pacy and gripping domestic thriller. Previous novel A Crime In The Neighbourhood won the 1999 Orange Prize for Fiction. A Perfect Arrangement could easily be a contender, although I do forewarn that it is one of those books with a less-than-satisfying conclusion. Part I and Part II held me captive for a tantalising 300 pages. Eagerly seeking closure, I began Part III which teetered for a frail seven pages before depositing me among the acknowledgements. Know the feeling?

Penguin Books

$26.95

* Zela Charlton is a Whangarei artist and writer; Penelope Bieder is a freelance writer; Jan Treliving-Brown is a Taranaki freelance writer.