William Kowalski: Somewhere South of here

By JOHN CONNOR*

At the end of Eddie's Bastard, William Kowalski's brilliant debut novel, Billy Mann receives a letter from the Air Force, telling him where his dead father's effects were sent. It's in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and could be where the mother who abandoned him once lived, maybe still does.

The scene is set for a sequel. Those who enjoyed Eddie's Bastard will want to read the continuing adventures of Billy Mann. Kowalski's easy-going style and story-telling skills are as evident and enjoyable as ever. Billy Mann is as likeable and generous as ever.

Most of the new characters are interesting and engaging and Santa Fe, though rougher and more exotic than Billy's home town, Mannville, has a similar, friendly, small-town feel about it.

Still, there is something disappointing about Somewhere South of Here. Comparisons might be odious but a sequel invites them. The powerful thread that held Eddie's Bastard together, Billy's search for his origins, is unravelled quickly in the sequel.

His mother and her family are nowhere near as grand, mysterious and compelling as the Mann family of Eddie's Bastard. They are so shallow, self-centred and unappealing that, having transported him all the way to Santa Fe to find them, Kowalski leaves his hero floundering around, wondering what to do with himself.

The fascinating and magical Consuelo is there to fall in love with. El Perrero, the mad Vietnam vet, is there to unsettle and frighten him but, well told as their stories are, they lack the richness and depth of those in Eddie's Bastard.

In that novel Kowalski, with his honest portrayal of human failings, also managed to keep the ever-threatening American small-town sentimentality at bay. Somewhere South of Here is not so fortunate. Billy's final return to Mannville, with its cooing babies and faltering but moving speeches from decent, kindly folk, is a set piece of heart-warming hokum.

Not that there is anything terribly wrong with that. Like the rest of the novel, it's pleasant enough. It's just that Kowalski promised so much more. In Somewhere South of Here he tries to continue Billy Mann's journey of self-discovery but the journey is over. It ended in Eddie's Bastard.

Random House

$34.95

* John Connor is an Auckland writer and lecturer.