It is the winter of 1954. Ruby Barton has fled her life among the criminal underworld of an Auckland slum, to arrive in Palmerston North — a respectable town, full of opportunity, where she and her 10-year-old daughter Edie might be safe. They get off the train with no luggage, very little money and no plan.
Impoverished, in a society where moral codes and rules of behaviour are maintained by ostracism and shaming, single mother Ruby has to bury the trauma of her past and face any obstacle to provide a decent life for Edie. But just as Ruby thinks a semblance of respectability is finally possible, a sinister figure from her past turns up.
Will she forgive herself for what follows?
A Respectable Veneer is Manawatū author Rachel Doré's debut novel. She has long had a love of social history, combined with a fascination with the impact of intergenerational trauma.
“I believe the generations of the first half of the 20th century were shaped by trauma. I think my generation, born in the post-World War II years, was affected by that,” Rachel says.
“The war hung over us, and we were brought up with many unspoken secrets. Often, family members who broke the rules were shunned, never spoken of again. So much was brushed under the carpet. What if those unspoken histories and our efforts to be free of it all made us who we are? I wanted to write a story that lifts a corner of the carpet and looks at the grit underneath.”
Rachel felt 1954 was the perfect period for a story to illustrate this.
“The mid-’50s have been mythologised. It wasn’t all rock‘n’roll and ‘Yank tanks’ — that came later. 1954 was a very interesting time. New Zealand had a change of government, there were social reforms, moral panic and straight-laced repression. That was particularly the case in conservative provinces, like Manawatū.
“People who were young in Manawatū during that era speak with pride of how upright and nicely behaved people were. Nothing bad happened back then. Didn’t it?”
At the same time in the UK, they had only just stopped using ration books.
“And here, the provincial towns were flourishing. There was industry; we were going to make it on the world stage as producers of food and everything else — it was an aggressively optimistic time in political and economic terms. But underneath the surface, we were behind the rest of the world.”
1954 was the year of the Mazengard Report, a Government-funded inquiry into juvenile delinquency. The report firmly placed the perceived promiscuity of New Zealand youth on working mothers, the ready availability of contraceptives and young women enticing men to have sex. The perfect setting for Rachel’s story.
Now in her 70s, Rachel Doré is one of those creatives who has spent her life painting and writing. A former journalist, she is a poet, short story writer, writing coach and mentor to others. Rachel lives in rural Manawatū and received a grant towards the preparation of her novel from the Earle Creativity Trust for Literature in 2021.
On Friday, April 14 at 5.30pm, Rachel is presenting the Whanganui launch of A Respectable Veneer, after which it will be available from Paige’s Book Gallery.
Rachel says she’ll be reading a few vignettes from the novel (without giving any spoilers) and giving a talk about some of the social history of 1954. She will also be ready to answer questions and will sign books as they are purchased.
