The Colour [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

This book is filled with wonderful images of the hard painstaking life of establishing a farm in the midst of the untamed New Zealand countryside. I felt sympathy for their ever-increasing struggles to remain on their farm. The descriptions of the harsh winters made me appreciate my warm apartment. One of the most interesting parts of this book dealt specifically with the gold rush. I was entranced by the descriptions of men buying mining licenses and claiming a spot of land in order to pan for gold while living in squalor - all the while clinging to the dream of striking rich and cashing in their fortunes. Also intriguing was the varied individuals who developed a business to accommodate the miners such as selling food, lodging, and sometimes their bodies. But despite my enjoyment of this section of this book, I was dismayed by the inclusion of the Maori woman and her connection with the little boy Edwin. Tremain appeared to feel a need to include a Maori storyline but it felt too forced for my own tastes. Furthermore, I felt the story of Pare didn't coincide well with the other storylines and her relationship with Edwin was eerie and unsettling. Regardless, THE COLOUR is a book that quickly grabs your attention and had me guessing the ending until the last couple of pages. I will definitely now read more books from Rose Tremain.

Newcomer Joseph Blackstone has built his house in a summer spot, despite expert advice. As the season changes, he lies awake, worrying. "He rebuilt it in his mind in the lee of a gentle hill. But he said nothing and did nothing. Days passed and weeks and the winter came, and the Cob House remained where it was, in the pathway of the annihilating winds.

"It was their first winter. The earth under their boots was grey. The yellow tussock grass was salty with hail. In the violet clouds of afternoon lay the promise of a great winding sheet of snow."

With Joseph is his new wife, Harriet, 34, grateful to be saved from a stultifying spinsterhood as a governess, and his widowed mother, Lilian, who spends the cold days mending china, broken on its long journey from home. Uprooted, alienated by this inhospitable place, Lilian is miserable, but Joseph and Harriet both have ardent hopes.

Joseph has fled England with a terrible secret to put behind him. He believes that strong, capable Harriet will renew him "and living sensibly with her, without loathing and without damage, then, he believed, his past would slowly vanish. He would be able to grow old without it, just as, if a man is careful, he can grow old without yearning."

But, a product of his times as well as his nature, he begins by stifling Harriet's dreams, first refusing her desire to help in building the Cob House (a structure meant to be temporary, built of mud and grass), then denying her longing for a child. Though growing disappointed with her marriage, Harriet retains her optimism. She surveys her hard-won garden with satisfaction or looks out at the distant mountains with wonder and desire.

Then, during a thaw after a devastating snow storm, with Harriet gone to get help from their richer, more established neighbors, Joseph finds gold in their creek. It's not much, but it sends him into a frenzy of feverish work and secrecy. Instinctively he hides the dust he's found and takes pains to keep his work from Lilian and Harriet. Though he finds no more, his obsession builds and when gold is found on the other side of the mountains he seizes the chance to escape his failed life and eroding marriage.

The narrative continues to move between characters, primarily Harriet and Joseph, but also Lilian, and their neighbors, the Orchards. Tremain brings alive the privations, filth, obsession and excitement of the Gold Rush; the struggles of the two women to maintain their Cob House holding in the face of an onslaught of New Zealand elements; the even, tranquil tenor of life at the Orchards' ranch.

Eventually Harriet gets to fulfill her longing to go into the mountains, only to find them impassable. Joseph's failure to find gold inflames his self-absorption with hatred for the world, and young Edwin Orchard becomes afflicted with a strange, Maori-inspired illness. Harriet perseveres, obligated to meet up with Joseph one last time and the novel rises to new heights of cataclysm and a romantic obsession so intense it moves at times into the surreal.

With its majestic, forbidding landscapes, passionate characters and precise imagery, "The Colour" is a beautifully written novel and a riveting read. Though the setting couldn't be further from the ultra-civilized 17th century royal court of her last novel, "Music & Silence" (winner of the Whitbread Award), Tremain's deft depictions of self-defeating narcissism, and (on the other hand) the human longing for experience beyond the ordinary, remain elemental themes.

Not that the book is without flaws. The mystical connection between Edwin Orchard and his Maori nurse is more alienating and puzzling than intriguing and Joseph seems, at times, overwrought. Quibbles aside, this is a masterful novel with a story, setting and characters that will stick with you long after the last page is turned.