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Music From a Distant Room, Stephanie Johnson
Vintage
Reviewed by John Whelan (Courtesy of Taranaki Daily News)
Through this novel we get a glimpse at the life of Nola Tyler. The story covers her formative years in Auckland as a school dental nurse in the sixties.
Gradually her memories are revealed to us as we find her telling a woman, Tamara, intimate details about her life and that of her son, Carl. Tamara, we soon discover, was Carl's lover; they were both blind, both jazz musicians. Now Carl is dead. Left behind are many unanswered questions.
Slowly and skilfully, pieces of this particular jigsaw are revealed and it is up to the reader to put them together. As this re-telling of the story flicks back and forward in time, we get a better understanding of why certain people did what they did, but it's not until the very end that the whole picture is revealed.
Nola, the mother, desperately wants to know what happened to her son in the last hours of his life, his final hour, that last moment. The way the story is written and the manner in which it unfolds, the reader is just as eager to find out. Tamara is the one person who knows what actually happened to Carl and it seems to Nola that the only way she can prise this vital information out of her is by telling her and her son's life history: "I'll give you his beginning, and then you can give me his ending. In exchange."
The two women are grieving in very different ways, they reminisce and support each other in an unconventional manner. It's quite neat observing their oddly close relationship that's tinged with regret, love and anger.
Stephanie Johnson's writing evokes a distinctive image of times past, the sounds and smells of the "murder house" that was the dental clinic, the development of a growing Auckland, relationships confined by the norms of the time, all are described in flowing detail. The contrast as the story jumps 40 years ahead to the present day is poignant. As a result the reader is witness to change; change in the people and the city they inhabit. The tricks that memory can play and wisdom through hindsight are highlighted.
Music From A Distant Room is a dramatic story that is tragic but certainly not maudlin. The characters have lived life and it's very easy for the reader to become involved in their struggles. It is an absorbing read with a unique New Zealand flavour.