When Jude asked me if I would review Jenny Pattrick’s novel “Sea Change” a tsunami of anxiety washed over me. Hell’s teeth! Jenny Pattrick! She’s a cornerstone of that terrifying cohort of super-intelligent, over-achieving Paekākāriki wāhine toa and I’m well… just…
So I read the book, or should I say, ‘consumed it’… in one sitting… today.
On our kitchen bench there’s a colourful mailout from Kāpiti Coast District Council entitled
“Are you prepared for a Tsunami?” It has maps showing the likely areas from which we should evacuate, but it doesn’t describe the carnage, the brutality, the loss or the long aftermath of such a terrifying event.
“Sea Change” does just that.
In measured detail, Jenny Pattrick takes her Paekākāriki Community through a disaster we hope we’ll never witness. The Village smashed. The Escarpment collapsed north and south. The Parade destroyed. The few remaining houses cut off from power, water, phone. The book reads like a Hollywood disaster epic filmed in our back yard. But that’s just the context, not the story.
“Sea Change” is about how Nature demands that we redeem ourselves, re-humanise ourselves, be better than we are. Jenny Pattrick wreaks this havoc on her vibrant cast of characters so we can marvel at their tenacity and their strength when faced with near-impossible adversity.
We, the readers, face these challenges with them. And if you’re like me, you’ll come to love these people and change with them as the violent sea has forced them to change into something approaching a real community of shared need and respect – something we could do with right now in this ugly world.
Of course, with every trauma, there’s an evil agent determined to profit from calamity – think Gaza re-fashioned into an exclusive seaside golf resort – and the dark forces are strong against this feisty community of ‘remainers’. “Sea Change” exhorts us to resist not with force, but by joining hands, minds and hearts.
Look… it’s not the best book I’ve ever read, and there are clunky bits Jenny, but I couldn’t put it down and I had a few sobs too. There are moments of pure joy in the rubble. Each of the characters brings an inner strength we all hope would be ourselves in the same circumstances. Every character reveals an inner weakness that is tested mightily by the situation. Together, however, each character finds their unique contribution and the power of that unity is unstoppable.
Anyone who has a heart will devour this book – anyone in New Zealand who enjoys a sea view ought to study this book. We live on the edge of unforgiving oceans – all we’ve got to protect us is each other.
Sea Change can be purchased online or from your local book store for $37.99
Book launch photo credit: Deanna Walker, www.birdie.co.nz
