Another Christmas Abroad
Daisy could never have predicted how many Christmases she would be away from home when she booked her first flights to New Zealand on the old computer in her dad's study. The plan was to do some fruit picking, possibly work in a vineyard or two, a ski season in Queenstown and then home via Asia, taking in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and wherever else she still had the funds for.
She had had her arguments lined up like soldiers ready for battle, but to her utter surprise her parents were all for it. Go, they said. Enjoy yourself. You're only young once. With a backpack big enough to hold a small person in, they waved her off at London Heathrow two days after her twenty-third birthday.
***
Daisy sighed as she opened the small box of Christmas decorations she had accumulated over the years. Her mother had at least three times as much and still insisted on getting a real tree. Stu had bought them an artificial one, with the lights already woven into it, the first Christmas they spent together in their small Auckland house. Every year she pulled it out from under their double bed and decorated it, sipping mulled wine despite the outside temperature being around twenty degrees Celsius.
She had met Stu in Queenstown six weeks before she was due to leave. She had been working as a ski instructor when she fell and pulled something that caused an excruciating pain in her back. He was also working the slopes that winter, and was finishing his physiotherapy degree the following year. Daisy went back to Auckland with him and never left.
***
This time of year she missed England the most. Cold days, long dark evenings, candles, roasted vegetables, mulled wine, hot chocolate, Christmas telly. But she had Stu, who she loved, and her little girl, Skylar. As long as they were here, this would be her home.
©2013 Laura Besley
Flash Fiction Diary
I wanted to write a piece on the theme of Christmas and as an expat living abroad (and not going home for Christmas this year...boo hoo), this is what I came up with.
About the Book
Title: As the Earth Turns Silver
Author: Alison Wong
Publication: Picador (2010)
Summary: Set in New Zealand at the turn of the 20th century a forbidden friendship between Katherine and Yung blossoms.
What I Think
Wong Chung-yung (Yung), the younger of two brothers, emigrates from China to New Zealand in 1896. Battling loneliness, racism and prejudice they run a fruit and vegetable shop. Katherine McKechnie is one of the few white women who talks to Yung. She has her own problems in the form of a horrible husband and two unruly children to bring up. Their friendship, which stems from her trying to help him improve his broken English, goes from strength to strength until they are prepared to put everything at risk to be together.
Alison Wong's debut novel, As the Earth Turns Silver, has bitten off a little more than it can chew. She tackles: racism, immigration, feminism, Maoris, white supremacy, difficulties in China and WWI. All these topics are covered in the relatively short 262 page novel. The result is that all have a little airing, but none are looked into with the depth that they deserve. This unfortunately creates a shallowness that I'm sure wasn't intended, but is nonetheless apparent.
The friendship that sparks between Yung and Katherine would have been strictly forbidden by society and most probably unaccepted by friends and family. It doesn't feel plausible that they would have taken this risk for what doesn't come across as a particularly deep connection. They meet in secret, out of doors, and this also seems far too dangerous a risk to take for both of them.
This was an easy read and the language was at times beautiful. Wong is a poet and that was noticeable, but overall this book was detached and gloomy.
About the Author
Alison Wong was born and raised in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, after her great-grandparents on both sides migrated from China's Guangdong province in the 1890s. She studied mathematics and later creative writing at Victoria University in Wellington, worked in IT, and spent several years in China. In 2002 she held the Robert Burns Fellowship at Otago University. Her poetry collection Cup was shortlisted for Best First Book for Poetry at the 2007 Montana New Zealand Book Awards and her poetry was selected for Best New Zealand Poems 2006 and 2007. She lives in Wellington. As the Earth Turns Silver is her first novel.
About the Book
When Cousin Felicity hobbles and wobbles her way into the lives of Daniel and Sophie on Misty Point farm, all manner of dark mischief and mayhem ensues.
The day after Felicity's arrival, tragedy strikes the farm. Feathery friends lie dead and a killer is unaccounted for...Who can save the family and the farm? Brainy Daniel? Stroppy Sophie? Pouty Felicity? Slobbery Lucky?
Cousin Felicity and the Eels of Misty Point is a playful, suspenseful comedy thriller set in New Zealand, written with a wink toward Huck Finn and to be enjoyed under torchlight by MG (Middle Grade), YA (Young Adult) and FY (Forever Young) readers everywhere.
What I Think
This book is delightful and a real page-turner! There are many twists and turns in the tale and I didn't see them coming, which obviously added to the enjoyment of the book.
The illustrations are wonderful and really add to the overall pleasure of this book aimed primarily at youngsters, but can certainly be enjoyed by older readers too!
About the Author
Kaal Kaszmarek is a New Zealander with North Eastern European heritage and has recently discovered that his genetic roots date back to reindeer herders in Finland. He once hiked 280km through the Himalayas of Nepal. Currently he lives among the smoggy towers of Hong Kong and works in education for the British Council as a teacher, as well as being a co-ordinator of an education programme for refugees and asylum seekers. His late gran was a very popular (and politically incorrect) children's book writer and poet in New Zealand and he hopes that a smidgen of her cheek and charm has trickled down the family tree. Kaszmarek wrote Cousin Felicity and the Eels of Misty Point (available on Amazon US and Amazon UK) to try to recapture the magic of character-based books he read a child such as Huck Finn, Pippi Longstocking and Danny the Champion of the World.
He believes the Universe conspires to make things happen...sometimes.
About the Illustrator
Dee Densmore D'Amico is based in New York with a background in fashion illustration and a love for animals. Her work is whimsical & linear with an emphasis on pure color and exaggerated form & movement. Humor is also an important element. "If I chuckle while I'm sketching an image, I know I got it!" Her major influences are Picasso, Antonio Lopez, Hirschfeld, Erte and Dr. Suess. Her work has been published in many publications including The AKC Gazette, Modern Dog Magazine, Cosmopolitan and Women's Wear Daily. She has sketched in the design studios of various well known fashion designers, including Diane von Furstenberg.
