WEARING PAPER DRESSES by Anne Brinsden

On GoodReads I gave this 2 out of 5 stars - 'it was OK' is what 2 stars mean. I feel ungrateful giving anything less than 3 which means 'I liked it'. But really that is all it was for me - 2stars. So why?  The blurb, as another GoodReads reviewer says, has so much going for it. 1950s Australia - glamorous, cultural and urbane opera singer Elise from Melbourne falls wildly in love with Bill, whose family owns a farm out in the middle of nowhere. Bill is a reluctant farmer and is very happy to live in the big smoke away from the dry hot climate, the impossible soil, the demands and expectations of his family, the small-mindedness of the locals. They marry, have two children - Ruby and Marjorie - the latter is the narrator. Life is great until Bill is required back at the farm. You can see this is not going to end well for Elise and Bill - the urban and rural existences just completely incompatible. Elise is a complete and total misfit, unable in any way at all to adjust to her new life and the expectations made of her as a farmer's wife. The two girls are left to fend for themselves as their mother's mental health deteriorates, and she falls apart. A tragedy occurs which rips the family apart, resulting in Marjorie running away to Melbourne where she lives with an aunt and attempts to start her life over. Her one escape while growing up on the farm is a school mate whose own home life is pretty awful too. Together these two find refuge, solace and comfort in each other, but even this is not enough to help Marjorie deal with disaster when it strikes. 

So great plot as you can see, plenty of scope. But it took a very long time for much of this to happen. The tragedy, when it finally occurs, is two thirds of the way through the book, when my eyes are beginning to glaze over because nothing continues to happen. With Marjorie and Ruby increasingly out of their depth dealing with their obviously seriously ill mother, and her husband and other family seemingly incapable of getting help for her, the constant judging and gossip from the locals - it is all just hopeless and went on for far too long. Fortunately our minds and eyes are bigger and open wider now, and I would like to think that a woman so out of place and her children would get the help and support so desperately needed. And that people would stop being so judgemental.

By the ending, things have resolved themselves to some extent, although plenty of internal agonising to get there. Time has softened the edges of tragedy and trauma. But I did wonder, as things were on the up, if this was likely to be a permanent thing. My heart tells me Marjorie may end up going down the same path as her mother...