The blurb doesn't suggest this, but Richard Rossiter's novel Refuge turned out to be an absorbing exploration of the tension between taking responsibility for the past and getting bogged down in histories, both personal and cultural.

This is a multi-layered, multi-perspective novel with settings in different places and timescales, so it demands attention if the reader is not to lose the connections between multiple characters and sub-plots. However, it was Quentin and Greta interested me most. Both were people who chose to live in the peace and isolation of the coast, and neither could achieve it. Perhaps it isn't possible to disconnect entirely any more...

Tinny is a single parent to his sons because his wife Prue a.k.a. Peaches left them to 'find herself'. (Her names symbolise the tension between being responsible Prudence and playful Peaches.) To join the counselling/wellness industry she had to have counselling herself, and since deserting the family has had little or no contact with the boys until they are teenagers...

Tinny, understandably since he's done the hard yards, is a bit resentful when the boys become warily interested in developing a relationship with their mother. Talking about it with the boys, he explains that her therapy helped her discover things about herself, and how her role as peacemaker limited her own control of her life. But when asked if he might need a counsellor himself (because he does have some odd behaviours), he rejects the idea, betraying the resentment he still feels about her leaving them:

'All I know is that I feel happy living here with you boys. Maybe I have problems that I don't know about—they're not problems. You see, Peaches was okay too, until she discovered she had problems. Then she wasn't okay and needed counselling and therapy and support groups and a special diet and some happy pills just to make her feel like used to feel, before she found herself. Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?' (p.90)

Tinny believes that counsellors create a need for counselling.

They talk to people about being fulfilled, how they're not as happy as they could be, how they have problems they didn't know about, and they talk to their friends and neighbours, and they talk to other people and soon everyone thinks they have these problems that they need to see a counsellor about and so the counsellor has lots of work. It spreads like smoke through the bush—you can see and smell it even if the fire's a hundred kilometres away. It starts somewhere and then keeps going, depending on the wind. Stories about what you need get carried along, like the smoke does. (p.91)

He's more than a little cynical about it, eh?

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/02/15/refuge-2019-by-richard-rossiter/ ( )