Every now and then a book sneaks into my reading pile that absolutely and utterly defies this reader's ability to describe it, the affect it had, and the experience of reading it. A NEW NAME FOR THE COLOUR BLUE was simply amazing. Beautiful, moving, haunting, fragile and deceptive: actually deceptive doesn't cut it, sneaky is better, in a good, clever and enlightening way. Incredibly sneaky in the way it weaves a tale of domestic violence, of control and expectation, grief, abandonment, and the pain of growing up and away from family; into the slide into acceptance of the past and how to craft a future.

There is steel wrapped up in gentleness here, as Cassie Noble, works out who she is, and what she wants her life to become. A drawing she made of a childhood friend is her most treasured possession, her ability to connect with close female friends a way forward when things are at their darkest. A country girl who moved to Adelaide, there's a secret in Cassie's past that she doesn't quite understand, but the move home to nurse her dying father in his last days, is the trigger she uses to work it out.

Instead you end up with a complicated exploration of domestic violence and misogyny, indigenous rights, childhood memories, grief, animal cruelty and relationships. There is a lot of ground covered, but it's beautifully, precisely done, no wasted words, no dwelt on evil, always accentuating the search for understanding, meaning, acceptance and place.

It's taken such a long time to get something vaguely coherent written down about A NEW NAME FOR THE COLOUR BLUE, the reading of which had so many returns to passages that were simply breathtaking. I just don't have the skill to write about this book in terms that are meaningful enough, but it's been many many years since I've read and re-read sentences in this manner, more years since I've stared off into space thinking about a passage, and quite a while since I sat up nearly all night reading a book that tweaked something deep inside in the way that this book did.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/new-name-colour-blue-annette-marner ( )

Trigger warning: this review is about a book that explores domestic violence and child abuse.
There are spoilers too.
I didn't intend to read this book. Back in February I had emailed the publicist to tell her so because "I am tired of reading about violence, whether it’s DV or child abuse, or sexual abuse. It’s not the quality of the writing that’s an issue for me, it’s the normalisation of violence as a staple of Australian publishing". I was very pleased when Jock Serong won the inaugural Staunch Award for a thriller without violence against women, and I am in sympathy with the aims of the award, see here.

However...

Late last night I stayed up late watching a ridiculous BBC series called Banished via QuikFlix. It's about the very early days of First Settlement and it stars David Wenham faking an upper-class English accent as Governor Arthur Phillip. The plot lines are absurd, but its saving grace is that it has a very attractive cast, all the eye candy having spectacularly good teeth under the circumstances. By the time I went to bed with the book, I had forgotten about what I had read six weeks ago in the press release about the author's journey for A New Name for the Colour Blue. A quick look at the back cover blurb didn't enlighten me.

Marner writes beautifully, and I was soon drawn into the story of the artist Cassandra Noble in Adelaide, and her delighted discovery of the man of her dreams, Stephen. I was intrigued by Cassandra's memory of a childhood friend who disappeared from her life. But my heart sank when I read the exchange on the drive home from a dinner party with friends:

I drive us back to the city. His fingers stroke my neck as we descend from the dark hills to the frieze of white lights below. Each light is a home. As if a home and family is not a rare and precious thing, but ordinary and abundant like she-oaks. Like galahs.
'You never told me you could paint like that.'
'Because I can't. Not anymore.'
His hand on my neck shape-shifts into a fist. He brushes my cheek with his knuckles.
'You should have told me, Cassandra,' he says. 'You made me look like a fool in front of my friends.'
A moth explodes as it hits the windscreen. I switch on my wipers. For a moment, I cannot see where I am going.
'I'm really sorry, Stephen.' (p.9)

I knew then where the story was going to go, and I put the book aside.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/04/09/a-new-name-for-the-colour-blue-by-annette-ma...
Please note that I have rated this book 4 stars even though I didn't like reading it because of the quality of the writing. ( )