The Still Point

Synopsis: At the turn of the twentieth century, Arctic explorer Edward Mackley sets out to reach the North Pole and vanishes into the icy landscape without a trace. He leaves behind a young wife, Emily, who awaits his return for decades, her dreams and devotion gradually freezing into rigid widowhood. A hundred years later, on a sweltering mid-summer's day, Edward's great-grand-niece Julia moves through the old family house, attempting to impose some order on the clutter of inherited belongings and memories from that ill-fated expedition, and taking care to ignore the deepening cracks within her own marriage. But as afternoon turns into evening, Julia makes a discovery that splinters her long-held image of Edward and Emily's romance, and her husband Simon faces a precipitous choice that will decide the future of their relationship. Sharply observed and deeply engaging, "The Still Point" is a powerful literary debut, and a moving meditation on the distances - geographical and emotional - that can exist between two people.

Review: The story takes a day in the life of married couple, Julia and Simon, and juxtaposes it with a detailed account of Julia's great-great uncle, Edward Mackley, who was an Arctic explorer. The house that Julia and Simon now live in is the crumbling old ancestral home and it's stuffed full of ancient photographs, taxidermy and memorabilia including the diaries and ships log from Edwards ill fated attempt to reach the North pole. The story is legendary amongst the family, Julia and her sister Miranda loved hearing stories about the expedition when they were little (with the unsuitable bits taken out) and now Julia is attempting to archive the collection and make sense of the last few years, months and weeks of Edwards life.

When Edward set off in 1899 he was a new bridegroom, his bride Emily sailed with him as far as she could as part of their honeymoon, and then returned home to wait for his triumphant return. We follow Edward, his crew and the dogs as they make their way towards the North pole on board the Persephone. Along with Julia, we read Edwards diary entries which are at first wide eyed with wonder and full of hope of a triumphant return to Emily but becoming more and more despondent as he and the crew, having abandoned their quest, track through icy inhospitable wastes trying to find their way back to Franz Josef Land where they may be able to overwinter at Cape Flora. His diary entries at the end were incredibly moving as the crew gradually descend into abandoned polar expedition hell. They become lost, starved, ravaged, disabled, desperate and, in some cases, mad. In the end death is almost welcomed. Then there is Emily, unaware of the real situation, waiting, waiting, waiting for her beloved husband's return, haunted by nightmares of his frostbitten blackened features and gripped by fear.

Although nothing has been openly discussed, Julia and Simon's marriage is in danger. Julia is a a bit of a dreamer, locked in the past and struggling to be the sort of wife that she perceives Simon wants, and Simon, frustrated and irked by her, is one step away from doing something that will probably kill the marriage stone dead. A visitor also brings some news to Julia that challenges all of her pre-conceived notions about Edward and Emily's relationship and throws her into a state of insecurity.

One of the things I liked most about it was the mixture of Julia and Simon's sultry hot day which just builds and builds, stormlike, along with the tension between them, and Edwards icy Arctic conditions. It worked really well. Julia is the sort of free spirited, dreamy, cool, ethereal, beautiful-but-doesn't-know-it, looks-good-in-a-bin-bag, sensitive soul that would normally make you hate her immediately, somehow I didn't, but I did prefer the passages about Edward and Emily. It's skillfully written and beautifully descriptive, I thought at first overly so but soon came to appreciate her use of language.

Beautiful cover too, like paper cuttings.