Book Review: Utopian Man

Book cover of Utopian Man. Photo / Supplied

Utopian Man by Lisa Lang
Allen & Unwin $28.99

Every city can lay claim to its fair share of eccentrics. This book is about one of Melbourne's: Edward William Cole. Cole did many bizarre and entertaining things in his life - advertising for a wife, selling lemonade at the gold fields, and opening a book arcade fully equipped with live monkeys and a Chinese tea salon. Any one of these events would make for a good old-fashioned Aussie yarn - why then, does this award-winning book struggle to engage the reader and keep them hooked?

We first meet Cole on the day of the Melbourne Cup, 1883. But he is not at the track, he is opening the doors to his book arcade, hoping to rope in some "happy" punters on their way home from the races. It is, of course, a huge success - business booms. Each dollar earned, however, is inexplicably linked to the gold fields and his old partner, Lucky Cho. Something happened all those years ago and it still haunts Cole to his core.

And while Cho works on him psychologically, the alluring widow Joy Endicott works on him physically. She befriends Cole's wife shortly after her own husband's self-inflicted demise, offering support after the death of Cole's daughter and integrates herself into their family life, much to his increasing anxiety.

We bear witness to the ups and downs of Cole's life. We watch his business expand and grow, his young family mature, listen to him ruminate about Cho, and chuckle at his many escapes from the joyless Joy - until his death in 1918.

Lang's decision to select a series of crisis points, drawn from the man's entire working life, rather than a single crucial event, means the novel reads like a collection of interlinked short stories.

Thankfully, though, Lang is a talented writer with a gift for description. So, while the story might feel a little disjointed, at least the prose is smooth, multilayered and well-polished.

Cole was indeed an interesting person. Unfortunately, Lang was unable to bring out the best in him on the page. Cole seemed hampered by the scope of the work, perhaps preferring life outside the margins to being trapped in one of the books he so loved to sell.

Steve Scott is an Auckland reviewer.