Laurence Fearnley: In praise of Kiwi prose

Laurence Fearnley's work is exquisite: her writing is poetic and honest. Photo / Supplied

This Southern talent deserves loud, local applause, says Nicky Pellegrino.

There has been some debate recently about why international titles continue to outsell local fiction in New Zealand. In truth, it may be an unfair comparison. It's not that there's a shortage of good writing here, but a home-grown novel doesn't have a show of competing against a juggernaut like the Stieg Larsson trilogy or the latest Jodi Picoult, no matter how wonderful it is.

Winning a literary award is one of the things that authors and publishers hope will strengthen a book's sales. In the spirit of helping that process along, I decided this week I'd focus on recent NZ Post Fiction Award winner The Hut Builder by Laurence Fearnley (Penguin, $40).

Fearnley is a South Island author who in the past hasn't drawn the same attention as shinier, grabbier Auckland writers. Her work is exquisite and she deserves this accolade. But does the book have what it takes to be popular with readers?

The Hut Builder is about the making of a poet. Boden Black is a butcher's son growing up in post-war Fairlie. His family is "lopsided with sorrow" as a result of his older twin brothers dying in the sinking of a Navy vessel. Boden is all that his parents have left and yet, desperate to escape the suffocating grief of the household, he moves in with a neighbouring family. It's on a trip with them to the Mackenzie Basin that he has an epiphany, feeling the first stirrings of poetry as he struggles to find words powerful enough to describe the beauty of what he sees.

Boden grows up to join the family business, but all the most vital moments in his life are connected to this landscape, in particular the period spent helping a group of mountaineers build a hut up on Mt Cook. Trapped by storms in an ice cave in the company of the enigmatic Walter, he has a coming-of-age both as a man and a poet. A terrifying climb to the Middle Peak in the company of Edmund Hillary and Harry Ayres leads him to compose a poem called Three Days At Least that later becomes a famous Kiwi classic. But despite his agility with words, Boden remains an emotionally reserved man locked into the life ordained for him.

Much about this book is terrific. The first chapter is a cracker, tautly and brilliantly written. The weaving of real-life figures into the fictional narrative is seamless. The whole story sings with Fearnley's great love for the places it's set, for the vast plains of tussock, the high peaks and hilltops, the land and the sky. Her writing is poetic and honest, the character of Boden an interesting creation. And in parts it's an extremely poignant story - in particular those concerning Boden's relationship with his father and his unsettling discoveries about his past.

With some local fiction - while it may be beautifully crafted and thoughtful - I do get the sense it's been written for the pleasure and indulgence of the author rather than the reader and perhaps that could be a reason we tend to buy less of it. But I never got that feeling with The Hut Builder. Clearly Fearnley has savoured writing it but she hasn't shut out the reader in the process.

It's a compelling story woven around fragments of our mountaineering history, reflecting its author's own love of words and all they can express. I hope the NZ Post fiction award helps it find all the readers that it deserves.