Everything Changes
by Stephanie Johnson
(Vintage, $36)
Stephanie Johnson once revealed her ambition to narrate a novel from the point of view of a dog. The dog in question was to be Kupe's and the journey was to be the legendary adventure that has shaped all our destinies. In Everything Changes, Johnson's
12th novel, the dog (though not Kupe's) at last gets his day.
When Muzza murders the neighbour's blue-eyed Himalayan cat, it soon becomes apparent that the cat's bloody demise is just one in a series of violent and troubling events in the novel and one of a long string of reprehensible acts for which there is little retribution - but little resolution either: every character in this novel drags behind them the dead weight of a life that they have not lived well.
Muzza's crime goes unpunished but the neighbourhood disapproves. Col, the dog's owner, persuades husband Davie they need to change addresses and alter the course of their unhappy life. With pregnant daughter Liv in tow, the couple buys a dilapidated motel and tearooms in the Brynderwyn Ranges. Col plans to transform it into "Skyreader's Retreat", a lucrative luxury getaway.
This move proves far from idyllic. An oppressive air of neglect and abandonment permeates their new home. Col and Davie have weathered 33 years of tumultuous marriage but the death of their disabled first-born son and the years of grief cushioned by drink and weed that followed have critically damaged the family dynamic. Muzza's protective custody of Col keeps her husband and daughter at bay.
