cover image OUR FATHER WHO ART IN A TREE

OUR FATHER WHO ART IN A TREE

Judy Pascoe, . . Random, $21.95 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-375-50799-1

A 10-year-old girl in suburban Australia finds a unique way of coping with her father's death in this brief, fairy tale–like coming-of-age story. When Simone's father finally succumbs to a lifelong heart condition, her mother is consumed by grief, and her brothers, two older and one younger, are either too preoccupied with their studies or too young to be of any comfort to their sister. Desperately seeking solace, she climbs into the huge poinciana tree looming over their house, and suddenly her long-held suspicions ("If you climbed high enough in the tree in our backyard you came to another world") are confirmed when she hears her father's voice in the highest branches. Hoping it will alleviate her grief, Simone tells her mother of this discovery and persuades her to climb the tree, where she can soon be heard talking and laughing and then shouting and crying. The presence in the tree is a mixed blessing: it makes the loss less complete, but also prevents the family from moving on. Pascoe tells the story from Simone's baffled perspective, but fails to develop the other characters enough to fill in the picture. The strongest presence in the book is that of the tree itself, whose roots and branches wreak such havoc on the house that it becomes clear the family will have to choose between the two. The choice is made for them when a furious typhoon ends the summer-long drought, felling the mighty tree. The family emerges battered but intact, later in life pausing occasionally to remember the strange time when their father's spirit lingered in their troublesome tree. The sentiments expressed are heartfelt, but the novel, its wonderful title notwithstanding, stalls somewhere between vernacular parable and quirky family drama. (Feb. 11)