cover image Rain

Rain

Leigh K. Cunningham. Vivante Publishing (www.leighkcunningham.com), $12.95 trade paper (316p) ISBN 978-981-08-8280-8

The Wallins are a wealthy and influential family in the small Australian town of Maine. After eldest daughter Helena marries Michael Baden, a local boy from the wrong side of the tracks, things begin to go poorly for the Wallin family. The mill that is their livelihood burns down in a fire; the insurance that should have protected them was never mailed; and the family loses everything. This tragedy is followed by more sorrow: death, dementia, adultery, drug use, more death, rape, and cancer. Cunningham%E2%80%99s sprawling epic covers four decades and three generations. However, the book%E2%80%99s many characters never prove particularly interesting. Horrible things happen to them, but they don%E2%80%99t rise to the occasion or even fail in dramatic ways. Cunningham%E2%80%99s prose is also unnecessarily flowery and descriptive, qualities that don%E2%80%99t mesh with the starkness of her narrative. Overall, this is a slow slog of a tale, and readers will wonder why they bothered.