Poinciana

Jane Turner Goldsmith

Wakefield Press

Otago Daily Times, May 6th 2006

In Poinciana we follow French Australian Catheron Piron as she seeks to unravel the complexities of a family history that has been shrouded in mystery. Having been raised to think her father had died, she is angry and hurt to learn that this was a lie, and travels to Noumea (where he abandoned them) in an attempt to trace him. In the process she discovers she also has a brother, a half-caste raised by white farmers during the height of the Kanuk struggle for self- determination.

The wounds of that conflict still echo today, and her attempts to meet both his adoptive family and the tribe of his birth are far from simple, although her eventual success suggests reconciliation may be possible.

Catherine is a realistically complex character, and although she ultimately reaches a point where she can let the past go, the author does not compromise for the sake of an “easy” conclusion (at least until the last page).

Sadly, though, I felt there was something indefinable missing from this novel. It is interesting as a New Zealander to read about the colonial legacy of France and how it mirrors that of the British in our country, but I remained detached from the story — an interested spectator but ultimately unmoved.