Humming

Rachel McAlpine

Hazard Press

Otago Daily Times, June 16th 2005

How does one review a well-written book when one dislikes the main characters? This is exactly the problem I have with Rachel McAlpine’s novel Humming.

Set in the small Golden Bay community of Petiport, the story centres around three distinct and contrasting individuals. Ivan is a successful artist in the best tradition of the prima donna, and, at the age of 50 going on 2, considers the world exists only for his benefit. Unfortunately, something seems to be conspiring against him — he is plagued by an inexplicable, low-frequency humming. Possible explanations range from electromagnetic radiation to God speaking very slowly, but whatever the cause, nothing seems to stop it. And to top it all off, he is bored in both his work and his relationship with Jane, the owner of the Saltwater Cafe.

Jane, by contrast, has an innocent joy in life and people that borders on naivety (to the extent it is hard to believe she runs a very successful cafe) and panders unquestioningly to Ivan’s constant demands.

And then there is Xania, who has just returned from studying Tai Chi at the Inner Harmony Institute in Argentina. She is on a mission to help others — whether they want it or not, but, unlike Jane (whose selflessness seems entirely instinctual), Xania is driven by a constant hunger for love and reverence from those around her. She arrives in Petiport determined to make improvements to the spiritual health of the country, and sets about reinvigorating the local Tai Chi club and raising funds to establish a New Zealand branch of Inner Harmony. Not all her money-making schemes are legal, and she has no scruples when it comes to manipulating other people to achieve her own ends. When she decides Ivan could be very useful both emotionally and financially, the disruption she creates changes everybody’s lives, and not always in a good way.

All three are drawn in bold, primary colours, and their child-like, almost archetypal personalities lend Humming an air of fairytale. This allows the author to address issues surrounding spiritual fulfilment and what it means to choose to be (or not to be) happy without becoming didactic.

Unfortunately, this quality also left me frustrated. I lost patience with the self-absorption of both Ivan and Xania very rapidly, although Jane (the only likeable one of them) does develop an insight and maturity that fleshes out her character in a relatively satisfying way.

This probably reflects McAlpine’s skills as a writer — after all, I believed in and cared about Ivan and Xania enough to find them irritating — and I don’t want to be unfairly critical. The narrative voice is light and witty, many of the situations genuinely funny (particularly Ivan’s attempts to stop the hum), and the Golden Bay setting richly evocative. I finished strangely dissatisfied, however, as if I’d had a snack when I wanted a feast.