Signs of Life

I read this over two days as it was fairly un-put-down-able. Most of the stories are linked by the characters of Bette, whose home of many years is condemned after the Christchurch earthquake of 2011, her daughter Bronwyn, her granddaughter, Flick and some other relatives.

There are also some stand alone stories. But they all focus on the long lasting damage that the earthquakes created, both physically and mentally.

Amy Head writes so well about place and time, she creates characters quickly but they are real, they matter, they are human, flawed and brave and funny and sad. She has a gift for a turn of phrase that encapsulates a moment: two examples: "Flick's hair was thick and curly. there was a green clip in it doing nothing, holding on for dear life." p.13 Biographical details. "They turned off the state highway at the old pub and into the bulb of the cul-de-sac..." p.36. Emergency Procedures. The stories are lightly connected by people trying to negotiate a changed Christchurch, and over the stories we follow some characters, in particular Flick, Bette's granddaughter.

The first story, Biographical Details, is about Bette now living in a unit with a shipping container in the front of it. Christchurch became renowned for using these containers for everything, including popup shops, for years after the quakes. There are lovely ideas told in short lines of beautiful description. And we first meet Flick and are shown the unsettled relationship she is in. The last story, Leap, is back at Bette's house, still empty because of insurance hassles, a major scandal for people trying to move on from red listed homes. But Flick finds a tidy squatter living there when she goes to check on the home she remembers from her childhood. And the final lines finds the little group in a darkened house coping with another huge earthquake. The Kaikoura one??

Amy Head shows that when people live through a life changing trauma, it affects their view of the world. In one story, Someone to Heart-Emoji, about online dating for older people, the man starts telling a story that horrifies the woman. He seems to have no idea that talking about animals caught in collapsing earth would inevitably bring back memories of February 2011.So there is a progression over the stories that the reader follows by understanding what has happened to these people. This was an excellent read because of the deftness of writing and the character formations.

Diane Warrington
Library Patron