Music from a Distant Room, the latest novel from last year''s Montana Fiction Prize winner, starts rather bleakly with a
funeral.
Death seems to be a bit of a theme with these New Zealand novels. A grim lot, we must be.
Initially set in Auckland in the 60''s, Nola is a young attractive dental nurse, and in a complicated series of events, gives birth to a love child, Carl who is tragically born
blind. The funeral at the start of the book is his. Forty years later, Carl had become a successful jazz musician in the US and has died under mysterious circumstances. Nola is telling the story of Carl''s early life to his black American lover, Tamara, who is also blind. Nola is eager to hear Tamara''s story of how Carl actually died .Tamara was present at the death but being blind remained unaware of some important visual clues. They hope by sharing their stories that they will help solve the mystery of his life and death.
Johnson excels at creating a place and a time in her novels. Auckland in the 60s is presented with nostalgia and fond detail. Her visual descriptions are vivid and strong, perhaps enhanced in this novel by the number of blind characters.
Some of the plot becomes a little contrived due to the mechanics of the two characters telling the story, and as a result the strength of the characters are diminished. The plot revolves around an interesting and challenging premise, but is never cohesive enough to truly hold this reader. I don''t think this is up to the standard of some of Johnson''s past work : the Montana winning Shag Incident or her earlier Belief , but it does make for a satisfactory, if not compelling, read.