'The Minister's Wife' by Anne Berzel

I'm choosing this book for the historical fiction category of my 2025 Aussie Book Challenge. It's quite an oldie, having been published back in 1995, but a beauty. Sadly, it appears to be obscure, since my review will be the first left on Goodreads. Hopefully there are still copies floating around, because I highly recommend it. 

MY THOUGHTS: 

This selection for my Aussie Book Challenge is actually a re-read from my long-ago past. I bought it and loved it back in 1995 when it was first published, and lent it around to my mother, mother-in-law and sisters-in-law, who all loved it too. Now 30 years later, I was curious to read it again to see if it stands up to our enthusiasm.

The novel is set in the lovely rural towns around my state's south east; Mount Gambier, Penola, and Millicent. It's a double-generation story, beginning in the tail end of the nineteenth century and taking us just beyond WW1. Interestingly, an all-day-long working bee involving the whole town in 1917 Mt Gambier takes place within the story, a true, historical event I read about on a plaque overlooking the Blue Lake during a recent visit there. 

First off, Sarah Wetherby's fiance has been killed in an accident, and along with raw grief, she's in a pickle because she's pregnant. Matt Randall, a bitter family outcast estranged from his ex-lover, proposes to Sarah from expediency and sour grapes, and Sarah accepts through desperation. Nothing quite like a good marriage of convenience yarn when it's well done, which this is. Sarah often delivers funny and merciless one-liners, which she continues to aim at Matt even after she falls madly in love with him. 

Okay, so that's Part One.

Sarah's baby is Annabel, who grows up to find herself in a horrifying predicament. Annabel is eager to marry her boyfriend, golden haired Gerald Wilkinson, the young minister. She's an idealistic girl who longs to tick off brownie points in heaven. Yet when the young couple arrives at their new parish miles from home, Gerald quickly proves himself to be the husband from hell; the sort of fanatical jerk who considers emotional abuse to be responsible stewardship. 

The truth slowly dawns on Hayden MacArthur, a fellow minister who's sent to board with the Wilkinson couple. Hayden can't help getting drawn in to become more than an impartial houseguest, which makes him deeply assess the depth of his own theology. 

All characterisation is insightful and finely nuanced. Although he's clearly the anti-hero, Gerald is vulnerable, wretched, and impossible to completely detest (although I came close). He comes across as a particularly demented St. John Rivers from Jane Eyre, right down to the good looks.   

The church, more so than modern times, is the community hub, and any show of devout support earns a person business success and social standing. This makes country neighbourhoods ripe for whitewashing, hypocrisy, and inflexibility. But rather than being too intense, this book is a great read. The plot points are unpredictable, good characters can't be kept down, and all happiness is hard-earned, thus truly memorable.

All up, it's great to get through another great Aussie story with details such as blistering hot Christmases and shimmering clouds of cockatoos rising out of paddocks and fields. I wish the elusive Anne Berzel had written other books, or at least come forth to introduce herself to others of us in the same country, and with the same literary pursuits. I wonder if the name is a pseudonym, because when I look her up, I can't find her anywhere. 

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

'Elizabeth and her German Garden' by Elizabeth Von Arnim

I discovered this vintage hardcover at a secondhand shop. I wasn't enchanted by The Enchanted April, Von Arnim's runaway bestseller from 1922, but thought this earlier title from 1898 might hit the spot. 

MY THOUGHTS:

 Here is a lovely vintage book for the introvert population written in a series of diary entries.

It is the late nineteenth century. Elizabeth is a young aristocratic woman whose passion project is working in the extensive garden of their secluded country manor. After years of trying to fit in with the world she sees around her, she's astounded to find that a quiet lifestyle puttering away at home, far from the social climbing and drama, suits her to a tee. Now Elizabeth's only aim is to make up for precious time she lost when she kowtowed to the expectations of others, tried to put on an impressive face and cared what people thought of her.

Brushes with others involve assuring them that she is genuinely happy tucked away, for human nature being what it is, they insist in believing that her lifestyle must be desolate and grim for her, since it would be for them. 

However, certain times of the year bring inevitable house guests. During the time period this book covers, Elizabeth finds herself hostess to two other young women. One is Irais, another burned out wife of society whose wit tends to be cynical. Even though Elizabeth likes her a lot, anyone's company tends to be draining in long doses. The other guest is Minora, a simplistic girl who aims to write a book of impressions without a clue that her observations tend to be of the skimming, shallow type. Elizabeth records her own experiments of standing back and letting Irais and Minora clash. 

Elizabeth has three little daughters; the April baby, the May baby, and the June baby. She also has a supercilious husband who she calls the Man of Wrath, and never gives the impression that she's madly in love with him, although there are certainly worse fellows to be found. He reveals himself as a chauvinistic grouch who considers himself a philosopher and remarks that women never speak a word worth listening to, as far as he's ever heard. With the wonderful influence of her restorative garden, Elizabeth doesn't let the Man of Wrath get her down. She's strong enough in herself not to let him.   

'What a happy woman I am living in a garden, with books, babies, birds, and flowers, and plenty of leisure to enjoy them! Yet my town acquaintances look upon it as imprisonment and burying, and I don't know what besides. Sometimes I feel as if I were blest above all my fellows in being able to find my happiness so easily.'

That's my main takeaway from this book. Elizabeth, whose philosophy is far wiser and easier to swallow than her husband's, thrives with the same simple resources at her fingertips as those available to me. She doesn't aim to extend her reach, become any smarter, or embark on any self-improvement program. After several tiring years, she's decided she has nothing to prove. She's one of those refreshing people whose thoughts serve as course corrections, if we're willing for them to be.  

Here's to books, flowers, bird song, cats, hot drinks, leisurely walks, and many other good things. 

🌟🌟🌟🌟½