cover image COLDWATER

COLDWATER

Mardi McConnochie, . . Doubleday, $24.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-385-50260-3

Three sisters named Charlotte, Emily and Anne have literary aspirations in Australian writer McConnochie's intriguing but overwrought first novel. In this scenario, however, the family name is not Brontë, but Wolf, and they live far from the Yorkshire moors, in Coldwater, a penal colony off the coast of Australia, where their father reigns as an enlightened dictator. Well educated and graced with a philosophic turn of mind, Capt. Edward Wolf is nonetheless capable of inflicting brutal punishments on the prisoners and behaving in tyrannical fashion toward his daughters. By 1847, when the narrative begins, the family has lived on Coldwater for eight years. To relieve their boredom and in hopes of earning an income, the sisters decide to write novels, an undertaking that coincides with the arrival of a brooding, enigmatic Irish convict. When Capt. Wolf appoints Finn O'Connell as his valet, bringing him into the family cottage, the sexually charged atmosphere is inevitable. Charlotte serves as the principal narrator of the novel, providing a blunt, tart perspective on events and engaging the reader with her pragmatic attitude and loyalty to her family. Ultra-sensitive Emily's breathless, tormented musings reflect her volatile mental state; Anne's thoughts are rendered third person, as are her father's journals, in which he records his theories of prison management. After he forbids his daughters to continue their own writing, blaming the "pernicious rubbish" of romances for their untrustworthy behavior, he slips into madness, raving about betrayal and conspiracies. When Anne encounters a mysterious man who then involves her in a prison uprising, the novel slips into melodrama, culminating in prison revolts and considerable angst acted out near cliffs and roiling seas. McConnochie's attempt at imaginative Brontë revisionism has some commendable aspects, notably her depiction of the siblings' different personalities, but the narrative founders in the character of Capt. Wolf, whose behavior is enigmatic throughout. (Aug.)