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Still Waters (Camilla Noli, Orion, $24.99 pb, April) **

In the suburbs, a once-successful career woman is unhappy in her full-time role as wife and mother. With her control slipping away and motherhood consuming her she becomes a danger to those close to her. Such is the premise of Camilla Noli’s debut novel, Still Waters. Novels written in the first person, present tense (as Still Waters is) are difficult—but not impossible—to execute well. Unless the author is particularly adept at crafting the written word there can be a tendency for this style of writing to lapse
into pages of tedious and repetitive self-conscious moments that jar and get in the way of an otherwise good story. This happens often in Still Waters. It may have been Noli’s intention to use this style to reflect her protagonist’s daily tedium and dissatisfaction but this isn’t always clear, as the writing, replete with oft clunky dialogue and numerous clichés, isn’t quite up to the task. It’s unfortunate, as Noli has tackled some confronting and difficult issues in this novel. That said; there is sufficient entertainment value in this story to appeal to—but hopefully not inspire—disgruntled mothers everywhere. This is one for the mum-lit shelves.

Deborah Crabtree is a Melbourne-based fiction writer and bookseller

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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