Idea of Perfection (Grenville)

The Idea of Perfection
Kate Grenville, 1999
Penguin Group USA
401 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780142002858

In Brief  
Winner, 2001 Orange Prize for Fiction

Australian novelist Kate Grenville has won praise from readers and critics alike for her acute psychological portraits and her genius for portraying states of human feeling. In The Idea of Perfection, Grenville, winner of Britain's prestigious Orange Prize, brings her discerning knowledge of human strengths and frailties to bear upon a pair of unlikely soul mates. In the process, she offers an unforgettable study of the fragile structures of emotion that may either connect us to others or collapse without warning.

The Idea of Perfection is literally about a bridge: a fictitious wooden span near Karakarook in rural New South Wales. Known to the locals as Bent Bridge, it has been damaged, though not destroyed, by a mass of drifting timber that struck its central supports during a flood. Although apparently weakened, the bridge remains structurally viable, and it has become an object of fierce debate in the town. Should the bridge be saved as part of a campaign to preserve the region's heritage, or should it be torn down to make room for a more modern structure? This question divides the townsfolk yet brings together two newcomers to Karakarook—a man and a woman who yearn to build emotional bridges but fear that they lack the tools to do so.

Harley Savage, a tall, unfashionable woman with a love of folk artifacts, has come to Karakarook to help establish a heritage museum. Douglas Cheeseman, a large-eared, socially maladroit engineer, has been sent to supervise the demolition of Bent Bridge. Like the bridge, both have survived potentially crushing blows. He has been divorced. She has been divorced twice and, in a most devastating fashion, lost a third husband to suicide. Thus far, like the bridge, they have been bent but not broken, but their futures are very much in doubt. Meanwhile, a self-absorbed ex-model named Felicity Porcelline struggles to fend off middle age as she flirts with a Chinese butcher whose ethnic background both disturbs and intrigues her.

While aptly conveying the pain that comes with mature self-examination (as well as the consequences of failing to see oneself honestly), The Idea of Perfection never loses its gentle sense of irony and humor. Through Grenville's perceptive but uncondemning eyes, human failings are revealed as both funny and pathetically endearing. (From the publisher.)

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About the Author 

• Birth—October 14, 1950
• Where—Sydney, Australia
• Education—B.A. University of Sydney; M.A. University of   
   Colorado
• Awards—Vogel Award (Australia); Orange Prize;
   Commonwealth Writers Prize, Short-listed, Booker Prize
• Currently—lives in Sydney, Australia

Kate Grenville was born in Sydney, Australia. After completing an Arts degree at Sydney University she worked in the film industry (mainly as an editor) before living in the UK and Europe for several years and starting to write.

In 1980 she went to the USA and completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Colorado, where her teachers included Ron Sukenick, Robert Steiner and Steve Katz.

On her return to Australia in 1983 she worked at the Subtitling Unit for SBS Television. In 1984 her first book, a collection of stories—Bearded Ladies—was published.

Since then she's published six novels and four books about the writing process (one co-written with Sue Woolfe).

The Secret River (2005) has won many prizes, including the Commonwealth Prize for Literature and the Christina Stead Prize, and has been an international best-seller. (It also formed the basis for a Doctorate of Creative Arts from University of Technology, Sydney) The Idea of Perfection (2000) won the Orange Prize.

Her other works of fiction have been published to acclaim in Australia and overseas and have won state and national awards.  Much-loved novels such as Lilian's Story (1985), Dark Places (1995), and Joan Makes History (1988) have become classics, admired by critics and general readers alike.

Lilian's Story was filmed starring Ruth Cracknell, Toni Collette and Barry Otto. Dream House was filmed under the title Traps, starring Jacqueline MacKenzie.

Kate Grenville's novels have been widely published in translation, and her books about the writing process are used in many writing courses in schools and universities.

She lives in Sydney with her family. (From the author's website.)

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Critics Say . . . 
This fifth novel by Australian author Grenville (Lilian's Story, Joan Makes History) won Britain's prestigious Orange Prize last year and, at its best, it's easy to see why. It is an oddly uneven book, however, sometimes dazzlingly lyrical, compassionate and smart, but occasionally arch and rather clumsy. In the tiny backwater town of Karakarook, New South Wales, where everyone knows everyone else's business, two improbable outsiders fall very tentatively in love. Douglas Cheeseman is an engineer, sent to replace a historic bridge some townsfolk believe could be made into a tourist attraction. Museum curator Harley Savage has come from Sydney to create an exhibit of rural applied arts. The atmosphere of the town and the sunbaked, somnolent countryside is brilliantly rendered, and so, usually, are the prickly, deeply self-doubting lead characters; the use of a wonderfully observed dog as Harley's companion throughout is masterly. At other times, however, Grenville seems to be mocking her protagonists, as when Douglas is backed up to a fence by some cows, and the climactic scene, where he does something unwontedly brave, is forced. The subplot about a banker's self-regarding wife who allows herself to be seduced by a Chinese-born butcher is too coy by half. These elements are only disappointing because the book, when on target, is so remarkably clear-sighted about, yet fond of, its quirky characters. (Apr. 1) Forecast: The prize, noted on the cover, should certainly help to draw attention, and the book is readable and likable enough to earn good word of mouth. Admirers of Grenville's previous work are likely to be more critical.
Publishers Weekly

This fifth novel by renowned Australian author Grenville (Lilian's Story), winner of the Orange Prize, presents the story of two people, both divorced, who for differing reasons are residing temporarily in a small town in the Australian bush. How Douglas, an awkward engineer, and Harley, a plain, big-boned museum curator, meet up as well as connect with the townspeople they are to work with is described with a compassionate eye for human frailty. While unfolding the lives of Douglas and Harley, Grenville depicts the life of the town and some of its eccentric inhabitants, using an effective blend of humor, sensuality, and pathos. She nicely contrasts urban and rural living and shows how even those who work to preserve the historical past may themselves remain haunted by their own personal histories. Both Grenville's description of small-town life in a harsh and rugged environment and her endearing portrayal of the minds and hearts of two people make for a satisfying and memorable read. Recommended for most fiction collections. —Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ
Library Journal

Saving the picturesque Bent Bridge becomes both cause and catalyst for the most unlikely of love affairs when social outcasts Douglas Cheeseman and Harley Savage descend on a wayward village in the remote Australian outback.... Through...easily recognizable and universally human behaviors, Grenville rivals Proulx in perfectly marrying people to place in a richly textured, warmly wry portrait of quixotic characters longing for acceptance. —Carol Haggas
Booklist

There's a smile—if not an outright belly laugh-on every page of this delicious comic novel (winner of Britain's 2001 Orange Prize), the fifth from the Australian author (Albion's Story, 1994, etc.). The setting is the amiable little backwater of Karakarook in New South Wales, to which engineer Douglas Cheeseman is sent, to supervise the dismantling of the town's moribund landmark, the Bent Bridge. At the same time, Harley Savage, an irreversibly plain middle-aged woman who has left three husbands and as many sons behind her, arrives in Karakarook to help its Heritage Committee build a museum celebrating indigenous arts and crafts (Harley being a sometime curator, and an expert quilter). The tenuous, ineffably awkward relationship between Harley and Douglas is played out within a richly funny context of local folks and their doings, beginning when the two collide on the street, after which she inadvertently rescues him from an angry cow, their first "date" (for tea) leaves both with food poisoning, and they're forced to decision point when the good women of the Heritage Committee form a "blockade" against bulldozers aimed at the Bent Bridge. Meanwhile, the town banker's beautiful wife Felicity Porcelline finds herself helplessly attracted to Karakarook's Chinese butcher (and amateur photographer) Alfred Chang—with predictably disastrous seriocomic consequences. Grenville moves among their separate (and conjoined) stories with easy skill. The unfailingly delightful incidents dramatize the demolition of each major character's "idea of perfection": Felicity lives for physical beauty; Harley labors to subsume her vagrant "dangerous streak" into preservation of the environment and the past; Douglas worships the beauty of logical structures and the bountiful usefulness of concrete. All—including the stray dog that attaches itself to Harley—eventually discover the considerable pleasures of human (and animal) imperfection. Wonderful entertainment: a cockeyed romance that will have you cheering for all of these unlikely, wayward lovers.
Kirkus Reviews

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Book Club Discussion Questions 

1. Why does Grenville adopt different points of view to tell her story? How would the novel be different if it were narrated from only one perspective?

2. Grenville enjoys using the names of her characters to suggest aspects of their personalities. What meanings can be found in Pixie Appleby Harley Savage? In Felicity Porcelline? In other names in the novel?  

3. Grenville paints the stark, blighted landscape around Karakarook in very vivid terms, as if it were another key character in the novel. What is the relationship between the natural setting and the novel's human characters?  

4. Harley and Douglas are two city dwellers who feel out of place among the people of the town. At one point, Harley tells herself, "This was the bush and they did things differently here." What does the novel suggest about the kind of person who flourishes in an urban environment as opposed to a rural one?  

5. In her efforts to collect artifacts for the Karakarook Heritage Museum, Harley encourages the citizens of the town to bring out all their "old horrors." What effects do various kinds of "old horrors" have on the way Grenville's characters live their lives?  

6. Felicity Porcelline devotes enormous energy toward maintaining flawless appearances in her life. Why, then, does she seem to seek out a romantic liaison that, if discovered, will cause all her carefully stage-managed appearances to crumble?  

7. Felicity is attracted and repelled by Freddy Chang in almost equal measures. Is this attraction/repulsion credible? How does race enter into Felicity's emotions toward Freddy?  

8. The three characters whose thoughts we are permitted to know—Harley, Douglas, and Felicity—are all influenced by society's expectations about what a man or woman is supposed to be. For Harley and Douglas, the failure to fit a particular idea of gender role contributes to their status as outsiders. For Felicity, fitting the mold has become an obsession. Does Felicity's conformity make her any happier than Harley or Douglas? If so, why? If not, why not?  

9. It can be argued that a person's failings and self-criticisms engage sympathy only up to a point, after which we are more likely to feel annoyance and frustration. As you read the novel, did your feelings toward Harley and Douglas ever change in this way? Did your feelings toward them evolve in any other way? Do you think you were always responding to them as the author intended?  

10. Harley regards herself as having a "dangerous streak," and this sense of herself discourages her from seeking friendship and love. Is there anything really dangerous about Harley? If so, how would you describe her dangerousness?  

11. Both Harley and Douglas had famous fathers. How does this fact influence the life of each?  

12. Grenville's novel presents the reader with a host of symbols, including the bridge, Harley's heart trouble, and the dog that will never leave her alone. Which of the novel's symbols seem most important to you, and why?  

13. Is The Idea of Perfection really about the idea of perfection? What has it made you think about what perfection means and how the idea of perfection influences our attitudes and choices?
(Questions issued by publisher.)

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