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| | Issue #19.50 :: 07/09/2008 - 07/15/2008 | "Without a Backward Glance"
By Kate Veitch
| BY J. EDWARD SUMERAU
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"Without a Backward Glance"
By Kate Veitch
AUGUSTA, GA - With an amazing talent for crafting a delicate balance of depth, complexity, and intricate forms of universal themes, the debut novel by Kate Veitch, “Without a Backward Glance," is a truly profound creation of inspired craftsmanship.
A columnist whose appeared regularly in The Sydney Morning Herald and Vogue Australia, Kate Veitch is no stranger to the dedicated work the written word demands. Having gained notice by producing the series on women writers called “Their Brilliant Careers," Veitch has long possessed a powerful voice that she is just now turning to the fictional world. A woman who divides her time between the lights of New York City and the beauty of rural Australia, Veitch offers characters polished with all the complexity of real people across the world.
Veitch begins in the modern lives of children who have grown up without a mother. On Christmas Eve 1967, the mother of the family changed the course of life for all involved by leaving without any warning, and throughout the years since the children have built their lives upon a shaky foundation plagued by the simple one-syllable question: why? Visiting the grown versions of them, Veitch does a masterful job of crafting distinct personalities, tones, voices, and lives for the four siblings while intertwining there shared scars within a framework of coping.
Despite the pain of the event that Christmas Eve, Veitch’s true power comes from her ability to avoid telling the expected story surrounding the immediate trauma of a motherless life, and in so doing, she is able to focus on the diverse range of directions that arise as a result of such trauma. In this regard, she paints five (four children and one father) portraits of what can happen as a result of abandonment, which allows for a vivid display of the complexity and frustration that surrounds such a profound betrayal.
While the heart-pulling majesty of the story arises from the mother leaving her children in search of her own desires, the pure beauty of the novel can be found in the multifaceted treatment of life in the real world. The women of this novel are not simple cutouts; they possess all the desires, intellects, and complexities of real women. Furthermore, the use of different tones and colored vernacular provides an expanse of realism in the creation of characters that allows a reader to actually latch on to the story in an emotional manner.
Finally, the author refuses to fall into the trap so often encountered in early works of fiction, she avoids tying things together neatly, and in so doing, she opens wounds, works through the pain, and allows the characters the chance to grow throughout the story beyond the pages. Rather than placing order upon the chaos of traumatic feeling, she imposes a descriptive touch upon the story by recounting episodes without clear resolution in an honest, direct manner.
Approaching the profound impact of abandonment on the life of a child from diverse angles, enlisting a talented dexterity in her narrative, and crafting a spell-binding series of events, Kate Veitch has provided a masterful debut that will leave a mark on the hearts and minds of readers.
Veitch, Kate. “Without a Backward Glance.” New York: Plume Paperbacks (A Member of the Penguin Publishing Group). 2008. 371pp. $14.00 Paper. ISBN: 978045228947.
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