Excruciating. This novel is narrated by repressed thirty-something schoolteacher Rachel, living in Manawaka with her ailing, manipulative mother. Rachel is the first-person "unreliable narrator" in similar vein to the narrator of Zoe Heller's Notes on a Scandal. Hopelessly shy and self-obsessed, Rachel is still a virgin, dreaming of love and cursing her mother's constant harping on "what other people will think", even though she herself is haunted by exactly the same concerns. When she meets Nick, it's clear to the reader, but unfortunately not to Rachel, what he's up to, and the outcome is inevitable. But Rachel does grow and learns by the end of the novel, and sets out on a new journey -- though I for one was not convinced she had really broken free from her old ways.

The novel was originally titled A Jest of God, and was filmed by Paul Newman as Rachel, Rachel (with Joanne Woodward in the title role). Surely Laurence must have been infuriated by the tacky cover and blurb of the (bookmooched) film tie-in paperback edition that I read. If I'd been reading it in public, I'd have felt obliged to wrap it in brown paper. "The powerful novel of a woman enmeshed in dangerous passion" it claims. "Rachel had waited a long time for love ... In the midst of a long hot summer she met Nick. He sensed her desperation -- and the sensuality that pulsed through her..." Aargh. This doesn't remotely reflect the subtlety and psychological anguish of the book.

Though some of the period details in A Jest Of God seem hopelessly dated, its endearing heroine transcends time and place. At 34, dutiful schoolteacher Rachel Cameron slowly and belatedly develops an awareness of her own power, sexuality and worth. Laurence skillfully explores this deeply personal journey that many women, and more than a few men, will recognise and enjoy. ( )

Rachel, a 34-year-old teacher, lives at home with her gently tyrannical mother. Her first sexual relationship is with Nick, who goes away letting her think he's already married. A moving story, told plainly but with great insight and understanding for this young woman's predicament. [July 2005] ( )

Don't remember reading this book, have to read it soon.

A bittersweet and sensitive novel about a woman, Rachel Cameron, who has been forced by circumstances since her father's death to return home to teach grade school, live with her overbearing mother, and struggle to find joy and love in this bleak existence she has been trapped in. Mature and powerful, with a redeeming ending that shows new ways to perceive strength and resilience in a human being. ( )