The Party Line

by Sue Orr

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The Baxters do not know their place. On the first of June every year sharemilkers load their trucks with their families, pets and possessions and crawl along the highways towards new farms, new lives. They're inching towards that ultimate dream -- buying their own land. Fenward's always been lucky with its sharemilkers; grateful, grafting folk who understand what's expected of them. Until now, when grief-stricken Ian Baxter and his precocious daughter Gabrielle arrive. Nickie Walker is show more enchanted by the glamour and worldliness of Gabrielle. Nickie's mother, however, finds herself in the crossfire of a moral battle too terrifying to confront. Each has a story to share. This is a coming-of-age story for two young girls who hold a mirror up to the place and people they love. It's a coming-of-age story, too, for a community forced to stare back at the image of a toxic soul. The question is: who will blink first? show less

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anzlitlovers 2,078 reviews

Do people today know what a party line is? There's the political meaning i.e. the collective understanding of a political party's ideology and policies, coupled with an expectation that party members will conform to them. But it can also mean a local phone circuit that is shared by multiple users. In the 1970s, if you lived in the bush in some parts of Australia, you shared a telephone line with your community whether you wanted to or not. There was usually some kind of loose community cooperation to ensure that the line wasn't tied up for too long by one caller, and there was an implicit understanding that you could interrupt to call in an emergency, but the greatest constraint was that there was usually some obnoxious busybody who show more listened in on other people's calls.

(Of course in those days not everyone had a phone anyway. Our parents had phones, but we didn't have one of our own till the late 70s, and none of our friends did either. But public phone booths were ubiquitous, and news that couldn't wait for the post came by telegram.)

Sharing a party line is relevant to Sue Orr's debut novel because the characters include an obnoxious busybody who makes it impossible for a victim of domestic abuse to get help. Yet despite the setting in 1970s New Zealand, the story remains relevant today.

The Party Line takes place in a farming community where the annual influx of sharemilkers and their families swells the population of Fenward each year. The sharemilkers 'know their place': they are not part of the community and won't be unless and until they can buy their own land. But everyone knows everyone's business, except when it comes to the domestic abuse perpetrated by Jack Gilbert, a prominent member of the community. That's nobody's business, and the 'party line' is for everyone to turn a blind eye.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/07/25/the-party-line-2015-by-sue-orr/ show less

Jul 25, 2024

HelenBaker 1,157 reviews

I was drawn to this book as it is set in the local farming community during the 1970’s. Although I didn’t grow up here I found her tale a very possible scenario. I think these books important for depicting the way of life in a small farming community during this period of changing values. This is the first novel from this author and she is a writer who shows promise

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