Sue Reidy
Reviewed by Lisa Warrington
The Visitation has a seductive premise: that in small town New Zealand in the late 1960s, the Virgin Mary chose to manifest herself in the backyard lemon tree of the Flynn family home. The apparition hands young Theresa and Catherine Flynn a letter for the Pope, advocating contraception. When the girls show this letter to their intensely Catholic parents, their father, Terrence, takes it upon himself to substitute a letter confirming the status quo. And a train of events is set in motion.
Sue Reidy constructs her plot well, and has an excellent sense of character and dialogue. At the heart of the novel are the stories of Theresa and Catherine, growing up with Catholic ritual, guilt and constraints, and their paths to sexuality and self-assertion. But no one point of view is adhered to - from Smoking Nana the taunter, to the sensitive and sympathetic Spanish monsignor, to Moira Flynn the worn out and quietly tragic mother, to cousin Neil the bikie hairdresser, each character is brought vividly and sympathetically to life. Even Terrence Flynn, the closest to a villain of the piece, is treated with understanding as we glimpse the sheer disappointment and daily annihilation he faces - no wonder that he tries to salvage his dignity by becoming a petty despot at home.
The novel moves freely from comedy to the little tragedies of every day life in an instant. We share the girls' ghoulish delight in the violent fates of virgin martyrs, and their experience of daily family prayers, all kneeling in a semi circle, plastic rosary beads distributed, facing the revolving plaster statue of the Madonna. Reidy can poke gentle fun at the quest for "Mr Right", or at the childish intensity of Catherine Flynn and her nun obsession, while allowing the character to retain her dignity.
Those who have had a Catholic upbringing will recognise the world of The Visitation immediately. Those who have not will have no trouble entering the realm of the novel - Reidy's unique voice and the truthful and touching view of humanity she presents entice you to keep reading.
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