Great Reads for Great Readers

 

Greta and Valdin, by Rebecca K. Reilly.

 

 

           Children of a Russian refugee and his Maori wife, Greta and Valdin Vladisavljevic (try saying that in a hurry!) are gay siblings, sharing Valdin’s apartment in central Auckland.  Valdin spent eight years studying to be a physicist before he decided he hated it and is now the presenter of a TV show.  Greta studies Russian and comparative literature at Auckland University, and makes minuscule wages tutoring as well:  on the face of things, they should be reasonably satisfied with life, but as we all know, life, especially when connected to love, never cooperates – pitfalls, potholes and pratfalls abound to trip us all up when we least expect it.

            Valdin has recently broken up with the love of his life Xabi, who is the formerly straight brother of Giuseppe, married to Valdin’s uncle.  (Got that? Fortunately, there is a very helpful list of characters and their relationship to each other.  I consulted it often.)  Valdin is often inclined to tears;  he’s feeling mentally fragile and worries endlessly and needlessly about nothing at all;  Greta is made of sterner stuff, but she yearns after Holly who is one of those cruel witches who Lead People On.   Holly tutors at the University too, but relies a lot on Greta to take over her tutorial work when she wants to go on holiday – eventually with someone else!  So – life is rather less than satisfactory at the moment, but how to change things so that the road ahead is clear, with not a pothole in sight?

            Ms Reilly has enormous fun plotting the course of the siblings’ romantic adventures, and so does the reader – I don’t know how many times I laughed out loud at Greta’s wit and Valdin’s haplessness;  they take turns at narrating the chapters, endearing themselves effortlessly to us with their humour and honesty.  Their convoluted family history – not to mention the dysfunctional but charmingly singular family to which they belong made me wish that my family background could have been similarly exotic, such is the power and persuasiveness of Ms Reilly’s characterisations.  There’s not a single dud among them and we all are tremendously relieved that her great story has a happy ending – as it should:  characters like that deserve happiness.  I certainly felt happy while I was reading ‘Greta and Valdin’, not least because Auckland, that great messed-up metropolis, is the setting and my old home (yep, I’m a Jafa!), but even better still:  the book has made the Fiction prize short list for the Ockham Book Awards.  Watch this space!  SIX STARS.