The Colour

By: Rose Tremain

Narrated by: Eleanor Bron

Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Joseph and Harriet Blackstone emigrate from Norfolk to New Zealand in search of new beginnings and prosperity. But the harsh land near Christchurch where they settle threatens to destroy them almost before they begin. When Joseph finds gold in the creek he is seized by a rapturous obsession with the voluptuous riches awaiting him deep in the earth. Abandoning his farm and family, he sets off alone for the new gold-fields over the Southern Alps, a moral wilderness where many others, under the seductive dreams of "the colour", are violently rushing to their destinies. By turns both moving and terrifying, it is a story of the quest for the impossible, an attempt to mine the complexities of love and in the process discover the sacrifices to be made in the pursuit of happiness.

©2003 Rose Tremain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The sense of period is forcefully conveyed....Her new level of ambition makes it perhaps the author's most important book yet." (Amazon.co.uk)

13hrs and 29 minutes out of my life

First let me say I am a huge fan of Rose Tremain and was therefore excited about downloading and listening to this book. However, out of the 50+ audio books I’ve heard this is the first book I ever felt so disappointed about that I felt the need to write a review.

The first problem is the narrator, Eleanor Bron, and the production crew. I normally have no problem understanding even the heaviest English accent yet I found myself rewinding the book many times to try to understand what Ms. Bron had said. She sounds as if she is talking with a mouth full of marbles. On top of that there are volume changes between sentences where you can tell that she stopped and restarted later and even times where you can hear production cues that the listener is not supposed to hear.

As for the content of the book itself; the first two thirds of the book is tedium. I kept listening and plodding along because I thought “This is THE Rose Tremain, it’s going to get better”. It wasn’t until the last third of the book that anything substantial happened and even then it was a disappointment. Almost all of the main characters are very unlikable and delusional. The few likable/interesting characters are side characters whose stories are either not followed thru or meet tragic ends.

All in all this entire book was a major disappointment

An almost perfect experience

This is a beautifully-written and very engaging novel, very well-read by Ms Bron. The characters, particularly Harriet, are rounded and believable and the story builds well from the nature of the people and their relationships with one another. The only irritating flaw was the over-dramatised psychic connection between the young boy, Edwin, and his Maori nurse, Pare. This relationship and its consequences were the only part of the story which felt over-written, despite the length and sweep of the narrative. I didn't want the book to end.

I love Rose Tremain but...

I'm a big fan of Rose Tremain's work, I think she's an amazing writer and this is why I chose this book. However, there are many flaws in this story. The main character, Harriet, is interesting, but her husband Joseph Blackstone is about as unpleasant and uninteresting as you can get. The writer hints he has some form of autism and that he is in fact also extremely selfish.

About two thirds of the way through the book, I found hearing about him almost unbearable and at that point seriously considering stopping listening and asking for a refund. It was so miserable and long drawn out.

Also, too many side characters were introduced and details about their lives totally irrelevant to the plot - like what one miner would buy his mother if he found gold.

Overall I would say this is a harrowing tale, at times unbearably so. Not exactly riveting or entertaining.

I far prefer Rose's other books - most notably Restoration, which in my view is near perfect.

beautifully read

disappointing that the audible tagline came almost on top of the last words spoken which took away from the ending.

A very disappointing Tremain

I give Eleanor Bron 4 stars but the book no more than 2. Uninteresting characters, who are mostly unpleasant to boot; somewhere around the middle a serious strain of the spiritual creeps in, primarily but not entirely in the relation of a child to a Maori. I found this, too, wearingly tedious.

Another sold adventure from Rose Tremain

I love the way Rose Tremain can write about so many different time lines, her character development is solid, and I always get a feeling these characters are real. I learn from these books also, her history of the places and events is very grounding for the story. I was in New Zealand before I read this book and now I want to go back to explore the places she wrote about. The narrator is superb. She is by far one of my most favorite authors. Lush and poetic, heartbreak and triumph, so beautiful.

Some problematic supporting characters

What did you love best about The Colour?

I thought the depiction of the New Zealand settler's life and then the gold rush was wonderfully written, especially scenes of how easily the weather can destroy everything human-built. Harriet, Lillian and even Joseph were all great characters with whom you could muster various degrees of sympathy. The reader was also quite engaging.

Any additional comments?

My biggest complaint was that Maori nursemaid and the Chinese farmer both struck me as a variation of that Hollywood trope, "the magical black man." Unlike some other supporting characters, who somehow still come across as the main characters in their own story, these two seem to exist more to provide character development for a "more important" (white) person.