The sweetness of life
The Growing Season. By Joy Cowley. Hodder and Stoughton. 208 pp. $9.95. (Reviewed by Diane Prout) James Crawford, farmer, husband, father and grandfather, is dying of leukaemia. In his few remaining weeks of life he and his family must work through the difficult, often anguished stages of disbelief, denial, anger, and finally acceptance of this knowledge. “The Growing Season” is that period in which a man may come to know himself, his strength and frailty, both physical and moral. in her latest book, Joy Cowley has evoked sensitively and compassionately the very sweetness of life and man’s reluctance to leave it, no matter how terrible it mav sometimes seem. Joy, optimism, and above all humour spring from the pages in her unsentimental treatment of terminal illness, which reaches its climax in James’s farewell party to his friends and neighbours. Although James is the focal figure, the lives and relationships of brother, sister, mother and child are interwoven with such a richness and vividness of detail and imagery, that not one fails to convince of its flesh and blood existence.
Joy Cowley’s confidence in her subject matter, her familiarity with city and country life, and the easy pace of her narrative assure her a place among popular New Zealand writers.
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Press, 7 April 1979, Page 17
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213The sweetness of life Press, 7 April 1979, Page 17
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