Coal Flat

Te Ao Hou, September 1963, Page 55

Coal Flat by Bill Pearson Pauls Book Arcade, 21/- Coal Flat, the fictitious community which is the subject of this novel, is a mining township on the West Coast of the South Island. Paul Rogers, the novel's hero, is a young, somewhat vaguely idealistic school-teacher who comes to work there. It is just after the last war; Paul, who is from the Coast himself, has just come back from the army, and before that he had been at university. His attempts to bring to Coal Flat some of the knowledge and experience he has gained in his years away from the town bring him into conflict with the people who live there, and the relation between Paul and the community to which he belongs is the central theme of the story. This is a long novel, in which a great many characters and activities are explored with depth and subtlety. It is a complete portrait of a community, described with sober realism and with an exceptionally sensitive ear for dialogue. The book's length may not be entirely justified. But as well as being one of the most ambitious novels ever to be published in New Zealand, ‘Coal Flat’ is certainly one of the most successful.