Only Ever Always

Penni Russon (author)

Allen & Unwin, Australia: August 2011; 157pp

ISBN: 9781741750447

Genres: adventure, surreal

Issues: family, grief, identity, loss

'The dream took you by surprise, clear and resounding as a bell, as though it were waiting for you all along.' (p3) Claire's world is familiar to us: her parents, her uncle and his expectant wife, friendly neighbours. But her dreams are haunted by a broken landscape, one occupied by a brutal society that survives hand-to-mouth and where those without power survive on the scraps of those at the top.

Threatened by grief and loss, Claire's world begins to fracture and she retreats into the alternate reality where she finds her double, Clara. Both are struggling to come to terms with dramatic changes that threaten their security and sense of identity. In order to survive each must come to terms with the unpleasant reality that they can only control the choices they make, not the world around them or how others react. What will happen if the real and the surreal worlds collide? When each girl meets her doppelganger? Who is the dream and who the dreamer?

Only Ever Always is a haunting, subtle, character-driven novel about the human capacity for love and the many and varied ways in which that is expressed. Russon explores how love makes us vulnerable to pain, loss and the threats of others but, in its purest form, enriches us by the way such love teaches us to take risks for others as well as ourselves. Clara, with her fierce spirit and determination, passes Claire some of her fire; Claire, with her sensitivity and yearning for a safer world, teaches Clara the possibilities of hope.

Russon's narrative voice swings between the slightly cooler second person for Claire and intimate, immediate first person for Clara. Use of second person is very unusual in a novel and reflects the slightly alienated, dissociated relationship Claire has with her fracturing world yet also pulls the reader intimately into her perceptions. The use of first-person for Clara underlines her certainty, her absorption in her beloved Andrew, her determination to shape her world to her will. The almost seamless segues between the two perspectives, the change from the coolness of second-person to the warmth of first-person keeps the reader off-balance and reduces their ability to differentiate between the real and the dream. The occasional addition of third-person narrative increases this sense of instability, forcing the reader to experience the frightening distortion of reality that besets both girls.

This is a novel of contradictions, a remarkable interweaving of internal and external narratives, the real and the surreal so closely blended to be almost indistinguishable. Russon captures the intense maelstrom of emotions that swamp people under enormous stress and articulates with extraordinary subtlety the slightly dissociative state that such stress can engender.

A truly remarkable piece of writing that experienced readers will find unforgettable.