In Myfanwy Jones’ third novel, Cool Water, the consequences of intergenerational trauma and changing attitudes towards masculinity haunt the narrative. Moving between three generations of the Herbert family, Cool Water swings between mid-1950s Australia and the present day.
Jones shifts perspectives throughout the story, always through the lens of close third-person narration. It begins with Frank, negotiating the contemporary milieu of the ailing erotics of his marriage and his only daughter’s wedding in Far North Queensland. The nuptials are planned to take place near a dam built in the 1950s – the construction of which doomed a small nearby town, which was abandoned and flooded with the advent of the structures’ use. It’s a lingering image, which Jones uses to full effect – the eponymic cool water of the title seeping through the plot.
The novel then moves to Frank’s father, Joe, and grandfather, Vincent, both of whom lived in the town before it was vacated: these chapters engender an interweaving of perspectives, lives and values. Vincent is a butcher; Joe is his youngest son. The tension between them builds, tempered by the mise-en-scène of mid-century Australian life.
Between the three generations of men, attitudes towards love, honour and what it means to inhabit masculinity, are shown to slowly evolve. The threat of violence – done to the self, done to others – runs an electric circuit throughout each man’s life: by the time this inheritance is passed to Frank, it has softened into something more spectral.
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What Jones offers readers is an insight into how fatherly bonds can fracture under socially imposed gender stereotypes and the legacies these histories leave in their wake. Sometimes this structural framework threatens to engulf the novel, almost flooding it – moving from a thematic motif to something more obvious – but ultimately Cool Water maintains a sense of strength throughout, coasting to a neat conclusion.
Cool Water, Myfanwy Jones
Publisher: Hachette Australia
ISBN: 9780733650024
Pages: 298pp
Publication Date: 28 February 2024
RRP: $32.99
