This review was commissioned by and printed in the NZ Herald in June 2017.
I loved Gravity Well right up until the final dozen or so pages. But after reading the ending I nearly threw the book across the room. It made me wonder, how did I form such strong expectations about what kind of an ending this story seems to need?
Gravity Well is Australian author Melanie Joosten’s second novel. Set mostly in Australia, it tells the stories of two friends, Lotte and Eve. Lotte, who works as an astronomer, envies astronauts: “The responsibilities of the outside world had been removed for them. They were free to concentrate only on the task at hand: putting their lives on hold for something bigger than themselves.” Lotte has been putting her own personal life on hold, taking a job in South America for a year away from her husband, who wants to settle down, and avoiding getting tested for the same breast cancer that killed her mother.
Eve, an audio engineer, is also trying to escape. She has left her normal life and run away to a campsite in winter by the sea. There are hints she may be suffering from post-partum depression, as she punishes herself by refusing physical or emotional comfort.
Lotte and Eve, with their flaws, mistakes, and strained relationships, feel psychologically complex and entirely real. Their decisions – often selfish or based in wishful thinking – are believable, and this combined with the clever structure of Gravity Well kept me fully immersed.
Joosten sustains the suspense by splitting the narrative into two main timeframes; 2009 and 2015. Gradually we circle back to the central events that have pushed Eve and Lotte to run. Joosten handles the reveals deftly, delivering a genuine twist and a real emotional gut-punch. As the key events are recounted the prose seems to dry out, sentences getting shorter and plainer, as though words cannot contain the emotion. The characters’ lives are messy but Joosten is absolutely in control.
Or is she? “That was when it became art: not in its creation but its reception.” Gravity Well pulled me into its world so thoroughly that I became strongly invested in the kind of ending I thought it needed. Joosten’s novel has become art alright, but the Eve and Lotte in my head deserve better.
