Title: Newlands: A Wickedly Funny Novel
Author: Gary Langford
Publisher: XlibrisAU
ISBN: 978-1-51449-794-4
Pages: 244
Genre: Fiction
Reviewed by: Joe Kilgore
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Reading Langford’s tale of a centenarian reviewing his one hundred years on earth brings to mind Thomas Berger’s novel, Little Big Man. In that yarn, crusty Jack Crabb wandered back through a century on America’s western frontier. In this literary incarnation, Reynolds Updike takes the reader on a good-natured and often-rollicking review of his time spent mostly in New Zealand from the 1890s to the 1990s. It’s a tale as big as the events that were going on in the world, yet viewed through the prism of one individual’s perspective.
The individual is an irascible old man who looks back on a life lived to the fullest. Born into a meager existence with a practical mother and bizarre father, his early years consisted mostly of him yearning for the rich girl who lived close by. The girl’s family thinks he’s a hopeless rube and does everything they can to keep them apart. Reynolds is soon swept into the furor of World War I and participates in the madness that was Gallipoli. He not only survives, he actually shoots one of the girl’s brothers. Fate however, intervenes. His true love is struck by lightening and dies. Reynolds returns from the war and winds up wedding his now deceased true love’s sister.
Years and events begin to fly by as multiple children are born and a move from the farm to the city ignites Reynolds’ true vocation—salesman. He becomes the most successful automobile retailer in New Zealand and lives what appears to be a charmed life until the great Stock Market crash of 1929. The worldwide depression that follows ends his business and sends his whole brood back to the family farm where he begins to write poetry as tragedy strikes taking his oldest child. Later, when his wife dies trying to bring twins into the world, Reynolds’ world seems rent asunder. Life however, has a way of regenerating those who survive and these calamities are soon followed by a new business in electronics, a scandalous affair with the wife of a local politician, the tumultuous 60’s, the Me Generation, hippies, communes, advancing age, and more of the bitter and sweet that is the essence of life.
Author Langford infuses his central character with a ribald sense of humor that has come to grips with the inexorable ironies of life. His narrator weaves a crazy quilt of history stitched with cheekiness, charm, and humanity. The light in his storyteller’s eyes is visible through the honesty and energy of his speech. Readers may well come to the conclusion that while old age may not always be a blessing, perseverance is indeed an accomplishment, and longevity has as much room for laughter as it does for tears.
