Journey to Paradise
1949. Gerry and Miranda Lewis relocate to Singapore, where Gerry’s new Colonial Office posting includes a bungalow in the posh expat area. Gerry settles easily into the snobby whisky-heavy lifestyle, but Miranda, who conversely feels she should befriend locals, to serve a purpose, volunteer perhaps, also suffers anxieties caused by the earlier loss of their only child, Harry, not even two. Unjustly blaming herself, she desperately wants to keep secret her subsequent petty shoplifting. Although well-intentioned, an incident next door involving an expat neighbour’s baby shames Miranda and causes outrage, incurring Gerry’s wrath. Things deteriorate further and their marriage’s widening cracks become chasmic. Meanwhile, as the cocktail-laden lunches and garden parties continue, Miranda meets paediatrician Nick, who initially offers a shoulder, then a spark. Against backdrops of social division, brutal political murders and violent anti-British uprisings fuelled by anger at the ease of the Second World War Japanese occupation, the pair rapidly become as closely involved as she and the now-womanising Gerry have become distant. Nevertheless, more romantic complications ensue and we’re kept guessing, Miranda’s search for happiness mirroring the tumultuous times.
The portrayal of child loss issues, exhibited as Miranda’s inability to tell her own truth, is very sympathetically written; moreover, as she gains courage from her new horizons, although ever mindful of her misfortune, hope waxes while sadness wanes. Greenlees’ personal knowledge of Singapore is evident in vivid descriptions of climate, location, flora and fauna, bringing realism and authenticity to her narrative where interwoven threads, in this, her first novel, present a most interesting read.
