Chrysalis
Judith Pembleton reviews a new book by Sue Parritt
The background for the early memories of Jane Simmons, the teen heroine of Chrysalis, Sue Parritt’s latest book, is the ‘swinging sixties’. Sue, who became a member of Bournemouth Meeting in Hampshire in 1967 at the age of sixteen and has worshipped with Australian Friends since 1970, has a strong Quaker connection.
In Chrysalis Jane is the child of birthright Friends of a fairly conservative mien, and their quiet home is contrasted with that of a large family of five who join Jane’s Meeting and contribute a welcome breath of informality and new life.
In this era age-old mores were challenged and debated. Discussions on sex before marriage, homosexuality, divorce and abortion among Friends’ Meetings in the UK resulted in the 1963 statement Towards a Quaker View of Sex.
Jane’s teen and early adult romantic experiences bring her face to face with many of these moral and ethical dilemmas. As she moves from home to attend teachers’ college she becomes more aware of the societal pressures on young women in their choices of work, love and family. She wants to find her own path, but struggles with the subtle ties that bind.
Jane’s choices and their consequences are very much the heart of this story, and her final choice is as unexpected as it is ‘just right’ as a rebellion against a lifetime of conformity.
This novel is quite different from Sue Parritt’s earlier science fiction trilogy. Closer to Sue’s own life experiences of growing up in the UK and leaving all that was familiar to migrate to Australia, this novel is dedicated to her husband, Mark. Those of us who know Sue may find that dedication at the start of the book adds lively curiosity to our reading: ‘To Mark, my beloved husband of forty-seven years, the nucleus from which the fictional character Tom evolved.’
This is first and foremost a romance, but its setting in a Quaker Meeting means the challenges are spiritual as well as social. Jane’s spiritual journey is via the silence of the Gathered Meeting; but as her consciousness of gender politics expands, she begins to doubt the accepted wisdom that Quakers offer women equal rights.
Young adult readers may see early seeds of the gender issues they struggle to have recognised and taken seriously today. For those who grew up in the 1960s the background protests will be familiar. The issues, alas, are still real, present and ongoing: legal access to abortion, the continuing nuclear weapons versus power debates, Vietnam just the first of many armed conflicts within a country where the US and its allies have intervened.
As Jo Jordan, presiding clerk of Australia Yearly Meeting, wrote of the novel: ‘Chrysalis is the story of a perceptive girl growing up in a Quaker family in the swinging sixties, who yearns for a full, rich life as an adult. This engaging story brings us face to face with her desires and dilemmas in a life-long search for integrity’.
Chrysalis by Sue Parritt is published by Morning Star Publishing at £17.95. ISBN: 9780648118657.
