Finding Jasper

by Lynne Leonhardt

It is 1956, and twelve-year-old Gin has arrived at the family farm, “Grasswood”, in the South West of Western Australia. She has been left in the care of her lively, idiosyncratic aunt, Attie, while her mother, Valerie, an English war bride, returns home for a holiday. Virginia (“Gin”) is the youngest of three generations of very different women, whose lives are profoundly affected by the absence of son, brother, husband, father and RAAF Lancaster pilot. A fixed point in all their lives is the landscape, layered with beauty and fear, challenge and consolation, isolation and freedom.

Set in Perth and rural Western Australia, 1945−1965, this three-part novel shows the impact of war on family. As the story shifts back and forth in time and place through three different perspectives, the dislocating ripple effect continues to build into the 1960s with devastating results. But it is up to Gin to forge her life beyond as part of a new generation facing conscription and yet another war.

Music and far-off memories haunt this multilayered novel. As the title suggests, the story revolves around the ‘finding of Jasper’. More broadly it is about the search for what is lost in war and exile – as much the physical, material and psychological costs to society as the quest for love, identity and one’s place in a changing world.  

 

274 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Lynne Leonhardt grew up on an orchard in Donnybrook in the South West of Western Australia and travelled extensively as a young adult. She studied music and English literature at the University of Western Australia while bringing up four children, and later completed a PhD in Creative Writing at Edith Cowan University. Her first novel, Finding Jasper (Margaret River Press, 2012), was longlisted for the 2013 Dobbie Award. Lynne is the great-great grand niece of leading Australian suffragist, Henrietta Augusta Dugdale, the protagonist of her second novel, Step Up, Mrs Dugdale (Publication March 2019).

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finding Jasper is Lynne Leonhardt’s first novel and the first novel-length book published by Margaret River Press. It is the story of the Partridge family (no relation to the TV show ), of the women in particular – Virginia (Gin), around whom the story centres; her mother, Valerie; her aunt, Attie (Adeline); and her grandmother, Audrey. Set between 1945 and 1963, the novel shows the impact of World War II on three generations of women.

The book is in three parts, opening in 1956 with Gin aged twelve and living with her mother, aunt and grandmother at ‘Grasswood’, the family farm in Western Australia’s southwest. Jasper, Gin’s father and Valerie’s husband, is missing, presumed dead, his plane having been shot down over occupied territory in Europe in April 1945. The second part of the novel slips back to 1945, with Valerie arriving in Australia with a baby Gin, while Jasper is at war. The reader learns Valerie and Jasper’s story – of the unexpected wartime pregnancy and hasty marriage – and then of Valerie’s difficulties adapting and coping in her new country with her baby. The third part of the novel shifts to 1963 and a very different Australia. This section is Gin’s story. Valerie has moved on with her life, but after tragedy strikes, Gin must decide what she wants to do — and the possibilities are endless. It’s now the sixties and the constraints on women that had bound her mother and her aunt are loosening.

The absence of Jasper, the title character, pervades the whole story. His voice is heard only in the form of letters and occasional dialogue. The reader tries to glean as much as possible about his personality from these remnants, as does Gin, his daughter. I feel a bit the same way about my grandfather – I’ve studied the photos of him, heard the family stories, and I even have a recording of his voice. I feel like I met him although he died the year before I was born.

Valerie, Gin’s mother, is Attie’s opposite, but she has her own struggles as a displaced war bride, battling to keep up appearances and English tradition, alone and with a baby, in this dry, foreign country. She writes to her parents:

Lynne Leonhardt’s evocative prose and attention to detail bring to life a time long-gone and unknown to most living Australians these days, including myself. A time of chip bath-heaters, playing records on a gramophone, listening to the King’s speech on the BBC, running outside to watch a plane fly overhead, reading the ‘Billabong’ series by Mary Grant Bruce, and swimming in water holes unsupervised. Local Western Australian landmarks feature – Matilda Bay, the University, Steve’s, Horseshoe Bridge – and the prose resounds with wonderful, old Aussie vernacular, including one of my favourites, ‘Go like the clappers’.

Being a story about Australian women during a period in which I wasn’t born, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this history. The story is multi-layered and I could easily write an essay on it. If you find it slow at the start, stick with it. The pace picks up and there are a couple of twists that will leave you reeling.

For more, see the review of this book on my blog: http://louise-allan.com/2013/10/31/fi...

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the south-west of Western Australia, Finding Jasper is the story of three generations of women waiting for the return of the man in their lives; Jasper.

Son, twin brother, new husband and father, Jasper is at times the only gel that holds these very different women together. That and the fact that they are trying to get by the best way they know how while a war goes on far from the isolation of their small farm.

With deft brushstrokes, Leonhardt paints the harsh beauty of the Australian bush which through the eyes on a newly arrived Englsih bride, is nothing like the romance of home.

Here in Australia, everything looked drab. There was no life or colour in the bush. It even smelt different… As far as she was concerned, the sight of the Australian bush did no more than bring tears to her eyes.

Based between 1945 and 1962, it is the research that has gone into Lynne Leonardt’s debut novel that offers wonderful depth and a valuable insight into how life may have been have been for the women of Western Australia at the time. It moves between the country and the city of Perth, while also touching on life in London during the blitz and that of ex-pats in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

If you are not from the west or even Australia, it is still a wonderful portrayal of the effects that war has on people - relationships, families and the community. People cope in different ways and stress brings out extremes – the best and the worst in people.

Not all of Leonhart’s characters are good, or even likeable, but given what they have been through, or what they are going through during the course of the novel, makes the reader question how one would cope in a similar situation.

By the title I expected a lot more “finding” to go on in terms of actual tracking down of Jasper. Without spoiling the ending, the path to happiness does not necessarily lie in the palm of others.

Thanks to Margaret River Press for the review copy. The book is available direct from the Press’s website margaretriverpress.com.au

[Lizzy Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Music haunts Finding Jasper, by turns sad, angry, evocative, challenging and hip.

The main character, Virginia – or “Gin”, plays the piano and initially wants to be a professional musician. During the Second World War, Virginia’s mother worked in the British army as a Morse Code specialist; Leonhardt makes the point of telling the reader that the opening bars for Beethoven’s 5th – the famous, “da-da-da-daah” – is the Morse signal for “V”, and came to stand for “Victory”. In the lead up to the novel’s most emotionally charged moments, Virginia plays a sombre Bach prelude as an act of defiance toward her neglectful, card-playing mother. The aftermath is devastating.

Read more about Finding Jasper on my review blog here

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved every minute of this book.

Lynn's description of the West Australian landscapes along with Gin's emotional journey, had me turning page after page.

There's so much life -- good and bad-- that jumps off every page for all of those that lived through war, in one form or another, and how the war affected and impacted each of their lives.

I highly recommend the experience that comes from reading FINDING JASPER :)

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read, that allows the reader to draw their own conclusions regarding several of the main plot points. The strong, independent female characters were a pleasure to get to know through the journey of the novel.
I'd love to see this book made into a movie or mini-series. It conjures up some lovely imagery of Perth and regional WA that would really come to life on screen.

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Finding Jasper Lynne Leonhardt writes about Western Australia, its south west and the city of Perth- across three generations of the one family, from 1939 to the seventies. It is beautifully written book, with wonderful imagery. She makes the settings come to life. The lonely farm, the Nedlands house, the university on the Swan River frame her characters, Valerie the war bride, Jasper the RAAF pilot in England, Gin their daughter, the granny and Jasper's twin sister. War shapes the story; all the women are affected by war. War and loss haunt the women. The home front, too, is a battlefield of longing and loss and regret. Even those who survive and return are somehow missing in action. It seems some lessons are learned as the third generation of soldiers are not so keen to throw it away so freely in the Vietnam War, just as Gin was not as keen to marry just to save her love from the call up.
Initially the book seem a little slow but this matched the isolation of the farm down south and the gaping hole left by the young husband and new father away at war. It reflected Valerie's emptiness and desolation in a strange country with in-laws she didn't know. Reading, I could almost smell the vile bush dunny, something I remember from my own youth. The story sped up with the move to the city and I particularly enjoyed the depiction of the uni years which matched my own time at UWA.
Lynne Leonhardt ‘s carefully crafted book has some wonderful moments of sparkling description, of birds, beach, music and best of all people. I did not hate Valerie as some people seem to, I feel she did her best in her way. The people were all flawed to some extent, as we all are, but they were human.
Well worth reading.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nostalgic trip down memory lane for me. A clever, moving story that was so real, taking me back in time to revisit the history and emotional experiences of my life in the fifties and sixties. A facinating, interesting and evocative read...recommended, especially for West Australians!

[Warren Gossett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved looking up all the West Australian words and the words from a generation or two ago that were new to me. I looked them up on Wikipedia and Google of course. I saw the author talk Lynne Leonhardt at Fremantle Library and it wasn't all women. There was another man in the small group of about a dozen. The book had space to spread over impressions of clothes, botany and a few wars that Australia has been in. It is told from a woman's and a girl's point of view.

[Robyn Mundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The recreation of Perth and rural south west Western Australia in the 1940s, post-war 50s and 60s is so beautifully rendered that I felt transported into those bygone worlds. The lives of three generations of women are altered as they wait for the return of Jasper: husband, twin brother, son, father.

[Ian Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me this novel’s most impressive feature is the nostalgic elaboration of its descriptive detail.

[Amy Jacobson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It has a good story line and has potential to be a great book but really didn't like the style it was written in. Had to force myself to finish it