Cool Water is the third novel by award-winning Australian author, Myfanwy Jones. Having avoided his father’s birthplace for the last six years, Frank Herbert is returning to Tinaroo Falls because his daughter Lily has decided it’s where she wants to wed. And even though his father, Joe is eleven months dead, and much longer absent from the town, the huge dam that was built across the Barron River when Joe was growing up is where Frank has always felt his presence most strongly. So he’s come to let his daughter go: does he have the wherewithal to face his demons too?

He and Paula arrive on Friday night with things a little tense between them, but also with a clear agenda of what needs to be done to make this big family event a success. There is time, though, to take the tinny out onto the dam, where Frank can hear his father’s continued criticism and disapproval as clearly as if he were sitting beside him. Frank abandoned Herbert & Sons BUTCHER est. 1920, in favour of seafood, and is worrying that his latest, somewhat impulsive, gamble may not pay off.

Back in the 1950s, Victor Herbert’s dad, Leslie was the butcher in Kulara, the town destined to be drowned once the dam was filled, and the move to Tinaroo, being the only butcher serving over a thousand temporary residents, tradesmen and professionals from dozens of countries besides Australia, gives Victor some influence. Married to Gwen, with three carbon-copy sons, and president of the Tinaroo Falls Welfare Association, black-haired, blue-eyed, charismatic Victor’s flirtation with the town’s women is as enthusiastic as his disciplining of his family, especially his sensitive youngest son, Joseph.

The weekend gathering of their widely-dispersed family members in this place full of memories prompts comments and questions: Frank barely recognises the version of Joe that his sister, mother and uncle describe, the man he remembers as never talking about his father or his youth in Tinaroo…

Several narrative strands relate the story over two timelines: a volatile twelve months in the mid-nineteen-fifties and a packed weekend in the present day. Jones effortlessly evokes the era and setting and the extent of her research is apparent in every chapter; her characters have depth and appeal, and often insight and wisdom; her wholly credible plot has a few twists and surprises.

“He didn’t disappear but it was true that he retreated sometimes. That was how you stayed safe. And it was how you kept others safe – from your own brutality.”

Frank’s fear that his anger might manifest the way his father’s and grandfather’s did asks the question: is toxic masculinity inherited, not through the genes, but through example? Might there be an identifiable traumatic cause up the ancestral line? Does the same apply to the inability to demonstrate filial love?

The prose is frequently marvellous: “A bunch of locals were scattered through the bar – no-one he recognised. They sized him up and then made him invisible; he would always be a blow-in up here” and “His father gazes fixedly over the water. Joe is still a strong man – upright, for his age – but he’s faded since retirement. He doesn’t shout anymore. He is un-becoming, and one day he will be gone. Enzymes break down the fibre and tendons, reversing rigor mortis, tenderising the meat” are examples.

This topical tale examining the father-son relationship also touches on sexism, dispossession of the indigenous owners, and domestic violence: a moving, thought-provoking, hopeful, and heart-warming read.
This unbiased review is from a copy provided by Hachette Australia