You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin from News Talk SEDB.

You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin from News Talk SEDB.

Time to talk books now, and I'm joined by Joe McKenzie. Good morning.

Time to talk books now, and I'm joined by Joe McKenzie. Good morning.

Hello.

Hello.

I am very excited about the first book that you have in your hands. This is sitting at my bedside and I cannot wait to tear into it. It's called Dream State by Eric Pushner.

I am very excited about the first book that you have in your hands. This is sitting at my bedside and I cannot wait to tear into it. It's called Dream State by Eric Pushner.

Yes, it is kind of I guess I could describe it as a bit of a literary romance. It's the story of a young woman called Cec who's about to get married and she heads from California down to the state of Montana, where her fiancees family have a holiday home and she wants to get married there because that house, for her, represents everything that she wants in life. So even though all the guest is going to have to travel some distance, that's where she wants to have the wedding. And she goes down a week early to get ready, and Charlie, the fiance, sends his friend around to make sure that she's got everything that she needs and just to look out for her and help with anything that she might need done. His name's Garrett and he's a bit of an environmental, hippy kind of guy who doesn't believe in marriage, and he's got very different values and life expectations to what Ceci and her fiance have. But they get married, and very soon after the marriage, she decides that Charlie is not the man for her and she leaves her new husband and she runs away with Garrett. And the novel then takes place over the next fifty years with the next generation and the family and how the decisions that you make and the way that you choose to live your life can reverberate for years and years and years through the family and the impacts that it can have.

Yes, it is kind of I guess I could describe it as a bit of a literary romance. It's the story of a young woman called Cec who's about to get married and she heads from California down to the state of Montana, where her fiancees family have a holiday home and she wants to get married there because that house, for her, represents everything that she wants in life. So even though all the guest is going to have to travel some distance, that's where she wants to have the wedding. And she goes down a week early to get ready, and Charlie, the fiance, sends his friend around to make sure that she's got everything that she needs and just to look out for her and help with anything that she might need done. His name's Garrett and he's a bit of an environmental, hippy kind of guy who doesn't believe in marriage, and he's got very different values and life expectations to what Ceci and her fiance have. But they get married, and very soon after the marriage, she decides that Charlie is not the man for her and she leaves her new husband and she runs away with Garrett. And the novel then takes place over the next fifty years with the next generation and the family and how the decisions that you make and the way that you choose to live your life can reverberate for years and years and years through the family and the impacts that it can have.

Quite intrigued as to what those impacts are, well, you know if you can't tell to Okay, it's very good.

Quite intrigued as to what those impacts are, well, you know if you can't tell to Okay, it's very good.

And I will say, not only do I love it, but Oprah has picked it up as her latest book club choice. So there's a recommendation.

And I will say, not only do I love it, but Oprah has picked it up as her latest book club choice. So there's a recommendation.

There is a recommendation, and everybody will have heard of it very soon when we about a story of surviving Gloria Vale Unveiled.

There is a recommendation, and everybody will have heard of it very soon when we about a story of surviving Gloria Vale Unveiled.

Unveiled is by a young woman who was born into Gloria Vale and was named Honey Faithful, with the kinds of names that people in Gloria Vale are given. She during her early years, and when she was about fourteen, realized that she did not want to live this way anymore. She believed that there was another way of being in the world, and at the age of eighteen, when Gloria Vale asked her to sign what they call the commitment to the Community, which is a two thousand word document which spells out exactly how you need to live within that community, she refused to sign it, at which point they essentially evicted her. So at the age of eighteen, she left with I think two hundred dollars and a suitcase and was dropped at the bus stop in Graymouth and left off fend for herself. She didn't even know.

Unveiled is by a young woman who was born into Gloria Vale and was named Honey Faithful, with the kinds of names that people in Gloria Vale are given. She during her early years, and when she was about fourteen, realized that she did not want to live this way anymore. She believed that there was another way of being in the world, and at the age of eighteen, when Gloria Vale asked her to sign what they call the commitment to the Community, which is a two thousand word document which spells out exactly how you need to live within that community, she refused to sign it, at which point they essentially evicted her. So at the age of eighteen, she left with I think two hundred dollars and a suitcase and was dropped at the bus stop in Graymouth and left off fend for herself. She didn't even know.

What a bus stop was.

What a bus stop was.

She had nobody in the outside world, really, except that her mother had had a very good friend from her own younger days and had retained the business card of this friend. And this young woman, Honey Faithful, who changed her name to Theophila Pratt, which is the name under which he's written this book. She got in touch with this friend of her mother's, a woman called Keitha who lived in Auckland, and she got on a plane and she came to Auckland and she thought Graymouth was quite big, but she got to Auckland and she had never seen anything like it, and she's remade her life. But she has a lot to say about Gloria Vale. And I will say there have been other books that have been documentaries. This is not the first time that we've had this information. But personally, I think it's a really good timely reminder about exactly what is still going on down in that community and the impact that it has on so many lives. It's an extraordinary story. She tells it really, really well. At the end, she has a listing of something like sixteen of the men in the community who've been convicted on charges of interfering with miners, all that kind of awful stuff. She tells it well, and it's I think salutary and well worth remembering that this is going.

She had nobody in the outside world, really, except that her mother had had a very good friend from her own younger days and had retained the business card of this friend. And this young woman, Honey Faithful, who changed her name to Theophila Pratt, which is the name under which he's written this book. She got in touch with this friend of her mother's, a woman called Keitha who lived in Auckland, and she got on a plane and she came to Auckland and she thought Graymouth was quite big, but she got to Auckland and she had never seen anything like it, and she's remade her life. But she has a lot to say about Gloria Vale. And I will say there have been other books that have been documentaries. This is not the first time that we've had this information. But personally, I think it's a really good timely reminder about exactly what is still going on down in that community and the impact that it has on so many lives. It's an extraordinary story. She tells it really, really well. At the end, she has a listing of something like sixteen of the men in the community who've been convicted on charges of interfering with miners, all that kind of awful stuff. She tells it well, and it's I think salutary and well worth remembering that this is going.

On, that incredibly brave story theory. The book was called Unveiled, and the other book we spoke about was dream State by Eric Pushner.

On, that incredibly brave story theory. The book was called Unveiled, and the other book we spoke about was dream State by Eric Pushner.

For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to News Talks a B from nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,

For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen live to News Talks a B from nine am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,