“Keepers” by Cheryl Burman

“Keepers” by Cheryl Burman is heartfelt women’s fiction set against an intriguing historical backdrop. In my book, the irresistible combination.

Raine wants to be good at her office job and for her father to get better so that their family can be the safe harbour it used to be. Instead, she finds herself a wife and a mother, and her relationship with her husband is nothing like what she witnessed between her parents.

The setting of Australia in the 50s is absolutely charming. It isn’t picture-perfect. Raine lives in a migrant camp, the temporary housing arrangements far from what anyone could call nice and cosy. Learning about the Nissen huts the Australian government used in those camps was a very educational experience. I even looked up the construction on the Internet to better visualise it.

Yet, Raine’s life isn’t solely about the hardships of living in a prefabricated steel structure originally designed for military use. She wears pretty dresses to the solicitors’ office where she works and meets for lunch in cafes with her sister. Besides, after an unfortunate incident with a rude neighbour when more pleasant neighbours showed up like knights in shining armour to save her from disgrace, her life has an added flavour of activities more suitable for the young than daily hospital visits and typing legal letters. Now Raine has a company with whom to go to local dances and other amusements.

I felt a connection to Raine due to the similar experiences I had to live through when I was young. Seeing how your family, which always was like a stronghold against the world, at the same time being a self-sufficient world itself, crumbles under the hardships of illness and the turbulence of economics is what makes you grow up too fast.

Raine is a remarkable character with many facets. She is strong and also vulnerable. She is patient but with the temper of a lioness who when facing injustice or danger snaps ferociously at the enemy or at her lion alike. So often strong women are portrayed in a one-dimensional manner, and I find it confusing. Having been raised by too undeniably strong, incredibly brave, and resilient women, I don’t see any resemblance between them and how independent women are often presented in movies and literature. They weren’t harsh and bitter, denying the need to have someone around who would take care of them. They were sharp-tongued when provoked. Even so, the things they said to those who tried to offend them were full of wisdom rather than petty venom.

Raine is like my mother and my aunt. She doesn’t declare that she detests love. Yet, she isn’t the one to pursue marriage as the sole goal of her life. When trapped by the circumstances to make a decision she hadn’t planned to make so early in life, she faces it determined to do what’s best for everyone. And when her husband’s decision threatens to ruin her life and its consequences drag her through unbearable hardships, she acts not only with her own interests at heart.

Reading about Raine’s struggles, alone, in a house not fit to be run by a mother with a small child, not now and most certainly not in the Australia of the 50s, I told my husband that if he’d done what Raine’s Teddy had done, I wouldn’t have taken him back. By the way, he said that I would have been right. But what will Raine do once she pushes her way to the point when she is finally given a chance to make up her mind?

In my eyes, Raine is the quintessence of a woman. She is capable of being a loving wife, a devoted mother, a courageous human being, and a capable office worker. Still, she makes her choices following her heart.

“Keepers” by Cheryl Burman is an unputdownable story I won’t soon forget.