Claiming Georgia Tate

Many readers, young and old, are likely to be shocked by the prospect of a novel dealing with the theme of incestuous abuse, particularly, perhaps, where the victim of that abuse is 12 years of age. For those, however, who embark on Amateau’s debut novel and stay with it until its conclusion, there will be the opportunity to confront a narrative which, while undoubtedly harrowing, is underpinned by its suggestions of ultimate hope and redemption. Georgia Tate Jamison, brought up in Mississippi by her grandparents, travels, on the death of ‘Nana’, to Florida to live with her father and his new wife. The child has already reasons to be wary of her father’s behaviour towards her; from now on, these reasons will multiply. But there is a solace to be found from unexpected sources and it is difficult not to be moved by Georgia’s innocently wide-eyed responses to these consolations. Amateau’s ability to endow her heroine with a vividly idiosyncratic first person voice is one of the novel’s highlights, as is her portrayal of at least one aspect – not a particularly attractive one – of late 20th-century America. This is a novel for those readers sufficiently mature to understand something of humanity’s darker side.