The titular character of Marcia van Zeller’s first contemporary novel, Be A Good Girl, Valerie, is a 63-year-old woman who has “long accepted that she has reached the age of invisibility”. She is overlooked and underestimated at every turn – which only makes her more powerful.
When a young co-worker is fired after rejecting her sleazy boss’s advances, Valerie leaps to her defense. Doing so reawakens Valerie’s long-buried memories of her own trauma, being sexually harassed by her own boss back in the 1970s. If she can advocate so fiercely for Anna, why can’t she do the same for herself? Will anyone even believe her if she comes forward now, so many years later?
Be A Good Girl, Valerie is set primarily in present-day Perth, with frequent flashbacks to Valerie’s past in Canada and London. The level of detail about these particular settings, and some of the apparently incidental side-plots, gave me the impression that it’s something of a roman a clef, a fictionalised version of van Zeller’s own life experiences. Still, at its core, it’s an Issue Novel, with some stilted dialogue and heavy-handed exposition to ensure that the point really hits home.
Be A Good Girl, Valerie is an easy read about a confronting subject, one that’s well-paced and evenly handled. My thanks to Ventura Press and the author for inviting me to be part of the online reviewer tour for its launch.
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