Season of The Jew - Plot Summary

Plot Summary

In this story of New Zealand and Te Kooti's War during the year beginning November 10, 1868, the narrative coalesces around the development of its protagonist, George Fairweather, who in Shadbolt’s historical epilogue is described as “A composite character ... yet still far from fictional.” Fairweather is a competent but cynical former British officer in his early forties, who leaves the service under a cloud, turns landscape painter and cultivates an air of worldly detachment. Yet he finds himself drawn by love and humanity back into the world of colonial New Zealand and the maelstrom of the Māori Wars, not altogether disagreeably, as he finds to his surprise.

Pursuing Te Kooti as an officer and commander in the colonial militia, while perfecting his ability to destroy Te Kooti’s rebellious “Jews” Fairweather paradoxically finds his feelings of humanity expanding to include Englishmen, colonials and Māoris, coupled with a growing resentment of racism and injustice. In the end he almost throws his future away by struggling to save a Māori boy, Hamiora (reminiscent of Melville’s Billy Budd), unjustly charged with treason.

With the hanging of Hamiora, November 10, 1869, and the conclusion of Fairweather’s desperate attempts first to prevent and then to mitigate it, the book ends. The problem of Te Kooti is not resolved, except in the brief epilogue, further revealing the depths of Fairweather’s (and Shadbolt’s) ambivalence about the historical figure of Te Kooti, Fairweather’s hated and admired nemesis and one-time friend.