(Short reviews of books by nine Kiwi authors I have read starting December 2005. How can a country with a population not much larger than that of Wales produce so many good authors?)
The People-faces by Lisa Cherrington. Story of a Maori young woman and her schizophrenic brother. Brings out the contrast between the older Maori ways where her brother would have been special to the community as he spoke with the ancestors and the modern-day where he’s put on a psychiatric ward and given suppressive medication.
The Bone People by Keri Hulme. Much lauded, 1985 Booker prize-winning story of an eccentric middle-aged artist and the small boy she finds on the beach who transforms her life. That one sentence totally fails to capture the vivid and rich language, artistic vision and uncomfortable exploration of love, family, alcoholism, child abuse and Maori culture in this novel. In my top 10 books.
cousins by Particia Grace. I discovered this book and this well-known (certainly in New Zealand) author through a quote placed on a stone in Wellington harbour – quote and picture here. Beautiful exploration of Maori culture clashing with Pakeha (white) culture, through the eyes of three cousins.
Golden Deeds by Catherine Chidgey. Uneven book, that never quite gripped me enough but was very good in places. It weaves together stories from three people’s lives, bound together by the disappearance of a teenage girl. Worth trying another of hers.
The Lagoon by Janet Frame. Possibly one of the best-known Kiwi authors, especially after the wonderful biographic film by Jane Campion An Angel at My Table. The Lagoon is a collection of moving short stories, some set in a psychiatric asylum (where she was when she wrote the book), others poetic fragments. It redefined the possibilities of the short story for me.
Stories by Katharine Mansfield. Possibly one of the best-known short-story writers. I don’t actually like her writing that much – her stories remind me of Virginia Woolf, somewhat woolly and fey.
Collected Poems by Bill Manhire. New Zealand’s inaugural Te Mata Estate Poet Laureate who teaches on the Victoria University Wellington creative writing course.
Overdue New Releases by Matt Johnson. Acute and funny book about working in a video rental store and Life. See review on this blog.
Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. Winner of 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Montana medal New Zealand book awards 2007 and longlisted for 2007 Man Booker prize. Yes, it’s good. A deceptively simple book set on a Pacific island (off Papua New Guinea?) that brings in Dickens, growing up and the horrors of civil war.
A Good Keen Man by Barry Crump. How could I forget this in my original list? Omit possibly, but forget…! A best seller in New Zealand (and nowhere else!). Gets under the skin of the hunting, shooting, fishing white European Kiwi psyche through a series of humorous anecdotal short stories with the common theme of weird-people-I-have-had-a-tent-next-to-while-spending-months-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-shooting-introduced-but-now-pest-European-animals.
Glass half full, glass half empty
March 22, 2009 by anarchicgretelFrom reading the popular press, you might be of the opinion that we should all be striving to be cheery optimists who always see the glass as half full and that anything short of that is an inherently bad thing and should be suppressed. But that would be a big mistake. There is a reason why an ability to have a pessimistic outlook has been so well preserved genetically/socially in populations over time and it relates to survival.
It’s those who see the glass as half empty (rather than half full) who realise the beer is running out and therefore do anything about refilling the glass! I’ve been on projects and holidays where the glass half full people stand around saying everything will be fine and us glass half empty people damn well know it will be fine because we’re thinking ahead and running round to prevent the glass from running dry. Which is infuriatingly compeletely unappreciated by the glass half fulls who knew it was going to be fine in the first place!
I haven’t yet worked out what the optimal ratio of glass half fulls to glass half empties is, but if you’re buying rounds in the pub you probably don’t want anything more than one half full to three half empties!
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