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Dark humour in gothic novel

28/1/2021

Bush Sick Land
by Julian Barrett

It is the late sixties in south Waikato, a region of small towns and settlements, farmland and hydro-dams and exotic and native forests. Colin Coates is sole-charge constable in one of these small settlements, one where he has himself grown up. Two macabre deaths are about to cause problems for the policeman, and the investigations into these deaths are to reveal hidden secrets concerning other members of the community.
The unravelling of the mysteries surrounding these two deaths is, in essence, the plot of this novel, which is driven on mainly through dialogue. Coates has personal problems of his own, some of these exacerbated by the fact one of the dead was an old friend and the other is the son of an old flame, Phyllis. He drinks too much, he doesn’t seem to fully appreciate his extraordinarily understanding wife, and he is in danger of losing the confidence of his pre-teen son. He also has to deal with a know-it-all detective from Hamilton who is assigned to the case.
As events unfold, we are introduced to a number of other characters, including rival motorbike gangs, a wealthy forestry entrepreneur, a pharmacist with two personable daughters, a farmer who is convinced that his trousers left hanging on the washing line were incinerated by a passing sputnik, and a man who seems to have taken up residence in the loft of his house, obsessed with locating a non-existent leak in his roof. We learn of various goings-on, including strip-tease dancing at the local milk-bar, drug-taking of various sorts, an aborted rape, the possible sighting of a ghost, and an illicit love affair.
The book opens with a recounting of the legend of Hatupatu and his encounters with the fierce bird-woman, Kurungaituku/Kurangaituku. (In Māori legend, Kurungaituku captured the young man and kept him in her cave amongst her eviscerated prey – though he later escaped and led her to her death in the thermal springs.) This bird theme is revived at times throughout, with reference to the Harpies, to dismembered carcases, to an amateur taxidermist’s collection, and even to the self-destructing Phyllis’s boozy bird-themed drinking glasses.
There is certainly a lot going on in this book, and the author holds it all together rather well. There are moments of dark humour as well as horrifying descriptions. The prose is lively with some slick metaphors, most of which come off. The dialogue is carried on a little too long at times, but it mostly has a distinctive authenticity and is a reminder of just how bigoted and uninformed New Zealanders could be fifty or so years ago – and not only in rural communities. It is a bleak picture of life that is depicted here, with many of the accepted routines being fundamentally destructive.
This is a bizarre and gothic novel– yet oddly entertaining despite (or because of) that. And it has the perfect twist at the end. Nuff said.

Review by Tony Chapelle

Title: Bush Sick Land
Author: Julian Barrett
Publisher: Independent
ISBN: 9798633647822
RRP: $ $24.99
Available: Formats: ebook and paperback. Available as a Kindle ebook (worldwide) and Amazon paperback (overseas only). In NZ, paperbacks are available from Browsers Bookshop and Auteur House in Hamilton or contact the author directly www.thepaintedclou.com julian.barrett8@gmail.com

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Entertaining and well written

21/1/2021

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Addressed to Greta
by Fiona Sussman

‘Good on you, love,’ the old fellow said, his Adam’s apple tracking up and down his bristly neck. ‘Bloody nuisance, pukekos.’
Greta blushed. ‘I didn’t mean to kill it,’ she said, horrified that he thought the act deliberate….
A modest hero, too.’ The man gave a gruff chuckle…
That’s how we meet Greta Jellings – the first sentences of Addressed to Greta establishing setting, tone and the central character.
By just a few more pages into the novel we’re well acquainted with her – background, fears (many of those), and her self assessment. Greta is certainly modest, but no hero.
By her own confession she lacks any degree of sophistication. She doesn’t even have a middle name to distinguish her from any other Greta Jellings wherever they may be. And, as though to give final proof of her lack of worldliness, hadn’t she gone and fallen in love with a gay man.
  Who was she? That depended on who was asking. She was an amalgamation
   of who her mother, her boss, and her few friends had wanted her to be.
   She does know her way around the office of Blue Sun Spas, Pools and Pipes and the suburbs between that and her Devonport home. She has extra-large feet and a pet chook called Marilyn Monroe. As for the rest of the world, she’s very much an ingénue. Whatever happened to her plans for fame?
But things are about to change.
To her own disbelief, no spoilers here about how, Greta’s life is upturned. From the safety of the North Shore, we accompany her and those distinctively large feet to distant shores, all the way both despairing at and sympathizing with her lack of sophistication.
Addressed to Greta is entertaining and well written.
I’m always wary of sequels, series even more so, but I wouldn’t mind meeting Greta again.
As Walter might have written to her – you’ll understand that better when you’ve read the book – ‘Hey Grets [sic], it’s been good knowing you’.

Review by Bronwyn Elsmore

Title: Addressed to Greta
Author: Fiona Sussman
Publisher: Bateman Books
ISBN: 978-1-98-853860-0
RRP: $34.99
Available: bookshops

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Witty entertaining short stories

14/1/2021

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Life Sentences: Shared Short Stories
by Peter Beatson, Tony Chapelle, David Fountain

The idea behind Life Sentences is three writers use the same sentence or paragraph to start a story and then finish it. The result is 38 short stories, each averaging 500 words.
    The starters were provided by a member of the group or a friend. The result proves that if three writers use the same starting point each writer will find a different way to continue the story. Apart from the start, no story is the same. They are fun, tongue in cheek, and creative. There are some that are serious but mostly they entertain. For those who like to read about other places there are stories that take readers to other countries. However, most are set in New Zealand.
    There are stories of extraordinary beauty such as those found in Harmony where the writers are given this short sentence: Despite the harmony, he shuddered.
    This short sentence becomes a story about the crafting of an aeolian harp in Spring Wind Song (88).  Music, Metempsychosis (89) is extraordinarily beautiful with a comparison to the Gods and the birth of Stephen Hawking. Requiem teleports the reader to another world where a recording of Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ plays.
    The interesting thing about this exercise is that it inspires the writers to experiment with genre. For example, this sentence: Imprinted on the yellowing pages of the old book, just at the beginning of the third chapter, was the outline of a fern frond that must have been used as a bookmark generates stories from three different genre: romance, historical, memoir.
    This book is perfect for anyone who aspires to become a writer. The prompt that sets each story in motion can be used by writers as story starters. Encouragement to do this is at the end of each completed set of stories.
    Some may say that providing the start to a story is prescriptive and could compromise the writer’s creative spirit. However, when you read the outcomes of the exercise from these three writers there is no question that the opposite happens. The supplied sentences trigger their imaginations, and it is interesting to see where that takes them.
    Exercises like these train writers to keep to topic, expand an idea and explore one’s own creativity. The 500 word limit also keeps the stories tight.
    It is hugely entertaining with some of the stories causing me to laugh out loud as in The Moment by Tony Chapelle. Other stories revealed a skill in developing character as in Peter Beatson’s Bless ‘em All and for political comment as in The Leader Grieves by David Fountain
    It is essentially a book of witty, thoroughly entertaining short stories.

Review by Suraya Dewing
Founder: Stylefit, suraya@stylefit.co.nz

Title: Life Sentences: Shared Short Stories
Author: Peter Beatson, Tony Chapelle, David Fountain
Publisher: Rangitawa Publishing rangitawa@xtra.co.nz
ISBN: 978-0-9951406-2-2
RRP: $30
Available: in print from bookshops and online bookshops or from publisher. Available on kindle through Amazon

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Intriguing story told in novel

7/1/2021

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The Forger and the Thief
by Kirsten McKenzie

This mystery-drama is set in Florence, Italy, in 1966, amid the devastation of rising floodwaters. The entertaining story alternates between five strangers: the guest, the wife, the cleaner, the policeman, and the student. Their lives are loosely connected, although they all have differing agendas. The impending deluge threatens to expose their darkest secrets.
The time period is reflected in the ingrained chauvinism of the policeman. Some of the characters are quite unlikeable, but that only makes them more interesting and increased my curiosity about what was going to happen to them, and to uncover what secrets they were hiding.
The chapters are short and swap back and forth between the main characters, but each one is clearly labelled at the start.
The ancient city is steeped in artistic and historical treasures and, although 2 decades on, there are still ramifications from the Nazis’ wartime plunder of artwork. Ownership and possession are dealt with behind closed doors, as are forgery and theft. Passion and greed fuel many art transactions.
The prose is beautifully descriptive and paints a vivid cultural backdrop of monuments, paintings, and sculptures. The river moves through the story like the sixth character.
Towards the end, there’s a touch of supernatural, which I found rather disjointed from the rest of the book, and I wondered if the story would be better off without this element.
Overall, this intriguing story is a rich tapestry capturing events during a historical and catastrophic event. The enduring spirit of the people of Florence and their dedication to preserving their art treasures shine off the pages.

Review by Wendy Scott
Award-Winning Author

Title: The Forger and the Thief
Author: Kirsten McKenzie
Publisher: Squabbling Sparrows Press
ISBN: 9780995136915
RRP: $34.95
Available: paper: from all good independent bookstores, ebook: most digital platforms, see https://books2read.com/forgerandthief

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Dark humour in gothic novel

Entertaining and well written

Witty entertaining short stories

Intriguing story told in novel

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