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Brilliant collection of stories

27/7/2021

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The Piano Girls 
by Elizabeth Smither

 
There is something almost magical about the way a well-crafted short story can reveal to the reader a facet or facets of the human condition that they hitherto had not even recognised, or, in other cases, can bring gasps of recognition. Most of the stories in this collection do just this, and much more. They leave the reader reflective, sad or amused by turn, and well-rewarded by the insights given.
    There is a special intimacy in each and every one of these twenty offerings. They take us into the realms of private dreams, of friendships altered by the passage of time, of secret yearnings and the poignant games played when relationships break down.
    At the heart of most of the stories is a relationship that is either withering or growing as time passes. Sometimes these feature the fraught but deep links between mother and daughter, or school friendships or animosities. The tensions are played out against beautifully evoked atmosphere of the times and the places in which the stories are set.
    All of the stories have an element of surprise, perhaps none more so than one relating the response of a woman who is afflicted by a debilitating and embarrassing skin disease. Only one with the author’s highly refined skills could make of a success of such a theme – it is a story of both courage and humour.
    Some of the stories feature cooking and the pleasures of eating, and the rituals that accompany these activities. Here the links between food and the enjoyment or otherwise of human company are subtly drawn out, always with that touch of humour and compassion.
    Another theme is music, and how it can influence mood, bringing together or dividing, enhancing or diminishing our enjoyment of the world.
    But there is something else that underlies many of these stories. It is a kind of nostalgia. Not a sentimentalisation of the past – Smither is far too fine a writer to be guilty of this – but rather an elegiac acceptance that much in which we once found comfort and enjoyment has become either irretrievably lost. or at least increasingly difficult to achieve. This is perhaps most touchingly illustrated by the story ‘Christmas with Tallulah’. It is the final story in the book, and it demonstrates in very human terms that greater wealth and mobility and all of those things that have allegedly made our lives richer and more rewarding, have come too often at the cost of the closest and dearest of family relationships.
    The twenty stories are not presented according to any clear theme. The volume is rather more like a lucky dip. It doesn’t matter which story you start with, as you can be sure it will be a gem. ‘The Piano Girls’ is a brilliant collection of stories from one of our very finest writers.

Review by Tony Chapelle
Title: The Piano Girls
Author: Elizabeth Smither
Publisher:  Quentin Wilson Publishing 
ISBN: 9780995132986
RRP: $35
Available: paper: bookshops
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Story about pros and cons

14/7/2021

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Takahē Trouble
by Sally Sutton      
pictures by Jenny Cooper


Celebrating another New Zealand story by well-known children’s author, Sally Sutton – and inspired by true events of escape, rescue and returning home.
    Sally’s writing is to the point and graphic. It asks questions as well as posing potential problems to do with this pair’s daring escape. Should they/shouldn’t they?
    The takahē are named Walter and Manaaki, and they have quite opposite personalities. While Manaaki wants all of the world’s adventures at once, Walter is reserved and hesitant and points out the dangers lurking out there in the big wide world. So this is a story about pros and cons; great learning perspective for youngsters.
    At the rear of the book there’s a whole lot of interesting facts about the takahē, and where this pair now live, on Motutapu Island in the Hauraki Gulf.
    The cover art immediately captures the reader’s attention and sets the scene for a new adventure. It’s Jenny Cooper’s quality art that brings this story to life so aptly. Her pictures are so vivid and the expressions and emotions shown on the birds' as well as the humans’ faces are really great.
    My grandson loves books, and he’s excited that this one is our next read.

Review by Susan Tarr
Title: Takahē Trouble
Author: Sally Sutton, pictures Jenny Coopefr
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 9781775437109
RRP: $19.99
Available: bookshops
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A life full of drama

7/7/2021

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The Only Living Lady Parachutist
by Catherine Clarke


Fiction based on a real person, informed by research, often leads to an intriguing story. And so it is with this one.
    In this fictionalized story the main character is Australian-born Lillian, with sister Ruby a close second. But then there’s a troupe of other names till we wonder, who is she really? As she does herself. In fact, the very title becomes in doubt – is there, indeed, only one living lady parachutist? 
    “What is it about you that attracts trouble?” Lillian’s despairing mother asks of her daughter. What indeed? As the story proceeds it becomes more and more a perceptive question.
    But, put those questions aside for the moment, step right up, pay your shilling, and enjoy the spectacle. 
    
In a time before aeroplanes, Lillian first takes to the air as a trapeze artist, a most unladylike profession set in a carnival style atmosphere, clad in a chemise-style dress showing rather more than a young lady of the 1880s ought to.
    It seems a reasonable progression, perhaps, that Lillian’s imagination should be captured by the idea of taking her trapeze further aloft by ascending in that most amazing contraption the hot-air balloon and, all things going to plan, descending by means of a parachute. 
    If Mama was shocked by the trapeze, imagine her horror when Lillian then has a turn at stage work, when everyone knew that actresses were no better than they should be! It’s a fitting interlude though, as her life to come is full of drama. When her partner Harry (and that is yet another part of the story) remonstrates with her she chides him “You have such old-fashioned ideas.”
    1894 and the scene shifts from Australia to New Zealand when she sets out with hot-air balloon and parachute on a highly publicized tour. Though this country may just have voted to allow women to vote, such physical acts still seemed scandalous when performed by women, as well as risky as these attempts at “perilous navigation of the air” often proved.
    Within the narration, there are occasional insertions that point to later revelations about Lillian – adding to the tangled web that we find her life has become, finally helping us, the reader, to sort out the truth from imagination, the fact from fiction.
    The author has gone to considerable and admirable lengths to bring this time and such people back into present-day focus. Frequent references to, and quotes from, newspapers of the time, add reminders that this work of fiction is based firmly on fact. As such it informs as well as entertains, though there’s a slip where Hawaii rather than the Tongan islands is referred to as the Friendly Isles.
    The book is well produced and designed, with chapter-heads suggestive of the period in which the story is set. 
    “A story of courage and ambition, and the consequences of secrets and lies” so the back cover blurb promises, and The Only Living Lady Parachutist fulfils the promise. 

Review by Bronwyn Elsmore
Title: The Only Living Lady Parachutist
Author: Catherine Clarke
Publisher:  Idle Fancy Press
ISBN: 9780473571474
RRP: $35.00
Available: paper: bookshops
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