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Absolute triumph

20/12/2016

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The Last Time We Spoke
by Fiona Sussman

Published by Allison & Busby in 2016, and containing 319 pages, this book came heralded as a winner of the Kobo/NZ Author Publishing Prize, and a shortlisted entrant for the NZ Heritage Book Awards. Could it really be that good? And if it is, what makes it so? And the answers are “Yes, it is” and “Everything”. But in expanding on those assertions I’m going to abandon the cool, academic detachment of the third person and give way to the viscera where the hugely-talented Sussman largely appealed to me and occasionally kicked me.
  First things first – The Last Time We Spoke is a redemption novel revolving around an unspeakable crime: a home invasion resulting in murder, maiming and rape. Carla has the misfortune to survive it where her husband and son do not and is condemned to live with her grief, her anger and her hate for the perpetrator, who gets fourteen years for his part in the crime. In addition to losing a family more precious even than most, her way of life and the certainties about it that most citizens take for granted and her hopes of any sort of future, Carla enters a downward spiral that skirts a predictable outcome which she survives by a thread.
  That thread attains a tenuous strength through an epiphany that leads to her involvement with the perpetrator, Ben. Slowly, terribly slowly, and after the almost-inevitable false starts, she sets him, and herself, on the path to some sort of triumphant redemption. Teaching him to read is the least part of her effect upon him, for the beauty of her purpose tames the beast of his soul. Carla’s achievement is most touchingly encapsulated in the butterfly episode, but I resist the temptation to expand on that because it needs reading, re-reading and then reading some more.
      So much for first things.
     Second things: in looking at what makes this infinitely better than any other light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel story, what was immediately apparent to me was the sheer power of the writing. The chief ingredient in this was the ring of authenticity present in the book from earliest times and throughout. Dialogue, attitude, behaviour and scene-setting all bespeak the investigation and research that went into painting colour, life and credibility into what might easily have been a down-and-dirty, monochromatic story of true bottom-feeders – or as Sussman has it, “the scum of the earth”.
    Sussman has a truly enviable power to evoke, and I will forever covet some of her descriptive passages, viz. a girl with “eyes that were a catch-your-breath-blue”; a head-trauma patient with “his small face stuck on to his bandaged head”; the atmosphere inside a prison van which “was a foul brew of disinfectant, traffic fumes and old urine”, and the one that turned me inside out when she writes of Carla’s bereaved, devastated and desolate life “when every minute is empty and drags its feet toward nothingness”. I have never read a better description of the utter hopelessness of a life sentence that has nothing to do with prisons.
   For me, much of the technical excellence of the book lies in Sussman’s clever juxtapositioning of characters and scenes. Two examples of many – we meet two women facing the watershed of pregnancy. Carla is inexpressibly overjoyed at a long-hoped-for miracle, while Miriama is resigned, apprehensive and despondent. Shortly after, we see the collision of two polarised worlds in the differing first-day-home experiences of Jack, whose entire life thereafter will be passed in the love and happiness of being wanted, and Ben, a mere by-blow who is lucky to survive his first night in the company of an abusive, selfish and violent father. ‘As the twig is bent...’
     Chapters are linked by the presence of an Atua, an all-seeing eye who comments on the story as it develops and who can therefore offer the viewpoint of traditional Maoridom on events and characters. This is needed because, bereft of their tikanga, the Maori characters of the story cannot do so, and in my view it worked well although some of the proselytising grated; particularly the hoary old saw that the suppression of te reo was a Pakeha plot rather than an expression of Sir Apirana Ngata’s injunction of “E tipu e rea” to grasp “the tools of the Pakeha”.
    The Last Time We Spoke is an absolute triumph. If you read only one book this Christmas, make it this one. If you read only one author, make it Fiona Sussman.

Review by M J Burr
Title: The Last Time We Spoke
Author: Fiona Sussman
Publisher: Allison&Busby (London)
Distributor NZ: Allen & Unwin (NZ)
RRP: $32.99
ISBN: 978-0-7490-2026-2
Formats: Print, Kindle, Kobo

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In-depth research

16/12/2016

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​The World, the Flesh & the Devil: the Life and Opinions of Samuel Marsden in England and the Antipodes 1765–1838
by Andrew Sharp


The sub-title of this book is the Life and Opinions of Samuel Marsden…, and the emphasis is actually on Marsden’s opinion, based largely on his letters and certain publications.
  Although an evangelical missionary, his actual life in New South Wales was largely that of a farmer, and as a magistrate, where he got the reputation as a ‘flogging judge’. Professor Sharp thinks that this and other aspersions cast on his character are misleading. One needs to look at the short appendix at the end of the book to get the context for this, where the Australian historians are found to be the greater ‘calumniators’, whereas New Zealand writers are ‘dismissive’ due to their lack of interest.
    If Sharp’s intention is to restore Rev. Marsden’s character or, at least, provide the context for the events, he has chosen a rather tortuous method. In fact, Marsden spent considerable time and effort in answering his contemporary critics, and the various calumnies cast against his character. There also seems to be a significant quantity of personal correspondence to draw on. So, having done the in-depth research into Marsden’s entire missionary career, Professor Sharp is determined to use all his material, and try to present it in Marsden’s own words to a large extent, including long quotations.
    Despite being far too long, it is quite straightforward to point to the centre of the book: Marsden’s attitude to authority, based on personal morality. So while Marsden believed in authority structures, he expected the incumbents in positions of power to act as gentlemen, Christian gentlemen.
   His first clash with authority figures came on the voyage out to ‘New Holland’ (Australia). Having condemned the ship’s captain for not observing the Sabbath and for his fornication with a female servant, Marsden finds himself having to deliver his first child on board without any assistance. Elizabeth, his long-suffering wife, survives this and other hardships – we gather this by way of asides in the text.
     Most of the book is about the advancement of Marsden’s status in colonial society. His main conflict comes in the form of the New South Wales governor, Lachlan Macquarie, and his assistant named Campbell. Marsden and Macquarie inevitably clash over policy and practice, and rather than come to blows they take legal action. This is in a context of murder and mayhem amongst the convict settlers, and drunken debauchery amongst most of the others. Marsden takes particular exception to what was called the ‘Philo Free’ libel, a critique of the CMS missionary practice written by Campbell. This is a classic example of what Sharp calls the ‘politics of amour propre’ and it takes up the central part of the book. It also has a kernel of truth that reflects the missionary dilemma.
     It turns out the missionary stations established in Tahiti and elsewhere, struggle to survive and make themselves relevant to the native populations, when not actually being physically threatened. To become relevant, involved trading with the natives; and the economic imperatives taking precedence over evangelical purpose was the basis of Campbell’s critique.
    This was problematic before the New Zealand mission station was established by Marsden, and became worse in practice whenever he returned to Parramatta, leaving his men behind. Despite instruction otherwise, the missionaries ended up having to provide muskets and powder to local iwi for them to pursue their wars, and then put up with the results: slavery and cannibalism. Civilising the natives needed to precede any possible conversions to Christianity. But this would require more fraternisation and therefore fornication.
     Sharp suggests that the chapters in the book can read as separate essays. Due to the overall length of the text this is essential, but the Philo Free libel comes up again and again. Sharp also has the habit of flagging an issue in an early chapter, and not fully explaining it to a later chapter, making continuity a problem.
     The later chapters on the New Zealand mission in the Bay of Islands are important, and one can learn about our colonial history. But it takes too long to get there. While it is good that a university press is prepared to publish a major scholarly work like this, it needs some heavy editing unless the intended readers are to be restricted to those interested in missionary history and the particular controversies around Samuel Marsden: i.e. preaching to the converted.

Review by S A Boyce
Title: The Word, the Flesh & the Devil
Author: Andrew Sharp
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781 86940 812 1
RRP: $75.00
Available: bookshops

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Life from different perspective

13/12/2016

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What Does the Sea Sound Like?
by Evie Mahoney


This autobiography is written by a “child of deaf adults” (CODA) and describes the recollections of the author growing up in Auckland as part of a large New Zealand family, with loving parents who communicated to the society around them in a slightly different way.
     Both the author’s parents were deaf and, as the eldest of their six children, Evie Mahoney learnt at a very early age to act as interpreter between her parents and the hearing world. This gave her a multi-dimensional approach to communicating in both the world of the hearing and the world of the deaf.
     The author’s childhood was a happy one, otherwise typical of the times, the 1940s to 50s. She describes small delights like the coloured fountain at Mission Bay, her much loved pets, and simple toys that brought her much pleasure.
     Living on the edge of the deaf and hearing cultures brought its problems but she learnt at an early age “empathy, patience, good learning skills, respect and courtesy.”
     Examples of her interpreting skills are dotted throughout the book. For instance, when her father communicated in one small comment “Snob. Awful,” what was meant was “She thinks she is better that other people. She is awful.”
      At home there was limited vocabulary but at school there was constant chatter and the author learnt the difference between direct communication at home and conversational language at school.
       It is through such insights, described in a very clear and readable way, that readers learn of the challenges the deaf community faced in earlier days, and how society has grown in knowledge and understanding of such difficulties. The situation has improved since sign language was introduced in the 1970’s and then became an official language of New Zealand in 2006.
     This book and its story contribute to the education of those of us who come in contact with the deaf and hard of hearing. It gives strategies of how to communicate with the deaf. It is heartening to know that children in primary schools are now taught the rudiments of signing.
       I loved reading “What Does the Sea Sound Like? ”. It is informative, well written and gives us a snapshot of life in New Zealand from a slightly different perspective. The family photos included show a happy family, and the final chapter but one, “The Legacy”, lets the reader know of the successes of her siblings in their chosen careers, which rounds off the narrative perfectly.

Review by Merilyn Mary
Title: What Does the Sea Sound Like?
Author: by Evie Mahoney
Publisher: Mary Egan Publishing
ISBN: 9780473367718
RRP: $30.00
Available: from Greene Phoenix: paul.gpm@xtra.co.nz 021 722 210; 06 356 4470
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Fascinating detail in novel

9/12/2016

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​Rena
by Laura Nicholas-Grieve


This novel has as its settings a Maori seaside village in Taranaki, and a nearby settlement of Europeans. The time is the historically crucial period between the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi and the beginning of the Land Wars. It is a time of uncertainty, yet one of numberless possibilities for the future. By the story’s end, many of these possibilities have been closed off.
     At the heart of the novel is a love affair between Wikitoria, beautiful but willful daughter of the local chieftain Rawhiti, and Thomas, worthy son of the local European Methodist minister. Wikitoria is also the grand-daughter of the eponymous Rena, Rawhiti’s mother and a much respected tribal tohunga.
     Considerable, often fascinating, detail is given concerning domestic customs and practices within the village, and how these are being threatened or changed by increasing contact with the culture of the settlers.
     With obvious sympathy for almost all of her characters, the author takes us into the whare of the major protagonists, exploring the complex relationships between them. The trials and triumphs of the love affair are played out against the more general deterioration of relations between Maori and settlers. The reader is presented with an account of personal tragedies resulting from the intransigence or misunderstandings of individuals, and of the widespread tragedy resulting from the greed and arrogance of some of the settlers and the government as they trample over the willingness by many on both sides to live peaceably and with mutual respect.
      By the end, Wikitoria and Thomas are apparently doomed to live separate lives – but there is a hint that the love story may not yet be quite over.  
    The author’s sincerity,  and her enthusiasm for her characters, is ever apparent; though the writing style is at times overblown, and the sentences are often awkwardly constructed. These niggles are minor, however, compared to the, at times, irritating display of deficiencies in editing and proof reading.

Review by Tony Chapelle
Title: Rena
Author: Laura Nicholas-Grieve
Publisher: Rangitawa Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9941268-4-9
RRP: $35
Available:
http://www.rangitawapublishing.com; Amazon; lk.rr.nic@gmail.co
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Theme of cultural diversity

6/12/2016

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​The Assyrian Girl
by Thomas W Devine 

     This is a complex story with a theme of cultural diversity.
     Storyline: Tara, a 15-year old Assyrian girl, is rescued by a security contractor, Matt Couper, while he is stationed in Iraq. She is sent eventually to a New Zealand refugee camp, then given a home with a Muslim couple and their adult son.
     Tara learns quickly that because of the way men of the faith think, life for a Muslim woman is no more advanced in New Zealand than in her own country of Iraq. Through involvement with other such women in a New Zealand University Tara starts to recognise how their situation is sometimes unequal in relation to a man’s. It is very strict and they are not allowed to live as freely, in relation to their clothing as well as their outside involvement in the New Zealand community. Tara starts rebelling and asking questions, and even her best friend becomes angry with her over some of her choices. Abdur, the son of her host family, has fallen for her rebellious nature and wishes to have the power to control her, but he has other affiliations that lead him along a further path. Matt too, is drawn into a situation that could have a disastrous outcome.
       I read this book twice as I felt it deserved a second reading in order to appreciate the intricate theme of cultural perspective.
     Thomas Devine has crafted a very strong story based in a war that had a horrific outcome for some such as Tara. He incorporates his knowledge of religion and culture, and how these intersect when western and eastern worlds merge. I totally respected his very un-judgemental approach.
     There are strong beliefs on each side and Thomas manages to portray both worlds very well, showing how they can survive but not without strong knowledge of each other’s priorities. As a reader with a strong cultural background myself, I applaud his book as a well-written and very good read.

Review by Laura Nicholas Grieve
Title: The Assyrian Girl
Author: Thomas W Devine
Publisher: Thomas W Devine
ISBN: 978-1535127820
Available: Paperback & Kindle available via Amazon; paperback: Writers Plot Readers Read, Upper Hutt bookstore

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Really lovely read

2/12/2016

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EVEN TIME
by Chris Eyes


This is a novella, and only once I neared the end did I realise how much I didn’t want this to be a novella. I wanted to stay in this story.
   It made me feel poetic, although I am not, and I wanted to use words like lyrical, evocative and musical in my review, but I won’t. It’s just a really lovely read. And even that sounds too passive. But I was hooked on the first line.
  Written by a  poet/musician, it shows; these expressions of my home country feel comfortable, like coming home. This story and style fit me.
  Eyes goes straight into the story of Matthew and Lillian. It is tight, complete and eloquent, yet rippling with raw emotion. I felt it, heard it, and smelt it.
  Like ‘shotgun painting’; lovely lovely imagery, which had me drifting off to where I might find such a weapon and canvas.
    This story is about a self-absorbed young woman, and an older man with a death wish who is already dying. Father and daughter are reunited after 20 years with a lot of explaining to do. She pushes the boundaries while he is unsure of what his are.
     Various scenes gave me goose bumps. Various scenes made me cry.
     And a most excellent end. Oh, the climax, the climax. More tears…
     The cover art by Tammie Riddle is quite stunning.
   At some stage I must mention the simple spelling and punctuation errors, which initially I felt off-putting. But they could very quickly be sorted by a proof reader.

Review by Poppy
Title: Even Time
Author: Chris Eyes
Publisher: Chris Eyes via Mary Egan Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-473-36183-9
RRP: $22.95
Available: In Taupo at Paper Plus, the iSite and Taupo Museum; or via Author’s Facebook page, or as an e-book on Amazon

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