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Stories easy to read

24/9/2016

Love & Magic
by John Hanlon

This is a collection of four short stories in a slim volume of 110 pages; with an attractive cover, quality paper, and the font size suiting the likely readership – mature adults who appreciate plainly-told stories and are not averse to a twist at the end.
The first of the four, the title story “Love and Magic”, is amusing and satisfying. The tale of Kate and Mahmoud the Magnificent will surely stay in the mind of any reader.
And if that’s right, I find it’s at least doubly so in the case of the second. “Growing Old With Richard”, has an ending that could well haunt me for some time to come.
Dare I read the next? Of course I do. Quite a different experience this time with “Yin and Yang” – satisfying again, though in a dubious-but-I’d-like-to-think-it-could-happen sort of way.
Each of the stories has in common a couple and their relationship – the nature and the quality of the love varying.
The fourth, “Forgotten Heroes”, is set more obviously in New Zealand. Another is located in Sydney, with the others less precise in their settings. The details of one story places it, time-wise, in the 1960s and the others have a similar feel to them.
Apart from wanting to push the delete button on many adverbs, I found each one easy to read and competently written. Together, they make up a modest collection that would make a good gift for an older relative – man or woman.

Review by J.M.

Title: Love & Magic
Author: John Hanlon
Publisher: Woven Words
ISBN: 9780992552435
Available: bookshops

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Gripping novel mixes fact and fiction

19/9/2016

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Scarlet & Magenta
by Lindsey Dawson

Scarlet & Magenta is a historical novel set in the 1880s in the then small town of Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty. It gives an in-depth view of what it was like for two British women, having come out to the colonies, to find themselves living away from their families, but still bound by the constraints of being British and adhering to the social norms of the mother country.
The two heroines the story revolves around are Violet and Anna. Violet has a scandalous past that was meant to be buried by a favourable but loveless marriage, and by moving to the other side of the world. Anna has also come to New Zealand, with her husband and child. Both husbands are bank managers, of rival banks, so have considerable social standing in the town, and their wives are expected to reflect their status.
     The two women, Violet the ‘scarlet woman’ with the scandalous past and Anna, form a friendship. Throw into the mix their combined interest in the "free thinking" movement, a scandal of extra-marital dalliances and unladylike behaviour and its effect on the life of the town, and you have the basis for a well-plotted story line. Good writing allows the reader to be transported into the lives of those members of the upper tier of local society.
Also intertwined through the story is the occurrence of the Tarawera disaster that buried the pink and white terraces, and the effect of that on the local population.
     I found the novel gripping, particularly as it is set in Tauranga where the streets are well known to me, and I could relate to it very well. In one passage it mentions the local baker and his bakery. A bakery floor and ovens were uncovered just a couple of years ago in the centre of the now modern city and can be seen in a fenced off area adjacent to a main street, so this gives the novel added authenticity.
     The chapters are prefixed by gems that were written for the Victorian women of the day and published in the local Bay of Plenty Times. These now give us further glimpses of life and attitudes of the times.
"A woman is a mighty handy thing to have about the house. She doesn't cost any more to keep than you'll give her, and she takes a great interest in you. If you go out at night, she'll be awake when you get home, and then she'll tell you all about yourself, and more too."
“Ah! It's woman’s mission to make fools of men," sighed a languid fop. "And how vexed we are," said a bright-eyed woman present "to find that nature has so often forestalled us."
     Of extra interest to me was reading the Notes by the author at the end of the book. These describe it as a fictional story but with information gleaned from letters written by Lindsey Dawson's great grandfather who was "unmanned" by the suicide of a friend who had formed an unfortunate attachment to a married woman and eventually solved his problems by shooting himself, thus giving us the basis of this novel. There were other instances of the intertwining of fact and fiction that resonated with the reviewer, such as the mention of the Athenree Homestead and the lives of its occupants, that also forms part of the history of the Bay of Plenty area.
     For all these reasons I found this novel a particularly delightful read.

Review by Merilyn Mary

Title: Scarlet and Magenta
Author: Lindsey Dawson
Publisher: Out Loud Press
ISBN: 9780473341428
Available: bookshops

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Well-researched intensive study

13/9/2016

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The Road to Hell: State Violence against Children in Postwar New Zealand
by Elizabeth Stanley

Dr Elizabeth Stanley’s biography indicates that state crime and human rights are two of her research interests, and The Road to Hell, no less than her publications list, certainly bears out that statement.
     The text is just under 101,000 words long and is supported by three comprehensive appendices, fifty pages of superbly-detailed notes and a full index. If taken together these illuminate more than adequately one aspect of the story of state intervention in children’s lives in New Zealand, and the aspect chosen by Dr Stanley is both dark and alarming.
     Stanley advances her arguments in twelve chapters, grounding the whole in the social changes wrought by the aftermath of World War II. She argues that the economic circumstances experienced by the ‘baby-boomers’, circumstances as diverse as steady urbanisation, the growing visibility of Maori, changing social mores such as those brought about by the availability of the contraceptive pill, economic downturn in the wake of the EEC and a rising unemployment that contrasted with the boom years of the 1950s all combined to produce welfarism of a sort with which NZ society struggled to cope.
     Changes to ‘traditional’ family structure and values propelled the state into the role of primary carer, and she argues that it was always under-prepared, under-trained and under-resourced to do so effectively. Apart from having implications for the quality of care offered and provided, along the way state incompetence produced several undesirable aspects to the salient features of the state-sponsored system of care.
These included what one might term ‘the institutionalisation of the institution’. Put otherwise, the view that children’s future was to centre upon and around the institution. This meant, she argues, that the institution could not be wrong in its views and structures, so that rebellion, dissent, challenge and resistance merely underlined the difficult nature of the material with which the institution was obliged to work and that its need to control inevitably cast the child as blameworthy victim.
In its turn, the need to control justified a variety and sequence of appallingly punitive measures including treat and leave deprivation, harshly excessive PT, chores that were designed to humiliate rather than to produce effective contribution to anything, solitary confinement, the nightmare of ECT and ultimately what Stanley terms ‘up-tariffing’ whereby children experienced increasing levels of onerous imprisonment up to and including jail time. All this, be it remembered, practised upon many children who were in care only through the dysfunction of their homes and not themselves.
     The result, argues Stanley as a result of her interviews of the sample of 105 ex-state wards, is an ongoing history of reduced circumstances that include relationship failure, poor housing and healthcare, financial problems, abandonment by support services and a high rate of unemployment.
These conclusions are drawn from a numerical sample of about the size of the numbers attending the average 21st or wedding anniversary party, and are justified only in the phrase “(Ex-state wards’) stigmatisation means that any aspirations for a positive future are systematically shut down.” (p164).
     This is where one begins to suspect that the pudding may be a touch over-egged, for there is no attempt made to contrast the experiences of the chosen 105 with others. It is certainly true that the parameters of the book are defined in the title as a story of ‘...state violence against children in postwar New Zealand’ and not, say, “a short survey of children in welfare care in postwar New Zealand”. However, and as Weber reminds us, “All knowledge of cultural reality...is always knowledge from particular points of view” and throughout Dr Stanley’s book a determined anti-state position does, in fact, show through.
This is nowhere more clearly evidenced than in her delineation of early attempts to deal with the earliest signs of social breakdown in the post-war period, attempts which she defines as indicative of an ‘expanding control industry’ and which saw welfare officials and Youth Aid police ‘looking for ways to fill their day’ using ‘children’s previously unremarked-upon problems or delinquencies…formalised into events that required further attention.’ (p33).
Dr Stanley notes, sometimes repetitively, how difficult it is for victims seeking redress to come forward with their stories. Despite the 21st century being a much different world from that of the second half of the 20th in terms of society’s willingness and even eagerness to grapple with social problems that were formerly swept under any available carpet – viz marriage breakdown, alcoholism, mental illness, STDs, extramarital pregnancy and the re-discovery of birth parents to cite a few – she claims that doing so results in an unacceptable ‘re-victimisation’ of ex-wards.
Again, even where a contemporary (2015) report into the way forward for Child, Youth and Family concerns recommends a child-centred approach in preference to a process-centred one, Dr Stanley rather sneeringly dismisses it as being, inter alia, ‘an actuarial approach to reduce government expenditure.’ (p200).
Other examples include a statement from one of her interviewees that ‘...an apology at the very highest level’ would be welcome which becomes, in Dr Stanley’s translation, ‘...a frank, sincere apology from the Prime Minister of New Zealand.’ She appears to overlook the convention that such apology is traditionally offered by responsible ministers and not by the Prime Minister.
     In summary, Dr Elizabeth Stanley has written a well-researched and intensive study of a darkly concerning part of the story of New Zealand’s attempts to grapple with the issues raised by social dislocation in the post-war period. One has no doubt that the importance of that aspect to her interviewees and respondents cannot be overestimated, but its importance in the context of other aspects of the same story begs the appearance of the work necessary to allow comparison and judgement.

Review by M J Burr
MA (Waikato); BA; MEd Admin (Massey)

Title: The Road to Hell: State Violence against Children in Postwar New Zealand
Author: Elizabeth Stanley
Publisher: Auckland University Press
ISBN: 9781869408541
Available: bookshops

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Literary collection repays effort

8/9/2016

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Tail of the Taniwha
by Courtney Sina Meredith

The Tail… is made up of 18 short stories, some flash-fiction length, none very long. As many are a fusion of prose and poetry, short pieces could be a better description.
These are not tales to be read through lightly – they demand and deserve concentration on what is being said, and how it is said.
  In the first, there’s a reference to someone needing help to understand the meaning of a subject – wanting an associate to help connect the dots. In another, a character is said to be good at colouring in the blank space between words and people. That idea gives a fair hint to what may be required of the reader.
  The second story, on first reading, looks to be idiosyncratic, random. Then you catch on, go back and reread. What first appeared as random thoughts work themselves into conversation that uncovers much about a relationship.
Other pieces are puzzles that reveal themselves once you take the trouble to work them out. Take note of formatting for clues – regular or italic font, darkness and lightness of the lines. Appreciate the frequent repetition and note the insertions.
Further on, other stories are set out like conversations, and between the exchanges backstory, depth, and feelings come to light. These ones I find the most effective – I can see the speakers, see into them as they reveal themselves through their words.
  There’s even one formatted as a play, with characters and stage directions –
April should be played by a male in his twenties and Grandpa should be a
  petite Tahitian woman wearing pearls. Ios should bark because he’s a
glorious mastiff.
This collection doesn’t hesitate to challenge the reader.
  As much as the stories are puzzles, so are the characters who people them – torn by conflicting thoughts, each one seriously attempting to work out life and where they fit into it.
  Locations vary. Characters are or have been in New Zealand, Samoa, Australia, England, Europe, America. Between members of family, friends, lovers, there’s dislocation, separation, yet often with continuing connection across distances. Dreams and words are common motifs, as are food and drink, art and literature. Yet there’s conundrum here too as in more than one story a character criticizes artistic/literary artifice.
  It’s an attractive hard-cover book, gold-coloured, stiffly bound – not a volume for bed-reading. To appreciate this collection fully, you’ll need patience, good eyesight and a well-lighted spot in which to sit. Some stories are on dark coloured paper with indistinct lettering. Even in the case of some on white stock, words are deliberately hard to decipher in parts – much as in life.
Tail of the Taniwha is a literary collection, but one that repays effort put into grappling with it. By the time I’m at the end I’m thinking the volume is something of an examination, a test of the reader. When you’ve gone through the stories more than once, and feel you have had a rewarding reading experience, I expect you’ve passed the test.

Review by Kauri Wood

Title: Tail of the Taniwha
Author: Courtney Sina Meredith
Publisher: Beatnik Publishing
ISBN: 9780992264895
Available: bookshops

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A web of very relevant dilemmas

3/9/2016

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DAYS ARE LIKE GRASS
By Sue Younger

The third page of Days Are Like Grass ends with six ominous words: Just like that. Your life, ruined. The sense of foreboding lingers long after those words, dated 1970, have given way to scenes set in the more recent past (2010). On that ill-fated day in 1970, in fact one life was ruined and another, that of baby Claire Bowerman, blighted for the next forty years.
By 2010 Claire is a skilled paediatric surgeon, recently returned to Auckland after many years in England. Claire has returned reluctantly to New Zealand. Although the tragedies in her past still haunt her, outwardly she is tough and in control, and neither she nor her partner, Yossi, and least of all Claire’s daughter, 15-year-old Roimata, are prepared for the way the cloak of protective secrecy with which Claire has guarded her life begins to unravel. When a patient’s aunt recognises in Roimata a link to her own extended family, Claire feels her life spiralling out of control. The fierce love that binds Claire, Yossi and Roimata is tested over and over again.
In Days Are Like Grass, Younger explores the intricacies of a dysfunctional family and its accompanying estrangement; unconditional love and love’s betrayal; denial, forgiveness and reconciliation. There is all this, along with terrible grief and amazing joy in Days Are Like Grass, and more. Claire’s family drama is set against her work in Starship Children’s Hospital where there is also suspense, sorrow and inspiration.
Younger has woven an incredible web in the plot and subplots of Days Are Like Grass. With astounding skill, she keeps pulling the threads tighter and drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the dramas and traumas in Claire’s life. This book is beautifully written. The prose is succinct and punchy – there is no extra padding: like Claire herself, the story is crisp and fast-paced. Although those opening pages were never far from my mind, the mystery wasn’t completely solved, in a totally unexpected way, until the very last pages. So no peeping! I was also impressed with the way Younger so cleverly used the second person singular to tell key parts of this story.
I found Days Are Like Grass a truly gripping read. Aucklanders will enjoy the vividly described scenes – some seedy, others gorgeously luxuriant – but this book will delight lovers of the mystery-plus-family-in-crisis genre all over the world. For non-Kiwi readers, a useful glossary of Maori words completes the book.

Review by Carolyn McKenzie
Carolyn McKenzie is a writer, freelance proofreader, copy editor, and translator from Italian to English.
She kindly offers accommodation at reasonable rates for FlaxFlower writers in Thames (Waikato)
and Ventimiglia Alta (Liguria, Italy). [email protected]

Title: Days Are Like Grass
Author: Sue Younger
Publisher: Eunoia Publishing
ISBN: 9780994104762
Available: bookshops

Comments

Stories easy to read

Gripping novel mixes fact and fiction

Well-researched intensive study

Literary collection repays effort

A web of very relevant dilemmas

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