Blog Archives

Plotting outside the rules, Kim Worthington

The Bright Side of my Condition Charlotte Randall Penguin, $30.00, ISBN 9780143570660 Charlotte Randall’s many strengths don’t, in general, extend to the provision of compelling plots. Tellingly, in an interview, she states, “I don’t really believe in ‘stories’ ”, and…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Strange rhythms, Ruth Nichol

Hokitika Town Charlotte Randall Penguin Books, $24.95, ISBN 9780143565390   The Hut Builder Laurence Fearnley Penguin Books, $40.00, ISBN 9780143205067   When I started Charlotte Randall’s Hokitika Town, I found it hard to get my head around the idiosyncratic patois…
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Into the labyrinth, Nicholas Reid

The Crocus Hour Charlotte Randall  Penguin Books, $28.00, ISBN 9780143008927 Whatever criticism you make of Charlotte Randall’s novels, you cannot say that she has no sense of place. In The Crocus Hour, as in her four earlier novels,  she ventures…
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The unexpected past, Jenny Robin Jones

What Happen Then, Mr Bones? Charlotte Randall Penguin, $28.00, ISBN 0143019171 With her three previous novels, Dead Sea Fruit, The Curative and Within the Kiss, Charlotte Randall has developed a voice clearly identifiable in New Zealand literature. In What Happen…
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Kissing and telling, Chris Else

Within the Kiss Charlotte Randall Penguin, $27.95, ISBN 0141006382 When I was young and stupid, I used to believe that reading a novel meant that you had to try to understand what the author wanted to say. If the writing…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Hanging matter, Marion McLeod

The Curative Charlotte Randall Penguin, $24.95, ISBN 0140297537 This is an amazing and amazingly good novel. The second novel is supposed to be the hardest but any reader coming to this one “blind” would judge it to be the work…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
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