Blog Archives

Poem – John O’Connor

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Memo: Fragrant as a Rose   It is reported that Comrade Stalin has smiled. Fleetingly. Between vodka and signing permissions for fresh interrogations, Comrade Beria had mentioned the Civic Crèche and an upcoming visit to Australia. Comrade Stalin’s distrust of…

See more ›

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Poem

Poem – Mary Macpherson

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Chiaroscuro (for Terry)   It’s clear how quickly darkness swims up the gums – there’s light and shadow, then the silver trunks and tossed heads are gone. Bats call in darkness. I’ve seen this in Auckland too – a city…

See more ›

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Poem

Mating rituals, Jock Phillips

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Mates  text by Jim Hopkins, photos by Julie Riley HarperCollins, $29.95, ISBN 1869503678   Telephone rings. S.Nag:  Hullo. Sam here. B.Loke:  Gidday, mate. Brucey here. How about coming down to the pub to watch the footie on the big screen?…

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , ,
Posted in Non-fiction, Review, Sociology

The cave of making, Chris Else

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Below Tim Corballis Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 0864734131 Let me say at the outset that this is a remarkable novel; subtle, complex, delicately wrought. It is the kind of work that leaves you thinking not just about the material…

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Poem – Nick Williamson

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Margaret’s Roses   Christmas Day and Uncle Frank is glued to the Queen’s Speech. Her pigeon voice glides over oceans and out of the fraying mouth of a wireless. She wishes us well stuck at far-flung corners of the Commonwealth…

See more ›

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Poem

Obiturary — Allen Curnow

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Allen Curnow (1911-2001)   When did a wind of the extreme South before Mix autumn, spring and death? (“Elegy on My Father”, Allen Curnow, 1949) I cannot remember when I first encountered Allen Curnow’s poetry. It seems to have been…

See more ›

Tagged with: , , ,
Posted in Obituaries

Words for music perhaps, Nick Bollinger

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Love This Life: Lyrics 1978-2001 Neil Finn Allen & Unwin, $35.00, ISBN 1865085081 Lyrics without melody Mahinarangi Tocker Street Women Press, $19.95, ISBN 0473074427 I have always been a passionate pop fan, but never a great lover of the printed…

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , , , ,
Posted in Literature, Music, Non-fiction, Poetry, Review

Perils and blessings, Charlotte Yates

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

“Imprints” I have three Joni Mitchell albums in my collection – The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Blue and Heijira. They have acted as both a personal and a professional musical resource. They’ve become albums I return to, not exclusively but…

See more ›

Tagged with: , ,
Posted in Imprints

The uses of memory, Louise O’Brien

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

Little Moon  Emma Neale Vintage, $24.95, ISBN 1869414756 Little Moon, Emma Neale’s second novel, following the success of Night Swimming in 1998, is an account of the troubled childhood and adolescence of a young woman growing up in New Zealand.…

See more ›

Tagged with: , , , ,
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Elliptical documentaries, Paola Bilbrough

Posted on December 1, 2001 by NZ Books

A Stone Seat and a Shadow Tree Adrienne Jansen Inkweed, $19.95, ISBN 0473072556 The best poems in Adrienne Jansen’s A Stone Seat and a Shadow Tree have a lucid simplicity to them. The most compelling are those about beginnings and…

See more ›

Tagged with: , , ,
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Search the archive
Search by category