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Editorial – Issue 51

All in the same nest The Germans have a word for it: Nestbeschmutzung. It literally means “fouling the nest”, but it has a more general meaning of “putting down your own kind”. This is in effect what Rosemary McLeod did…
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“Bugger the dragonflies”, Bernard Carpinter

Shirker Chad Taylor Allen & Unwin, $35, ISBN 0862419026 A defenestration (nice word, eh?) makes an arresting beginning to Chad Taylor’s third novel. Especially as the defenestree is the narrator. Just how Ellerslie Penrose came to be flying out of…
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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Letters – Issue 51

Biography and ventriloquism It is not normally my practice to reply to reviews or reviewers: authors have their say in books, then reviewers have theirs in reviews. The danger in not replying to wrong-headed comments, however, is that readers imagine…
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Subliminal euphonies, Cilla McQueen

Realia  Kate Camp Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 0864734204   deep down musical hearts beat for no reason no apparent reason (“Beats”)   I like the sound of Kate Camp. She has an ear for a harmonic beat within the…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Issue 51 | December 2001

  Volume 11 | Number 5 | Issue 51 | December 2001 Dale Williams: John McCrystal, The Cars We Loved; John Bluck, Killing Us Softly: The Kiwi Culture of  Complaint; Richard Wolfe and Stephen Barnett,  Kiwiana! The Sequel Editorial Correspondence…
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Posted in Contents

Laughter in the dark, Terry Locke

No Joke  Mark Pirie Sudden Valley Press, $22.95, ISBN 0958209103 Excuse me, would you mind putting me on to Mark Pirie… if that’s his real name. Oh, it is? Yes, thank you. Look, Mark, I thought you might like some…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Stone upon stone, David Eggleton

Collected Poems 1967-1999 Bill Manhire Victoria University Press, ISBN 086473411 (paperback), $34.95 ISBN 0864734212 (hardback) $49.95 In this Collected Poems, the private universe of Bill Manhire is made readily available to his ever-increasing audience. But it may take years and…
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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Pulling no punches, Sue Court

Music in New Zealand: A Reader from the 1940s ed Allan Thomas University of Canterbury School of Music, $25, ISBN 090871808X What does an anthology of source readings, soberly titled Music in New Zealand: A Reader from the 1940s have…
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Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review

Poem – Mary Macpherson

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…
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Posted in Poem

Poem – John O’Connor

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…
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