Blog Archives

Avaro – Tabasco Sauce, Elizabeth Knox

Avaro Deborah Petersen Mallinson Rendel, Wellington, 1990, $14.95 Tabasco Sauce and Ice Cream Lydia Wevers (ed) Macmillan New Zealand, Auckland, 1990, $19.95 Deborah Petersen’s first novel, Avaro, introduces us to the people and countries of the fantastic other world of

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Short stories, Young adults

Moments of recognition, Lauris Edmond

Speaking to Miranda Caroline Macdonald Hodder & Stoughton, Auckland, 1990, $19.95 Even in the present increasingly sophisticated field of writing for young adults, Caroline Macdonald is something of a phenomenon. Her first book won the prestigious Esther Glen Medal, and her

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review, Young adults

Recent New Zealand Poetry, Charles Croot:

Cabin Fever Anne French Auckland University Press, 1990, $15.95 Park Island Leonard Lambert John McIndoe, Dunedin, 1990, $18.95 Jazz Waists Robert Sullivan Auckland University Press, 1990, $16.95 Man with a Child’s Violin Gregory O’Brien Caxton Press, Christchurch, 1990, $14.55 What’s

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

Stuck in the middle – or the New Zealand publishing scene observed, Iain Sharp

In order to understand the New Zealand publishing scene a little better, let’s play a game of make-believe. The first scenario goes like this. You are someone who loves New Zealand for its climate, scenery, canned food, sports heroes and

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Posted in Comment

Dirty washing, Bruce Stewart

Once Were Warriors Alan Duff Tandem, Auckland, 1990, $35 (paperback $19.95) At last a Maori writer has managed to hang out all the dirty Maori washing with some kind of dignity and at the same time place the blame where

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Can you believe what they say? New novels and recent history, John Needham:

Besides Myself Russell Haley Penguin, Auckland, 1990, $19.95 Night at the Embassy Elizabeth Smither Auckland University Press, 1990, $24.95 Newlands Gary Langford Penguin, Auckland, 1990, $19.95 Like a lot of middle-aged men, Midge, the out-of-work hero-narrator of Russell Haley’s latest novel,

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Understated revelations, Doreen D’Cruz

Girls High Barbara Anderson Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1990, $24.95 Barbara Anderson willingly allowed her mettle as a storyteller to be tested when she located her stories in the familiar physical environment of a Girls’ High School. This is a

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Scorching scrutiny, Roger Robinson

The Burning Boy Maurice Gee Viking, Auckland, 1990, $39.95 The Burning Boy does for Nelson what Bonfire of the Vanities did for New York. It submits, that is, a community to scorching scrutiny. It constructs a narrative form exactly appropriate to embody and

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Posted in Literature

Double lives, Sarah Sandley

Double Lives Heather Murray University of Otago Press, Dunedin, 1990, $29.95 Heather Murray wonders why Katherine Mansfield does not allow her fictional characters to lead the kind of ‘modern’, independent and rebellious life that Mansfield herself is supposed to have

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review

Myth-busting, Harry Ricketts

The Penguin History of New Zealand Literature Penguin Books Auckland, 1990, $24.95 ‘The story of New Zealand literature is a chapter of accidents,’ declares Patrick Evans in the introduction to his History of New Zealand Literature. ‘It is the provisional nature of

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Posted in Literature, Review
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