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Issue 21 | December 1995

Volumer 5 | Number 5 | Issue 21 | December 1995 Letters, December 1995 Vincent O’Sullivan: Michael King, Frank Sargeson: A Life Stephen Levine: Martin Hames, Winston First: The unauthorised account of Winston Peters’ career David Grant: Mike Brewer (with

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Letters – Issue 21

Issue 21, December 1995 No dearth of full-length critiques Were it not for his obvious credentials for commenting on recent literary criticism and post-colonial theory, one might think that Stuart Murray in his otherwise stimulating review (New Zealand Books 20,

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Funnier, meaner Sargeson beyond this good Life, Vincent 0’Sullivan

Frank Sargeson: A Life Michael King Penguin, $49.95 hardback (paper to come) ISBN 0 670 83847 0 It is easy to appreciate the view that impartial biography ‑ if such a thing ever really exists ‑ is not likely to

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National revolutionary, Stuart Murray

It is intriguing now to flick through the special issue, the self-styled festschrift, of Islands commissioned to mark Frank Sargeson’s seventy-fifth birthday, that appeared in March 1978. A tone of reverence and celebration of the writer sweeps through the pages.

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Not McCarthy, Stephen Levine

Winston First: The unauthorised account of Winston Peters’ career Martin Hames Random House, $29.95 ISBN 186941 2575 A Whitcoulls shopping guide giving front-page billing to Ruth Richardson’s Making A Difference perhaps inadvertently placed it right alongside a book titled The

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Authorised incompleteness, David Grant

Mike Brewer: The Authorised Biography Mike Brewer (with Phil Gifford) Rugby Publishers ISBN 0908630 530 New Zealand blokes are disciples of ritual. Most Saturday afternoons I happily participate in one myself. Following an hour or two chasing a petulant black

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In short, a master stylist, Bill Sewell

Coming Home in the Dark Owen Marshall Vintage, $24.95, ISBN 186941 266 4 A Many Coated Man Owen Marshall Longacre Press, $24.95, ISBN 0 9583405 2 8 Is it unfair to say that there’s such a thing as a typical

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From trad old to power web, Lydia Wevers

mum Stevan Eldred‑Grigg Penguin Books, $24.95 ISBN 0 140 25244 4 A Many Coated Man Owen Marshall Longacre Press, $24.95 ISBN 0 9583405 2 8 Crossroads Janice Marriott Reed Children’s Books, $14.95 ISBN 1 86948 928 4 My mother didn’t

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From history to autobiography, Chris Prentice

Mum Stevan Eldred‑Grigg Penguin, $22.95 ISBN 0140 252444 The cover of Stevan Eldred‑Grigg’s latest novel, Mum, announces this work as the conclusion of the Oracles & Miracles series. Oracles & Miracles, the first novel of the trilogy presents, in alternated

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Ironies with wry detachment, Iain Sharp

My Name is Paradiso James McNeish David Ling, $24.95 ISBN 0908990278 On the back cover of his seventh novel, there’s a head-and-shoulders photograph of James McNeish taken by his wife, Helen. The author has been caught midway through the process

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