Volume 12 | Number 4 | Issue 55 | October 2002 Tim Hazledine: Jane Kelsey, At the Crossroads. Three Essays Editorial Letters “Imprints”: Peter Wells Jane Stafford: Derek Challis and Gloria Rawlinson, The Book of Iris: A Life of Robin…
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…
The Book of Iris: A Life of Robin Hyde Derek Challis and Gloria Rawlinson Auckland University Press, $69.95, ISBN 1869402677 Often the genesis of a biography is as interesting as the work itself. Robin Hyde died in 1939 in London…
Chemistry Damien Wilkins Victoria University Press, $29.95, ISBN 0864734271 In a 1913 guide book, Forest and Ice, Blanche Baughan describes the Franz Josef glacier: “the grandeur of great, ordained descent, embodied here in a white stairway of the gods, magnificently…
Stonedogs Craig Marriner Random House, $26.95, ISBN 1869414764 I donned my beanie before writing this review. It seemed only fitting. Part of the challenge of this book is its subject matter: drunken, stoned hoons, racing around the country in an…
At the Edge of Memory: A Family Story Michael King Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0143018159 In his new book, Michael King revisits his Kiwi Irish Catholic background, focusing on his experiences of anti-semitism. Nuns explained that God had withdrawn His blessing…