Blog Archives
The dark night of the decent bloke, Peter Wells
The Scornful Moon Maurice Gee Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0143018752 Anyone who has heard Maurice Gee read can summon up his tone of voice: discerning, patient and artful. He is a shrewd observer of the human condition with, at times, an…
Tagged with: Issue 63, Maurice Gee, Penguin, Peter Wells, Spring 2003
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Their side of the story, Megan Hutching
Fighting with the enemy: New Zealand POWs and the Italian Resistance Susan Jacobs Penguin, $34.95, ISBN 0143018620 On 10 July 1943 Allied forces attacked Italy, landing in Sicily. Two weeks later the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was overthrown in an…
Tagged with: Issue 63, Megan Hutching, Penguin, Spring 2003, Susan Jacobs
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War
Posted in History, Non-fiction, Review, War
Editorial — Issue 63
A funny sort of pride This is an unusual issue of New Zealand Books, dominated by the loss of two of our pre-eminent writers. When Janet Frame died in January, we decided to commemorate her achievement in this June issue…
The “Frame effect”, Patrick Evans
The most famous of Janet Frame’s poems is probably the one about the little boy dying of leukaemia, “Yet Another Poem About a Dying Child”, which ends with the appearance of Death as a giant spider which gobbles the child…
A slippery no-man, Owen Marshall
Enduring legacy – Charles Brasch, patron, poet and collector (ed) Donald Kerr University of Otago Press in association with University of Otago Library, $39.95, ISBN 1877276650 Several years ago at a reunion of those who had held Otago University’s Robert…
Tagged with: Charles Brasch, Donald Kerr, Issue 63, Otago University Press, Owen Marshall, Spring 2003, University of Otago Library
Posted in Biography, Literature, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Literature, Non-fiction, Review
Poem — C K Stead
Takapuna (Janet Frame 1924-2004) So, old friend, you’ve come to it at last (Ron Mason’s line, and now an echo of Yeats!). How does it feel to feel nothing? No one will ask you to read, no unmarked sheet…
Poem — Gregory O’Brien
Dominion From the morning’s politicians as they are delivered unto us shrink-wrapped and bouncing across the lawns of Hataitai deliver us, o lord—from the brash and unhumble who fall face-first, and whom daily we extract from mulch and puddle,…
Poem — Jan Kemp
Staunch (i.m. Michael King 1945 – 2004 & Maria Jungowska 1949 – 2004) I’d have wished you a gentler death in keeping with generosity & deft, liquid speech, yours of right, Michael, not this bizarre fireballing out, though your…
The historian who opened our eyes, Jock Phillips
Posted in Comment