Blog Archives
The ongoing stream of history, Ranginui Walker
The People of Many Peaks, 1769-1869 Claudia Orange (ed), Bridget Williams Books and Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1991, $35.00 This book contains the biographies of 161 notable Maori leaders between 1769 and 1869 who appear in the first volume…
Tagged with: Bridget Williams Books, Claudia Orange, Department of Internal Affairs, Issue 2, Ranginui Walker, Winter 1991
Posted in Biography, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in Biography, Māori, Non-fiction, Review
Civilised, precise and somewhat quizzical, Bill Sewell
Winter Walk at Morning Iain Lonie, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1991, $16.95 The cover of this posthumous collection shows a pair of dividers resting on a chart, which on closer examination turns out to juxtapose Western Scotland and an unidentified…
Tagged with: Bill Sewell, Iain Lonie, Issue 2, Victoria University Press, Winter 1991
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Music as a cultural force: the lineaments of a tradition, John Roberts
The Oxford History of New Zealand Music John Mansfield Thomson Oxford University Press, Auckland, 1991, $69.95 This eagerly awaited book will take a high place in the company of recent reference works. The only cause for regret is that the…
Tagged with: Issue 2, John Mansfield Thomson, John Roberts, Oxford University Press, Winter 1991
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review
Posted in History, Music, Non-fiction, Review
To make the world intelligible, Max Anderson
Selected Poems 1940-1989 Allen Curnow Viking hardback, $49.95 (Penguin paperback, Auckland, 1990, $27.95) When Allen Curnow published Continuum, his collected poems 1972-1988, he organized the book back-to-front: most recent poems at the beginning, earliest at the end. The selection, a…
Tagged with: Allen Curnow, Issue 2, Max Anderson, Penguin, Viking, Winter 1991
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review
Concentrated energy and irreverence, Diane Moir
Grievous Bodily Craig Harrison, Penguin Books, Auckland, 1991, $24.95 Grievous Bodily, subtitled A Very Funny Novel, has been written with the film in mind. Not any old film, but a very funny film with enough references, cross-references and sight and…
Tagged with: Craig Harrison, Diane Moir, Issue 2, Penguin Books, Winter 1991
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Poem — Hone Tuwhare
Shadow Implicit above all and as pervasive as the Duende of Federico Garcia Lorca is the sense that I must tread the liveliest and loneliest of measures on my way to Rarohenga cocking a snook at the shadow of…
An epic tale of inheritance, Charlotte MacDonald
The Hanging Sky Shirley Corlett, Mallinson Rendel, Wellington, 1990, $55 (Paper $39.95) Beginning when ‘Man’ (this is no tale of humankind) first stepped upon the land ‘that had been part of Gondwanaland’ and ending with the present, The Hanging Sky…
Tagged with: Charlotte Macdonald, Issue 2, Mallinson Rendel, Shirley Corlett, Winter 1991
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
Posted in Fiction, Literature, Review
The Ninth Floor, Margaret Hayward
The Ninth Floor – Inside the Prime Minister’s Office Harvey McQueen Penguin Books, Auckland, 1991, $24.95 The first few chapters of The Ninth Floor amazed me. I’m used to books about politics that hedge their bets. If they say something…
Tagged with: Harvey McQueen, Issue 2, Margaret Hayward, Penguin Books, Winter 1991
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Posted in Non-fiction, Politics & Law, Review
Forging a political language, Tony Simpson
Posted in Comment