BOOKS @ VOLUME #128
Our newsletter: 18.5.19
Saturday, 18 May 2019
>>Read Thomas's review.
>>"The road to Brexit starts here."
>>"The location of a great malady" - from Patrick Keillor's Robinson in Ruins.
>> "England is a very powerful country."
>> J.M. Coetzee: 'He and His Man' and Foe.
>>M.J. Carter on the literary artefacts of the colonial past.
>> The book is published by the wonderful small press, CB Editions.
>>"The road to Brexit starts here."
>>"The location of a great malady" - from Patrick Keillor's Robinson in Ruins.
>> "England is a very powerful country."
>> J.M. Coetzee: 'He and His Man' and Foe.
>>M.J. Carter on the literary artefacts of the colonial past.
>> The book is published by the wonderful small press, CB Editions.
>>'Jack Robinson' is a pseudonym of CB Editions publisher Charles Boyle. Read Thomas's reviews of other books by this 'Jack Robinson':
Blush (with Natalia Zagorska-Thomas)
>>Writing under the pseudonym 'Jennie Walker', Charles Boyle won the 2008 McKitterick Prize for 24 for 3.
>> The Manet Girl by Charles Boyle writing as 'Charles Boyle'.
>>Boyle's blog, Sonofabook.
>> Murmur by Will Eaves, also published by CB Editions, has just been awarded the 2019 Wellcome Prize. >>Read Thomas's review.
>>Click and collect a copy of our Book of the Week.
>>Click and collect a copy of our Book of the Week.
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When Robinson Crusoe in Daniel Defoe’s novel of the same name discovers the footprint of a stranger on the margins of the island he considers his domain, he builds defences and prepares violence. He wants to keep for himself his table, made with his own hands, his rude bowl, likewise the project of a man who has brought to DIY the gravitas of a spiritual exercise, and his parasol, but even more he wants to keep for himself the puritanical practices of useful labour, useful thought, austerity and self-restraint - he made a very small amount of rum last for ten years! - that are both the expression and the perpetuation of his isolation. He remains resistant to all that is not him. When given the opportunity, upon a suitably disadvantaged other, he shows himself prepared to teach but not to learn. The propagation of Defoe’s novel as an English classic over the centuries has both epitomised and contributed to a particularly noxious strand of Anglo-Saxon masculinity compounded of an arrogance and a superiority complex on the one hand and a concomitant deep insecurity and fear on the other, resulting in an instinct to devise rules, build defences and prepare violence. Jack Robinson, in this quick and subtle little book, not only sketches the deleterious effect upon English society of this thread of Englishness, leading to the Brexit crisis resulting from the projection of threat onto difference, but also traces the literary offspring of Ur-Crusoe, so to call him: Robinsons in books by Franz Kafka, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Muriel Spark and others, and in the films of Patrick Keillor, each either or both perpetuating or degrading the character with whom they are inescapably associated. ‘Robinson Crusoe’ remains a central topos for reactionary British nativism. It is no coincidence that, in the space of populist disaffection resulting from Conservative austerity policies, a prominent contemporary British fascist has adopted the pseudonym ‘Tommy Robinson’ in his xenophobic campaign for “respect for British heritage, values and tradition.” Robinson Crusoe, despite circumstances that make his attitudes increasingly ridiculous, cannot help but insist, with increasing violence, that he is master of ‘his’ island. Jack Robinson’s quarrel “is less with Defoe than with Crusoe and the uses which the book has been put to.” He observes that “Crusoe has amassed such gravitas - or rather, his emblematic status in British culture became so far reaching - that the natural development of his descendants was inescapably stunted.” Can this be healed? In Crusoe’s unthinking adherence to ‘heritage, values and tradition’, he is incapable of change or growth or understanding, incapable of opening himself to new experience, of accepting as an equal anyone different from himself. When Crusoe leaves the island he remains the slaver and misogynist he was when he arrived. All he has done is survived. “Defoe denies Crusoe self-doubt, which is another way of infantilising him. His blind trust in God shuts off all radical introspection.” Without that introspection there is no hope.
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 | Lanny by Max Porter {Reviewed by STELLA} Lanny is an exquisite novel. You are immersed from the beginning (and I read this in a single sitting), the voice of Dead Papa Toothwort opening the past and present to the reader’s eyes. An ancient being, a force, a mythical creature, Dead Papa Toothwort is threatening and ambiguous, is present in the surroundings (in the earth and air) and, later we realise, in each of the villagers. This story is set in a village - a commuter trip from London. It is the story of a young boy, Lanny, and his disappearance. Lanny lives with his mother Jolie, a writer of grisly revenge crime novels, and his father Robert, a financial advisor working in corporate London. Lanny is unusual, creative and playful - a child of about eight who is fascinated by nature, loves ideas, and has an active imagination. Also living in the village is an artist, Pete, rather famous but now at the end of his career, nicknamed by his neighbours as ‘Mad Pete”. Art lessons with Pete are a wondrous thing for Lanny, and the two find solace in each other’s way of seeing the world and of being misfits. The book is split into three parts. In the first, we are introduced to our cast of players, their voices distinct and their desires articulated. Dead Papa Toothwort’s desire to take something living. His fascination with being within others and objects as he flits from one to the other is lyrical and sprightly while at the same time surrounding us with decay and darkness. Lanny’s Mum’s suffocation at the hand of village life and her cynicism will strike chords with trapped parents anywhere, while her description of her latest plots might make your skin crawl. Robert, pretty much the lousy father and unhappy husband, uncomfortable about his son’s oddness and more concerned with social status, is a familiar trope. And the other major voice in this novel is Pete, curious and generous but no hero. We only know Lanny through the eyes and ears of these characters, what they feel and describe, and their conversations and interactions with this child. In the second part, the style and pace change. The lines are fraught with urgency: Lanny has disappeared and he must be found. Here, the world of the village is laid bare in all its hypocrisy, prejudice and pettiness. The police arrest Pete and the villagers jump to conclusions supported by their small-mindedness. Old Peggy (our sage) directs her conversation directly to Dead Papa Toothwort, calling him out, but is disinclined to help the frantic Jolie - why does she dislike her so much? Both Robert and Jolie are understandably distraught, yet they both start imagining life without Lanny. Porter reveals the cruelty and tenderness of people with directness and spareness. The language is lean and taut but also encapsulates a lyricism that is melodic in parts but staccato and punchy when necessary. The final and third part of the novel is a dream-like sequence starring Pete, Robert and Jolie, an attempt to reveal Lanny’s whereabouts or to mystify us further. This is a novel to be immersed in, to re-read and think about, to appreciate the beauty of the language and the assuredness of the prose. A must for your reading pile this winter. |
Friday, 17 May 2019
NEW RELEASES
Published to mark the 300th anniversary of first publication of Robinson Crusoe, Good Morning, Mr Crusoe argues that the legacy of Defoe's novel is racism and misogyny embedded in the fabric of British society.
"The novelty here is the way Jack Robinson uses Crusoe to analyse the mad act of self-maiming we call Brexit. As he demonstrates, all the blinkered mental preconditions for the Leave campaign exist in the novel." - Observer
"A clever take-down of the classic novel." - Guardian
“Let’s say that in the course of all human experience, death is pure conjecture: it is, as such, not an experience. And all that which is not an experience is useless to mankind.” A bizarre series of medical experiments in Buenos Aires in 1907, involving decapitation as a means of contacting the so-called afterlife, is mirrored strangely in the life of a contemporary artist.
"Comemadre is a story about the limits of science and discovery, about the purpose and process of art, about the dangers of the unchecked male ego, and much more. Beneath each of these distinct intentions, though, the book is not fundamentally theoretical, but relational. Larraquy imagines a complicated world of webbed human bonds that span generations. Each of these bonds is pulling on another, creating unique tension, unique threats, and unique possibilities. Larraquy’s scientists and artists attempt to uncover their true natures on both personal and existential fronts. In the process, their desire to be validated and accepted by others becomes all-encompassing. As these relationships carry the narrative and take center stage, it becomes apparent that guilt and desire can easily transform into violence once acted upon. The profound tragedy suggested by Comemadre is that in the absence of extended validation, that validation is too often stolen by force. At the book’s fundamentally relational foundation, Larraquy demonstrates that the tenderness which results from shared vulnerability is often undergirded by a violence springing from the same source." - Full Stop
40th birthday special. It’s 1979. The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, China introduces its one-child policy, Margaret Thatcher is elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and an old Cambridge student magazine is relaunched. This special edition marks Granta’s 40th birthday by bringing together some of its best writing from the past forty years. Featuring: Angela Carter, Kazuo Ishiguro, Todd Mcewen, Bruce Chatwin, James Fenton, Primo Levi, Amitav Ghosh, Raymond Carver, Philip Roth, John Gregory Dunne, Ryszard Kapuściński, Joy Williams, Don Delillo, John Berger, Gabriel García Márquez, Bill Buford, Lindsey Hilsum, Lorrie Moore, Hilary Mantel, Ian Jack, Edward W. Said, Diana Athill, Edmund White, Ved Mehta, Alexandra Fuller, Binyavanga Wainaina, Mary Gaitskill, Lydia Davis, Jeanette Winterson, Herta Müller. What more could you want?
After her mother’s death, Nunu moves from Istanbul to a small apartment in Paris. One day outside of a bookstore, she meets M., an older British writer whose novels about Istanbul Nunu has always admired. They find themselves walking the streets of Paris and talking late into the night. What follows is an unusual friendship of eccentric correspondence and long walks around the city.
“Ayşegül Savaş is an enormous new talent who writes with the rigour of Didion and the tenderness of Sebald. Walking on the Ceiling holds the immediacy of youth and the depth of long-earned wisdom at once. Its elegant voice is sure to summon old memories and longings from each reader, relighting them anew.”—Catherine Lacey
Could millions of jobs soon be eliminated by artificial intelligence and robots? From driverless cars to digital assistants, the world of work is on the cusp of a technological revolution that is generating hopes and fears alike. But are the robots really knocking at the door? What does all this mean for New Zealanders? Kinley Salmons new book is a call to start debating - and choosing the future we want. Kinley Salmon grew up in Nelson and now works as an economist in Washington DC.
>>Come and hear Kinley Salmon talk on Thursday 23rd May at KUSH, 5 Church Street. Door open and coffee available from 5 PM. See you there.
Beautifully presented. Includes extracts from Sculpting in Time, and pieces by Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Paul Satre and other on Tarkovsky's particular approach to film-making.
>>Watch Tarkovsky's films on your device.
From her entry into parliament in 1975 at age 23 until the epoch-changing 1984 general election that was triggered by her telling Robert Muldoon that she intended to cross the floor to vote against the National government on nuclear- free legislation.
>>Muldoon calls the snap election after consulting the Governor General and the bottle.
"The Shakespeare scholar’s fun, insightful and profoundly approachable study of 20 of his plays is perhaps the finest critique of his work to date." - Guardian
A remarkable New Zealand lawyer (1916-2007) whose lifelong commitment to social justice, legal reform, gender equality and community service left a profound legacy. She was married to Bill Sutch, who died in 1975 after being acquitted of charges of spying.
"AND Little Boy, grown up after an endless series of confusions transplantations transformations instigations fornications confessions prognostications hallucinations consternations confabulations collaborations revelations recognitions restitutions reverberations misconceptions clarifications elucidations simplifications idealisations aspirations circumnavigations realisations radicalisations and liberations, Grown Boy came into his own voice and let loose his word-hoard pent up within him." Ferlinghetti conveys his 100 years on the planet as a torrent of words bearing him on through time.
Roland Wakelin (painter), Dulcie Deamer (writer and libertine), Jean Devanny (novelist and feminist), Douglas Stewart (editor and writer) and Eric Baume (journalist and media personality) had little in common in personality, proclivities and politics. Yet they all experienced fame and/or notoriety in the 'West Island' while being largely forgotten in their country of origin.
What if you were a novelist in a world where the only media people consumed was spectacular pornography about war with titles like Wonder Woman and Captain America? What if your country had elected as its leader a shameless millionaire who was stealing your money, your democracy and your dignity? What if the media were owned by filthy rich men who didn't give two shits about any of it as long as it continued to make them filthy rich?Wouldn't it be enough to send you certifiably insane? To make you write a novel about an immortal lesbian fairy that mimicked the conventions of movies like Wonder Woman but became an accidental allegory for #MeToo? To write a savage death wail of a satire about how the rich stole everything from us?Enough to make you, reader, consider laying off the spectacular pornography about war for long enough to read it?
"Ayelet Gundar-Goshen has justifiably won plaudits for her two previous novels, Waking Lions and One Night, Markovitch. In Liar, Nofar, a socially awkward, unhappy teenage girl, inadvertently accuses a faded talent show star of sexually assaulting her. The police procedures and press furore create a momentum of their own and Nofar finds herself trapped in an ever greater web of deceit. Gundar-Goshen skilfully explores various dynamics of power – sexual, coercive, authoritative, familial – and portrays with great compassion and insight the humiliation, loneliness and rage of society’s outsiders. A perceptive and exquisitely observed novel, Liar should win Gundar-Goshen a wide international readership." - Guardian
A passionate defence of humanity and a work of radical optimism from the author of Postcapitalism. How do we preserve what makes us human in an age of uncertainty? Are we now just consumers shaped by market forces? A sequence of DNA? A collection of base instincts? Or will we soon be supplanted by algorithms and A.I. anyway? The notion of humanity has become eroded as never before. In this book Paul Mason argues that we are still capable - through language, innovation and co-operation - of shaping our future. He offers a vision of humans as more than puppets, customers or cogs in a machine.
>>"The world order is being ripped to shreds by an alliance of ethnic nationalists, women-haters and authoritarian leaders who are harnessing the power of machines and algorithms to do it."
Poetry from the Future: Why a global liberation movement is our civilisation's last chance by Srećko Horvat $40
Capitalism and historical revisionism have constructed a new world of normalized apocalyptic politics in which our passivity is guaranteed if we believe there is no future. This is a radical manifesto for hope in democracy, union and internationalism. Horvat is an associate of Slavoj Žižek and Yanis Varoufakis and is standing for the EU elections as part of DiEM25.
>>"The current system is more violent than any revolution."
1945. They have survived the Blitz, but when Simon, Patricia, Evelyn and Larry step through a mysterious library door, it is the beginning of their most dangerous adventure yet. They discover the magical world of Folio, where an enchanted kingdom of fairy knights, bears and tree gods is under threat from a sinister robot army. The many stories of the Library are locked in eternal war, and the children's only hope is to find their creator - a magician who has been lost for centuries.
A very accessible and well illustrated history of the series of conflicts between the Crown and various groups of Maori between 1845 and 1872, conflicts that form the often unacknowledged background to much else in New Zealand history.
From the author of the monumental The Great War for New Zealand.
In 1902, the young German writer Rainer Maria Rilke traveled to Paris to write a monograph on the sculptor Auguste Rodin. He returned many times over the course of his life, by turns inspired and appalled by the city's high culture and low society, and his writings give a fascinating insight into Parisian art and culture in the last century.
Since Britain's 2016 referendum on EU membership, the nation has been profoundly split: one side fantasising that the referendum will never be acted upon, the other entrenched in questionable assumptions about reclaimed sovereignty and independence. Underlying the cleavage are primal myths, deeper histories, and political folk-legends. James Meek, 'the George Orwell of our times', goes in search of the stories and consequences arising out of a nation's alienation from itself. Perceptive.
What if our lives are largely predetermined, hardwired in our brains - and our choices over what we eat, who we fall in love with, even what we believe are not real choices at all? Neuroscience is challenging everything we think we know about ourselves, revealing how we make decisions and form our own reality, unaware of the role of our unconscious minds.
Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable - more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn't turn up for the first day of school, Claudia's worried. When she doesn't show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday wouldn't just leave her to endure tests and bullies alone. Not after last year's rumors and not with her grades on the line. Now Claudia needs her best--and only--friend more than ever. But Monday's mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and Monday's sister April is even less help.
As Claudia digs deeper into her friend's disappearance, she discovers that no one seems to remember the last time they saw Monday. How can a teenage girl just vanish without anyone noticing that she's gone?
Four novellas: 'The Wife', 'The Steppe', 'Ward No. 6' and 'My Life', demonstrating the subtlety of Chekhov's perceptions and the effective economy of his prose. Selected and introduced by Janet Malcolm.
A book conveying what it’s like to live in a world where shaking a stranger’s and, catching a taxi or touching a door handle are fraught with fear and dread. This memoir charts the author’s breakdown after migrating from New Zealand to England: what begins as homesickness and career burn-out develops into depression, contamination phobia and OCD. Increasingly alienated from all the things that previously gave her life meaning and purpose – family, work, nature, literature – the author is forced to confront a question once posed by the young Virginia Woolf: ‘How is one to live in such a world?’
On 26 April 1986 at 1.23 am a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded. While the authorities scrambled to understand what was occurring, workers, engineers, firefighters and those living in the area were abandoned to their fate. The blast put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of Europe with radioactive fallout. Masterful. Jaw-droppingly readable.
>>Chernobyl vs. The Zone.
A novel exploring the tension between notions of what it means to be an American and what it means to be Other, an immigrant for instance.
"Rich and polyphonic. Unflashy almost to the point of comedy, happy to include humdrum dialogue about, say, weather or food seasoning, the novel’s round-robin mode nonetheless accumulates a kind of revelatory power, setting aside top-down commentary in favour of side-by-side juxtaposition – a narrative style that ultimately functions as a plea for more listening, as well as highlighting the quiet irony of the title, which ends up being hard to read as anything more than just 'Americans'." - Guardian
It's 1947, and India, newly independent of British rule, has been separated into two countries: Pakistan and India. The divide has created much tension between Hindus and Muslims, and hundreds of thousands are killed crossing borders. Half-Muslim, half-Hindu twelve-year-old Nisha doesn't know where she belongs, or what her country is anymore. When Papa decides it's too dangerous to stay in what is now Pakistan, Nisha and her family become refugees and embark first by train but later on foot to reach her new home.
"MacCarthy refutes the often ill-researched reductionist characterisations of Gropius as the arrogant, dour modernist. Instead, she passionately weaves a gripping and powerful narrative deserving of a wide audience while also making for essential reading for anyone studying architecture and design." - Irish Times
The heady optimism that accompanied the advent of the Internet is gone replaced by a deep unease. Technologies that were meant to liberate us have exacerbated social inequalities and stoked explosive political climates across the world. Tech companies gather our information online and sell it to the highest bidder, whether government or retailer. In this world of surveillance capitalism, profit depends not only on predicting our behaviour but modifying it too. How will this fusion of capitalism and the digital shape our values and define our future?
"Groundbreaking, magisterial, unmissable." - Financial Times
>>Interview with Zuboff.
A Thousand Small Sanities: The moral adventure of liberalism by Adam Gopnik $40
A defence of liberal values and world-view, and of democracy itself, against new dogmatisms.
"Supremely intelligent." - Guardian
An artist makes some mistakes when making a picture book, but these mistakes become the book and drive the story onward.
Tuesday, 14 May 2019
2019 CATEGORY WINNERS
{ Click on the covers to secure your copies }
ACORN FOUNDATION FICTION PRIZE
This Mortal Boy by Fiona Kidman (Vintage, Penguin Random House) $38
Judges' citation: In This Mortal Boy Fiona Kidman has written an intensely human and empathetic story, recreating the events leading to the real life hanging of “jukebox killer” Paddy Black at Mount Eden prison in 1955. With seeming effortlessness, she pulls the reader into mid-century New Zealand – the restlessness of a new urban youth culture, the moral panic that led to the Mazengarb report, the damning assumptions of the legal profession and the unchallenged omissions that eased the pathway to a young man’s death. Kidman draws her characters deftly, alternating between the bravado and vulnerability of Auckland’s young bodgie culture and the desperation of a poor and disempowered family in Ireland. The result is moving, memorable, authentic and urgently relevant to our times.
MARY AND PETER BIGGS AWARD FOR POETRY
Are Friends Electric? by Helen Heath (Victoria University Press) $25
Judges' citation: Helen Heath’s collection impresses with its broad thematic reach, its willingness to tackle complex issues, and its poetic risk-taking. By turns thoughtful and moving, Are Friends Electric? asks how the material world might mediate—or replace—human relationships. The experimental first half uses found poems to engage how artifacts—sex dolls, buildings—become objects of human passion. Technology is situated in relation to the natural world, and to issues of gender, sexuality and power. The elegiac second half offers a touching speculative narrative: A woman embeds her deceased partner’s personality into software to avoid letting go. Heath asks if friends can—or should—be electric, and probes deeper questions about what it means to be human.
ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION AWARD
Tatau: A cultural history of Samoan tattooing by Sean Mallon and Sébastien Galliot (Te Papa Press) $75
Judges' citation: Excellence in an illustrated work of non-fiction is to be found in the flawless integration of text, illustration and design. Tatau: A History of Sāmoan Tattooing is the exemplar of those goals. Creating a cohesive whole that incorporates multiple writers and a wide range of illustrations and artworks is a difficult task, and this publication achieves this with authority, style and integrity. It is a visual feast, and at the same time celebrates the tactile pleasure of a book in the hand, and should be acknowledged as a milestone in contemporary publishing. And, most importantly, quality design is met with innovative writing that both records and opens up new territory, creating a book that will expand and enrich the knowledge of readers throughout Aotearoa, the Moana Pacific and beyond.
ROYAL SOCIETY TE APĀRANGI AWARD FOR GENERAL NON-FICTION
Hudson & Halls: The food of love by Joanna Drayton (Otago University Press) $50
Judges' citation: Set against the backdrop of the double act many of us will remember, Hudson & Halls reveals the humour and drama of this couple’s onscreen chemistry, and is a deeply moving and often surprising account of their private life. Set within the context of significant social and political moments over four decades and three countries, Joanne Drayton’s fresh approach to storytelling makes this a must-read. In its design, the kitsch flamboyance of the pair and the period is celebrated in a way that is quirky, engaging and in keeping with the tone and vibrancy of the couple. Hudson & Halls is not simply the story of celebrity chefs: it is a generous, multi-layered, and touching account of companionship and enduring love.
TE MŪRAU O TE TUHI - MĀORI LANGUAGE AWARD
He Kupu Tuku Iho: Ko te Reo Maori te Tatau ki te Ao by Tīmoti Kāretu and Wharehuia Milroy (Auckland University Press) $50
Judges' citation: He tai mutunga kore te ranga whai reo e āki kau ana ki te aroaro o te tokorua kātuarehe, ngā ruānuku o te reo o nehe, ki nāianei rangi. He whāiti taua urunga, engari i konei ka wherawhera mai. He maioha tēnei nā Tīmoti Kāretu rāua ko Te Wharehuia Milroy, kia hou mai te tāura ki waenga pū i ā rāua kōrerorero, he kōrero paki, he hokinga mahara o te ohinga, ā, pakeke noa. He puanga rautangi ki te hauangi. Kapohia e te tini. He tatau e puare ana i tō rāua ao. Staunch advocates of our spoken reo have relentlessly sought to sit down with these two most influential exponents of reo Māori, from the past and for today. Few have had the opportunity, He Kupu Tuku Iho now opens that door. Tīmoti Kāretu and the late Wharehuia Milroy invite the reader into their conversations, their yarns and musings from decades of cultural experience. This book’s value is undeniable. Its language, accessible. This is a doorway to their world.
MitoQ Best First Book Awards:
HUBERT CHURCH PRIZE FOR FICTION
The Sound of Breaking Glass by Kirsten Warner (Mākaro Press) $35
Judges' citation: In The Sound of Breaking Glass first time novelist Kirsten Warner presents a surreal, satirical and deeply moving story of multi-generational trauma. Through her central character Christel, we are confronted by the unresolved legacy of the Holocaust and the unaddressed corruption of adolescence. In revealing the impact of this history through an illusory censorious shape-shifter – Big Critic – and the Golem-like Milk Bottle Man, Warner takes her readers on a frenetic and ambitious narrative that tests the boundaries of storytelling. That she achieves this without compromising character or credibility is testament to her skills as a writer. The Sound of Breaking Glass is vivid, intelligent, funny and as compelling as it is inventive.
JESSIE MACKAY PRIZE FOR POETRY
Poūkahangatus by Tayi Tibble (Victoria University Press) $20
Judges' citation: In a year of strong first collections, Tayi Tibble’s remarkable book stood out. Poūkahangatus drew us in again and again with the strength of its voice, its narrative power, its formal experimentation, and the depth of the feelings it manifests and invokes. With an unsettling self-assurance, Tibble takes us on a tour of senses, scenes and a range of uncomfortable tropes that an Aotearoa audience may recognise as our own. Awkward and unequal power dynamics are battled out brutally on the page with a self-conscious attention to the ways the past plays out in the present. Her lyrical kaupapa draws us in to gaze at a two-way mirror through gestures that are by turns playful, angry, seductive and disquieting.
JUDITH BINNEY PRIZE FOR ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION
Whatever It Takes: Pacific Films and John O'Shea, 1948-2000 by John Reid (Victoria University Press) $60
Judges' citation: Approaching an extensive archive for a first-time author is a daunting prospect, and one on which many an established biographical writer has come to grief. Whatever It Takes is an impressive debut, covering a complex story that highlights a unique part of our visual culture and social history. It is clearly written and carefully structured, with an approach to illustrations that is sympathetic to the original nature of the film-based imagery being reproduced. The design and illustrations create a richly contextual, evocative sense of the original time and place. The final result is a book that records a remarkable story and reflects an emerging non-fiction writer of great potential.
E.H. MCCORMICK PRIZE FOR GENERAL NON-FICTION
We Can Make a Life by Chessie Henry (Victoria University Press) $35
Judges' citation: Beautifully written and highly engaging, Chessie Henry’s We Can Make a Life is a powerful and gripping story of a family coping with personal trauma in the midst of national tragedy. Told with warmth and curiosity, this is both a candid account of the impact of the Christchurch and Kaikoura earthquakes on her family and a touching tribute to her adventurous parents. The beautiful writing is complemented by a considered approach to the design and production. An assured and compelling first book by an exciting new voice, this book is honest, compassionate, and in its coverage of personal responses to traumatic events is emotionally revealing without being sentimental.
>>Find out the category winners chosen by respondents to the VOLUME OCKHAMETER (and Acornometer).
>>Find out the category winners chosen by respondents to the VOLUME OCKHAMETER (and Acornometer).
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