Friday, October 05, 2007


TOWARDS ANOTHER SUMMER

Janet Frame Random House $30

A very pleasant launch for this previously unpublished Janet Frame novel at Takapuna Public Library on Wednesday evening.

Random House's everywhere man MD Michael Moynahan welcomed the large gathering and then addressed us as follows:

Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this place and to this evening’s event which will be completely unique in your literary experiences this year.

How much more fitting could it be for this evening’s celebration that we are in this building surrounded by books in this part of Auckland that played such an important part in Janet’s life?

How extraordinary is it for those for whom her writing means so much that we can rejoice in the addition of TOWARDS ANOTHER SUMMER in the repertoire of our enjoyment.

At the time that it was suggested I say a few words this evening I was happy to do so. Didn’t really give it another thought particularly as I regularly have things to say at book launches in fact it is difficult to stop me having more that a few words sometimes. But as I came to write these notes I realised that this wasn’t just another launch and just another celebration. Each launch or celebration is important in and of itself, don’t get me wrong, they mark the development of a career or a milestone reached so they are significant but this evening event is truly unique.
I was humbled by the thought that my words would join the others who will pay tribute not just to this book and to Janet but in reality to the place of NZ fiction in this society and inestimable contribution she made to the maturity and confidence of it.

I decided a good place to start was to see what others had said.

Michael King wrote

The quality of her work has moved from simple excellence, to what is generally recognised as something even greater. Harvard critic and librarian John Beston called her "the most distinguished woman writer in English"; Michael Holroyd described her three volumes of memoirs as "one of the great autobiographies written in the twentieth century"; and Nobel Laureate Patrick White said that Frame's fiction made him feel that "I have always been a couple of steps from where I wanted to get in my own writing".

I read obituaries from around New Zealand and around the world which celebrated her life and marked her passing

I read from the Press the OTD the Dominion the Guardian the NY Time and the Daily Telegraph to name a few

The NZ Herald said

No one doubted the literary community in New Zealand would deeply mourn the passing of Janet Frame, our most famous contemporary writer, but what has astonished us all is the widespread sense of national loss that followed the announcement of her death

When I went to Google there were 371 000 entries that mentioned her name.

Our Prime Minister said this

"While her humility was renowned, she was a most engaging personality with a wickedly funny sense of humour and a generosity of spirit"


And no one who ever met her could doubt that one little bit.

But actually the thing that is so very important about Janet’s writing is not the learned and erudite things that clever people say about her and what she writes. There are thousands of pages written and treatises delivered that speak to the uniqueness of her work. The thing above all that really makes her work special for me is its capacity to touch people individually. The response from all sorts of people who remember where they were when they first discovered her writing or the wonder and awe left when you have finished re-reading a favourite is something that means her work does not date it does not age and it never looses it capacity to surprise delight and touch. More that all the things said this is most important.

You are all going to love TOWARDS ANOTHER SUMMER. Written in such a personal and direct voice it is as if the author is standing at your shoulder whispering in your ear. You will approach the conclusion terrified that it will end and probably want to start all over again.

We at Random House are delighted and proud to be associated with this book and thank the literary Executors for thrusting us to do so. For many of us this will be a highlight of our careers. Pamela we are particularly grateful to you for your tireless pursuit of excellence in the memory of your Aunt.

But my words or anyone’s words mean little really so I thought I would end on a quote from Janet which illustrates to some degree what I mean about the treat that is in store for you when you begin this book.

Writing a novel is not merely going on a shopping expedition across the border to an unreal land: it is hours and years spent in the factories, the streets, the cathedrals of the imagination.
Well put Michael.

Other speakers were Janet Frame's niece and literary executor Pamela Gordon, Dr.Jan Cronin who teaches in the English Deaprtment at the University of Auckland and is an authority on Frame's writing and Isabel Haarhaus who is studying Frame's writing for a post-graduate degree.

In this morning's New Zealand Herald there is a review of the book by Dr.Jan Cronin.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I smiled at your perceptive description of Michael Moynahan as Random House's everywhere man!
His is astonishing, almost every book event I go to he is there, and usually speaking.
We are lucky to have such an enthusiastic advocate for books in the trade in NZ.

Anonymous said...

I can particularly relate to the comment concerning the touching of the individual, and yes I can remember distinctly my first encounter with Janet Frame's fiction. It has now endured for 20 years and this addition is a new delight.