CANVAS June 7 2008

CANVAS is my favourite section of the Weekend Herald, the part I always read first. Not just because it contains the book review section, ably edited by Linda Herrick, (although that has a lot to do with its popularity in our household), but because it generally carries an upbeat and positive theme. Today is no different with an excellent piece co-authored by Greg Dixon and Alan Perrott suggesting 21 reasons why we should be full of cheer. What a joy after all the doom and gloom of the business pages!

Included is the following tribute to C.K.Stead which the Bookman wholeheartedly endorses:

C.K.Stead is not, repeat not, a curmudgeon. But if he was, we'd still treasure him. He's one of the last of our mid-20th century men and women of letters, a living link to the giants, to Frank Sargeson, Janet Frame and Allen Curnow. He can be translated into the populist; his book Smith's Dream became a film, Sleeping Dogs, which really kick-started the New Zealand film industry in the late 1970's.

But his literature, his poetry, essays, short stories and novels have added substance and meaning to the country's inner life beyond the merely popular and he's extended our literary tradition too. Yes, he calls a spade, well, a goddamn shovel when he wants to. Is that curmudgeonly? No, but it makes him an uncompromising and unique New Zealand talent.

I also note here a positive, thoughtful review by Wellington reviewer John McCrystal of Emily Perkin's new novel, Novel About My Wife which had its NZ launch at Unity Books Auckland this week.

And then of course there is funny man James Griffin's column who this week is making us laugh, and think, about those irksome direct marketing telephone calls that always seem to happen when you are mashing the potatoes for dinner.

CANVAS - a breath of fresh air on Saturday morning.