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A recent arrival on these shores has written to Roger as follows:
In the interests of delving into the psyche of my new homeland, and without having to speak in broken simile--annoying as... --walk around in public barefoot or talk about Australia with disdain just to hide my insecurities about the worth of Kiwiland (I'm Canadian. I have my own "big, powerful, annoying, better-weathered neighbouring country who doesn't appreciate or know anything about me" issues to content with... ), I would like to read the best fiction this country has to offer. Old, new, sad, funny, sheepish (ha ha), quirky or obscure, you name it, I'll (try) to read it. Can you make any recommendations.
Readers of this blog should feel free to leave comments on the blog in response to the above which Roger will then pass on.
One suggestion I would make as a starting point would be be to go to the list of winners and runners up of recent years in the Montana NZ Book Awards.
I would probably start with Maurice Gee's Plumb trilogy - Plumb, Meg, and Sole Survivor.
ReplyDeleteTry these...All Visitors Ashore CK Stead, Lovelock James McNeish, Plumb Maurice Gee, Once Were Warriors Alan Duff, The God Boy Ian Cross, A Soldier's Tale MK Joseph, The Book of Fame Lloyd Jones, Season of the Jew Maurice Shadbolt, Came a Hot Friday Ronald Hugh Morrieson, Man Alone John Mulgan.
ReplyDeleteNice timing... for me. I'm building our iPhone app on Auckand, and it will include NZ books as well as movies, art, etc. I've just first-drafted my own faves, and I welcome suggestions. You'll note that one thing mine have in common is they date to the time we actually lived in NZ. Here they are...
ReplyDeleteFiction
New Zealand’s most honored authors are Dame Ngaio Marsh for crime fiction, Janet Frame for Angel at My Table and other novels, and librarian-turned-writer Margaret Mahy for children’s books.
Witi Ihimaera, who wrote Whale Writer, is the first Maori novelist. Tangi, 1973, is his first novel. He’s also been a screenwriter, short-story writer, diplomat and professor.
For YA fiction, it’s hard to beat Maurice Gee’s Under the Mountain.
Faction
Bullshit & Jellybeans, Tim Shadbolt. Tim was a hippie stirrer. Now, he’s mayor of Invercargill.
The Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise, Austin Mitchell. Published in 1972, it light-heartedly but accurately described the New Zealand of that era.
Children of the Poor, Shining with the Shiner, Soldier: all by John A. Lee. Lee (1891-19820) was a juvenile delinquent, soldier, radical reformer, maverick politician and fine author.
The Pakeha Papers, Jules Older. OK, I wrote it. And it’s long out of print. But it captures the moment that Maori awareness and persistence began to change old New Zealand to new Aotearoa.
Academia
The Dragon & the Taniwha: Maori & Chinese in New Zealand, Manying Ip, ed. A portrait of two of New Zealand’s biggest minority communities.
Poetry
The poets I most prize are Sam Hunt, Hone Tuwhare and James Baxter.