In an
exceptionally fruitful year for one of our most beloved writers, Dame Fiona
Kidman has produced a wonderful collection of poems, published in April this year, and now a superb novel. Both explore and celebrate
family relationships, each looking back and also around at the world we live
in.
Wry,
moving, beautifully observed and politically astute, All
Day at the Movies is the latest work
from Dame Fiona. In it, one of our finest chroniclers pinpoints universal
truths through very New Zealand lives. She draws a vivid and moving portrait of
a fractured New Zealand family, set against a backdrop of our recent post-war
history and events that have shaped the country; and in turn
shaped the family and, in particular, women’s lives.
Life
isn’t always like it appears in the movies. In 1952, Irene Sandle takes her
young daughter to Motueka. Irene was widowed during the war and is seeking a new start and employment in the tobacco fields. There, she finds the
reality of her life far removed from the glamour of the screen. Can there be
romance and happy endings, or will circumstances repeat through the
generations?
Long
celebrated for bringing women’s stories to the fore, Dame
Fiona in her new novel captures the different and changing attitudes and
lifestyles that women face. We see her characters’ choices limited partly by
the era they were born into but also by what cards life deals them. Hard beginnings are seen to have repercussions that are difficult to
escape.
FIONA
KIDMAN has published over 30 books, including novels, poetry, non-fiction and a
play. She has worked as a librarian, creative writing teacher, radio producer
and critic, and as a scriptwriter for radio, television and
film, but primarily as a writer. S
he has been the recipient of numerous awards
and fellowships; in more recent years The Captive Wife was runner-up for the
Deutz Medal for Fiction and was joint-winner of the Readers' Choice Award in the 2006 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and her short
story collection The Trouble With Fire was shortlisted for both the NZ Post
Book Awards and the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award. She was created a Dame
(DNZM) in 1998 in recognition of her contribution to literature, and
more recently a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and a Chevalier of
the French Legion of Honour. ‘We cannot talk about writing in New Zealand
without acknowledging her,' wrote New Zealand Books. ‘Kidman's accessible prose and the way she shows (mainly) women grappling to escape
from restricting social pressures has guaranteed her a permanent place in our
fiction.'
Fiona Kidman photo by Robert Cross
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