Reviews of the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards finalists

The finalists in the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards have now been announced, giving readers 16 fine books to take a second look at, and consider among the best New Zealand books ever produced. The judges had an unenviable task, with 18 months worth of submissions considered, and of course they haven’t chosen everybody’s favourite books (wherefore no The Chimes?) , but it is a pretty fine list nonetheless.

Click the title you are interested in below to read a review, either on our blog, or if we haven’t yet had it reviewed, in another extremely reputable place.

Acorn Foundation Literary Award (Fiction) 

Image from Unity Books Wellington @unitybookswgtn

The Back of His Head, by Patrick Evans (Victoria University Press)
Chappy, by Patricia Grace (Penguin Random House)
Coming Rain, by Stephen Daisley (Text Publishing)
The Invisible Mile, by David Coventry (Victoria University Press)

Poetry
How to be Dead in a Year of Snakes, by Chris Tse (Auckland University Press)
The Night We Ate the Baby, by Tim Upperton (Haunui Press)
Song of the Ghost in the Machine, by Roger Horrocks (Victoria University Press)
The Conch Trumpet, by David Eggleton (Otago University Press)

General Non-Fiction

Image from Unity Books Wellington @unitybookswgtn

Maurice Gee: Life and Work, by Rachel Barrowman (Victoria University Press)
The Villa at the Edge of the Empire: One Hundred Ways to Read a City, by Fiona Farrell (Penguin Random House)
Māori Boy: A Memoir of Childhood, by Witi Ihimaera (Penguin Random House)
Lost and Gone Away, by Lynn Jenner (Auckland University Press)

Illustrated Non-Fiction
Te Ara Puoro: A Journey into the World of Māori Music, by Richard Nunns (Potton and Burton)
New Zealand Photography Collected, by Athol McCredie (Te Papa Press)
Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History, by Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris (Bridget Williams Books)
Real Modern: Everyday New Zealand in the 1950s and 1960s, by Bronwyn Labrum (Te Papa Press)

Enjoy these wonderful New Zealand books and share them far and wide.

The Ockham New Zealand Book Awards are supported by the Ockham Foundation, the Acorn Foundation, Creative New Zealand and Book Tokens Ltd. You can find out who the judges are here. The winners (including of the four Best First Book Awards) will be announced at a ceremony on Tuesday May 10 2016, held as the opening night event of the Auckland Writers Festival.

The awards ceremony is open to the public for the first time. Tickets to the event can be purchased via Ticketmaster once festival bookings open on Friday 18 March. Winners of the Acorn Foundation Literary Award, for fiction, win $50,000. Winners of the other three category awards each receive $10,000, the Māori Language award $10,000, and each of the winners of the three Best First Book awards, $2,500.

by Sarah Forster, Web Editor

Book Review: HAKA, by Patricia Grace, illustrated by Andrew Burdan

Available now in bookshops nationwide.

Flicking through HAKA is like flicking through a picture book illustrated by C. F. Goldie. Andrew Burdan has used all of his considerable skill in bringing this story to life, sending the great Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha fleeing across the pages as you are drawn into Patricia Grace’s tale of the composition of ‘Ka Mate’.

While I will admit we don’t watch very much rugby in our house, we have watched a good number of haka on YouTube, as our children adore watching this display of fierce resistance, in whatever context. My 5-year-old, Dan, gets caught up in the theatricality of it, and both of my boys like to try and perform.

Reading this book with Dan has given me a way to talk with him about Maori traditions and the way that they are honoured in everyday life here; and how unique we are in having this rich history. While I was aware of the legacy of Te Rauparaha, I wasn’t aware that he was the inspiration for, and composer of ‘Ka Mate’. The story of him hiding in a friendly tribe’s vegetable pit was fascinating for both of us.

The build-up of the actions as Te Rauparaha returns to his tribe to tell them about his narrow escape is beautifully rendered; and shows clearly that every member of the tribe was involved, not just men, but women and children. The development of ‘Ka Mate’ into something we recognise now is simply portrayed by a series of shadows across the spread, with the simple words ‘They taught it to their children, who taught it to their children’ repeated across the pages.

This book is necessary, and pertinent, with the Rugby World Cup currently at the front of many people’s minds. Please buy this book for your whanau, and spend time with the younger members to teach them about this important part of their history.

Reviewed by Sarah Forster

HAKA
by Patricia Grace, illustrated by Andrew Burdan
Published by Huia Publishers
ISBN 9781775502074

A version of this title is available in te reo Maori
Whiti Te Ra!
ISBN 9781775502098

Book Review: Chappy, by Patricia Grace

Available in bookstores nationwide.

“Who’s he’s mountain?” asks an old Maori elder in Patricia Grace’s new novel. He’s asking these questions about Chappy, a mysterious stowaway, apparently from Japan, who has landed in 1930s New Zealand and been taken in by the Maori seaman who found him. “Who’s he’s river?” old Uncle Jimmy asks. “Who’s he’s ancestors? Who’s he’s name? Who he is?” It is these questions that drive this novel, as, eighty years later, Chappy’s grandson, lost and troubled Daniel, travels back to New Zealand from Europe in search of the mysterious grandfather he never knew and, indirectly, in search of his own roots.

Chappy is skilfully and effortlessly woven together by Grace. Though Daniel’s voice occasionally pops up, the majority of the novel is an interlacing of narratives from Aki, the Maori seaman who took Chappy in, and Daniel’s great uncle, and Oriwia, Daniels’ no-nonsense, practical, sometimes bolshy grandmother, and Chappy’s wife. Alongside this narrative interweaving stands a cultural interweaving too. Different languages—Maori and English, predominantly—slip and slide alongside each other, and, though Chappy is undoubtedly a New Zealand novel, like its characters, it wanders the Pacific, with significant sections set in Hawaii and Japan. As Oriwia tells Daniel, “You can be anywhere in the world, but you have a tūrangawaewae that cannot be denied you.”

I enjoyed the expatriate or wandering flavour inherent in this novel; overseas travel has always been a part of New Zealand experience, from the twenty-first-century OE to the twelfth-century voyages from Hawaiki, and yet previous great Kiwi novels haven’t , in my opinion, often included that journeying spirit. Grace however manages to express this international aspect without sacrificing this feeling of Aotearoa as tūrangawaewae—its characters’, and our, place to stand.

It’s significant then that both Daniel and his grandfather Chappy enter the novel rootless, without a place to truly call home. Chappy stows away on a ship and, though he comes to consider Aotearoa as home, this home eventually turns on him, as might unfortunately be expected in 1940s New Zealand when dealing with a Japanese immigrant. It was fascinating and sobering to read the sections describing Pearl Harbour and the hardships German and Japanese-born Kiwis endured during that time. Chappy also spends time living in Japan and in Hawaii, torn from his wife back home, and still living a life that seems somehow incomplete or impermanent; several times he’s compared to a ghost. In fact, Chappy remains a mystery—though we learn more about him, he remains oblique and unreachable. Daniel, however, is luckier. His quest to discover his grandfather leads him in turn to understand his own roots.

“Who’s he’s mountain?” Uncle Jimmy asked of Chappy, and though Chappy’s answer to that remains unknown, it’s clear that Daniel’s search has brought him closer to understanding who his own mountain, river and ancestors are. This immaculately written New Zealand novel thus tells a universal story—the search to find your self—and is utterly absorbing and beautiful. Very highly recommended.

Reviewed by Feby Idrus

Chappy
by Patricia Grace
Penguin Random House New Zealand
ISBN 9780143572398

Dunedin Writers and Readers Festival: A Korero with Patricia Grace

Two greats of New Zealand, and particularly Maori, literature – Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace (right) – sat down for a chat in front of a nearly full St Paul’s Cathedral on Saturday. Both are well known for their work being written from and expressing a Maori world view, so it was interesting to see that Ihimaera’s first question was about Grace’s Irish background, and why she hadn’t written a lot from that point of view. As it turns out, she had written a few from that point of view, especially early on in her career, but no one seemed particularly interested in publishing them. It wasn’t until she started writing from the Maori point of view that her writing career came to fruition – curious, since both Ihimaera and Grace encountered resistance from publishers regarding publishing their Maori-focused work. Perhaps this was more because the Maori point of view made up a larger part of her ‘voice’.

Grace talked about the impact of Frank Sargeson’s work early on in her career, and how she could hear ‘that Kiwi voice’ in his stories and then realising that writing came from within and that it was about finding one’s own voice. She was also aware that, in writing the Maori existence, she was writing about people that at that time had never been written about before. An interesting point to note was that one of the main themes in her work was the importance of land, and the fact that many of her (Pakeha?) readers may not have realised that land issues were part of everyday Maori life. This struck a chord with me – every life has details in it that are perfectly ordinary to the person living it, but are totally foreign to others, and often that ordinary/extraordinary disjunct happens across cultural boundary lines.

Grace was a teacher for a long time, and I could sense that old teacherly concern when she talked about The Kuia and the Spider, her classic picture book, and the circumstances that inspired it. She had noticed, as a teacher, that “it was not good to be brown or black in children’s literature” – she asked the audience rhetorically, “Where was the Maori child […] being legitimised in literature?” – and that the kids she was teaching didn’t relate to stories with European settings. Her concern was with representation of other cultures, and it extended to ethnic groups other than Maori, hence the theme of her second children’s book Watercress Tuna and the Children of Champion Street.

Overall, the session was an understated affair, but the audience remained attentive, and we were rewarded with a reading by Grace from her new novel Chappy, to be released at the end of the week.

Reviewed by Febriani Idrus 

Chappy
by Patricia Grace
Published by Penguin Books NZ
ISBN 9780143572398

Released Wednesday 27 May

Two great women at the Auckland Writer’s Festival on Sunday – Keri Hulme and Patricia Grace

A follow-on from the Auckland Writer’s Festival on Sunday 18 May, by Gillian Whalley Torckler

Next on the agenda was an event described as the largest book club discussion
ever. It was a celebration of “The Great Kiwi Classic” − The Bone People by Keri Hulme. There was some discussion at the start about the definition of a classic. What defines a classic? Does everyone have to like it? Can it be a classic if some people are offended by it?

Peter Biggs chaired the session, which included a reading by Keri Hulme and commentary from Eimear McBride (a novelist from Ireland) and Reina Whaitiri (a NZ academic). The hour started with a ten-minute reading by Hulme herself. She read from a copy she had presented to her uncle who upon hearing she was writing a book, advised her to write in the style of Wilbur Smith. Thankfully she ignored him. The Bone People is a very kiwi book, set on the rugged west coast of New Zealand. It is interesting to note that both of our Booker prize-winning books were set in this wild landscape, that some might even describe as a savage landscape.

But this book had an inauspicious start – Hulme says that every publisher in Australia and New Zealand turned it down. That’s music to every author’s ears. From the envelopes of rejection come the … well, let’s be realistic, it won’t be the Booker every time.

The audience participation in this session was a more significant component than many. There were accolades – some glowing, some not so. There were tears from the audience when more than once victims of abuse thanked Keri for writing the book, for lifting the lid. Despite it being a violent, savage book, it was deemed positive because it has reached so many people. One person admitted it took him three reads to finally “get” this book – the first time he hated it but now it’s his favourite book.

In writing the book, Hulme loved the characters but made them do some heinous things in order to show how much damage we do to each other and how much damage we do to the earth.

Keri Hulme, about to read from The Bone People

And if you were wondering, there will never be a film made of The Bone People because Keri doesn’t want one. And after all these years, one is left feeling very much like Keri is still calling the shots. And it seems, from the sign on her gate, which reads “Unknown cats and dogs will be shot on sight. Unless I know you or you have contacted me first, do not come in,” she always will.

The end of the day was here. The last session – Patricia Grace in conversation with her long-time publisher Geoff Walker (formerly of Penguin Books). Patricia Grace (right) grew up reading books about other places, other places that were not New Zealand, well not her New Zealand anyway. She wanted to write about the people she knew, and the communities she grew up in, and in so doing she pioneered Maori writing.

Katherine Mansfield and Frank Sargeson were early role models, but although she appreciated Mansfield’s way with words, the settings and stories were far removed from her own world. She didn’t recognise Mansfield’s voice, whereas she did hear an authentic kiwi voice in Sargeson’s writing. She realised this was important and started to seek out kiwi voices. Soon realising she had her own voice, she began to write. At first, on the kitchen table, after she had got her seven children into bed at 8 o’clock each night.

Although many of Grace’s books have political undertones (and maybe even overtones) she says the characters always come first. Once they are invented, then their behaviour comes from who they are. Grace showed in a quiet and confident way that she more than deserved to be the 2014 Honored New Zealand Writer.

A waiata for Patricia Grace

The final curtain has been closed and the Festival was declared over for another year. But it was the biggest yet – over 50,000 tickets and a whopping 45% increase from 2013. The Aotea Centre was buzzing all day. And from what I saw, Sarah-Kate Lynch would have been happy to see lots and lots of readers buying books.

Events attended and reviewed by Gillian Whalley Torckler, on behalf of Booksellers NZ. 

Great Kiwi Classic nomination: Cousins, by Patricia Grace

Available by order

On a miserable, cold, wet Sunday I sat down with this book and became oblivious to the weather. This story captured me and transported me. The wonder of books and storytelling is that they allow us to not only see the world from another perspective, but also to feel the emotions of the characters as if you are walking in their shoes. Books take you to places that movies can’t reach because when watching a movie you are always a spectator, always on the outside looking in. A book allows you inside, looking out.

Patricia Grace’s books resonate with the pain of her people. Cousins tells the story of three female cousins who grow up in the period immediately after World War II when there was mass migration of Maori from rural areas into cities and towns and a huge loss of their culture and identity. Mata, Makareka and Missy have very different lives and upbringings but all three are shaped by being part of a culture of conquered peoples who have to fight to retain their own language, land and beliefs in their own homeland.

Missy grows up in a strong Maori family and community, but her life is blighted by poverty which affects her schooling. Part of the poverty is caused by her grandmother punishing her mother for marrying a man not deemed suitable. Her mother’s rejection of tradition and her grandmother’s refusal to change make for a harsh life for Missy and her siblings. Despite the poverty Missy has her language, her culture and strong family love and support but she is not equipped to live outside this small community.

Mata’s story is the saddest. Born to a European father she is left in a children’s home after her mother dies when she is only 5 years old. She is brought up with no knowledge of her people or culture or language and with a strong feeling of inferiority and shame for not being white. Mata fits in nowhere.

Makareta is Mata’s opposite. She is educated, cherished and nurtured by her grandmother and grows up with a strong understanding of her culture and is fluent in both Maori and English. She can straddle both worlds and becomes very influential in the burgeoning renaissance of Maori identity that takes place in the last decades of the twentieth century. But ironically Makareta is only able to succeed because she rejects an arranged marriage that her grandmother tries to ambush her into.

I became engrossed in the moving and compelling lives of these three main characters, as well as the minor family members whose lives intersect and connect with theirs. Patricia Grace is a wonderful writer and her prose is effortless and fluid.

Reviewed and nominated by Debbie Evans

Cousins
by Patricia Grace
Published by Penguin Books NZ
ISBN 9780140168082