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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Three broken people break each other some more until they can become a family.
Joe has an adopted son named Simon (of Haiman, in native tongue) Joe lost his wife and biological son and has never officially adopted Simon. He saved the boy from a wreckage on the coast. Simon doesn't speak, seems older than his years, and gets in a lot of trouble. Simon finds Kerewin one day and keeps going back to visit and brings Joe. They become a makeshift family. Kerewin finds out that Joe has been beating Simon when he's been bad. Kerewin beats Joe and makes him promise not to hit the boy unless she says he can. One day Simon and Kerewin have an argument and he breaks her guitar. She tells Joe that the boy needs to be punished. Joe really beats him and Simon stabs him.
The three are separated. Joe to prison, Simon to hospital and foster care, Kerewin on walk about because feels guilty. She gets very sick. She heals and has the ship that Simon was brought on salvaged so she can adopt the boy (drugs on it).
Very mystical. Strange breaks in type and indentation. But very good.
Joe has an adopted son named Simon (of Haiman, in native tongue) Joe lost his wife and biological son and has never officially adopted Simon. He saved the boy from a wreckage on the coast. Simon doesn't speak, seems older than his years, and gets in a lot of trouble. Simon finds Kerewin one day and keeps going back to visit and brings Joe. They become a makeshift family. Kerewin finds out that Joe has been beating Simon when he's been bad. Kerewin beats Joe and makes him promise not to hit the boy unless she says he can. One day Simon and Kerewin have an argument and he breaks her guitar. She tells Joe that the boy needs to be punished. Joe really beats him and Simon stabs him.
The three are separated. Joe to prison, Simon to hospital and foster care, Kerewin on walk about because feels guilty. She gets very sick. She heals and has the ship that Simon was brought on salvaged so she can adopt the boy (drugs on it).
Very mystical. Strange breaks in type and indentation. But very good.
- You want to know about anybody? See what books they read, and how they've been read...
- We are more than the sum of our parts; we are the stories that we tell.
- We are all capable of violence, and we all have the capacity for healing.
- To be human is to be incomplete.
- Sometimes, the waves grow hushed, but the sea is always there, touching, caressing, eating the earth.
- There really is no place like home, even when it's grown a couple of sizes too small.
- I am worn, down to the raw nub of my soul.
Now is the time, o bitter beer, soothe my spirit;
smooth mouth of whisky, tell me lies of truth;
but better still, sweet wine, be harbinger of deep and dreamless sleep.
- We are more than the sum of our parts; we are the stories that we tell.
- We are all capable of violence, and we all have the capacity for healing.
- To be human is to be incomplete.
- Sometimes, the waves grow hushed, but the sea is always there, touching, caressing, eating the earth.
- There really is no place like home, even when it's grown a couple of sizes too small.
- I am worn, down to the raw nub of my soul.
Now is the time, o bitter beer, soothe my spirit;
smooth mouth of whisky, tell me lies of truth;
but better still, sweet wine, be harbinger of deep and dreamless sleep.
This book left me reeling. I never thought I'd feel conflicted about child abuse and whether victims of child abuse should be removed from their abusers. And yet this book manages to paint a world wherein that question is asked.
I originally picked it up looking for a good book about New Zealand and its culture. Instead, I'm asking questions about what it means to be family, what it means to love, to belong to someone or a group, or a place, and what it means to hate the ones you love.
Beautifully, lyrically, and confusingly written, I love this book and its characters. I probably won't read it again any time soon because parts of it are just painful to read. Images painted in my mind from the world the author created won't fade any time soon.
I originally picked it up looking for a good book about New Zealand and its culture. Instead, I'm asking questions about what it means to be family, what it means to love, to belong to someone or a group, or a place, and what it means to hate the ones you love.
Beautifully, lyrically, and confusingly written, I love this book and its characters. I probably won't read it again any time soon because parts of it are just painful to read. Images painted in my mind from the world the author created won't fade any time soon.
I haven't been able to re-read this, though I have tried several times. But when I read it back in the 80s I found myself literally gasping and choking on tears at 2:00 in the morning.
It's been 9 months and I still don't know what to think of this novel. It is deftly written with an unmistakable voice and culture. At times touching and at other times heartbreakingly bleak it is an unflinching look at complex topics and includes a rare character in an aromantic, asexual woman.
Very confusing writing style. Hard to make sense of in many places, but if you like to read about child abuse, alcoholism, and dysfunctional relationships, with a dose of Māori culture and an odd bit of magic, you may enjoy it.
I liked this book a lot but I might be biased because I went to NZ about 6 months ago. Unlike those who wanted it shorter, I would have liked a little more, for example spelling out of the details in the ending. But I liked it regardless.