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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
excellent. heavy going at times - but the writing just carries you on - further into the story and the place of the novel. i could imagine myself re-reading and getting so much more from it. yep, excellent.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
How do you write sympathetically about someone who is, at times, a brute?
I first read The Bone People by Keri Hulme around the time it was published (1985) and thought it was extraordinary. I was very impressed (as were the 1985 Booker judges, which is probably what attracted my interest).
Anyway, around that time, a good friend became gravely ill and was hospitalised. I brought him two books I thought he might enjoy - The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin and this. I think that even had he been up to serious reading, he, battling leukaemia, would have passed by this title. And that obliviousness of mine has stayed with me for nearly forty years.
I’m pleased to refresh my acquaintance with this New Zealand masterpiece, this time in its recently published and beautifully produced audiobook format.
I’m enjoying this tale of three misfits: Keriwen, our central character and chief narrator and a bit of a loner; Simon, a young boy of indeterminate age who does not speak though he can vocalise, and whose behaviour can be very difficult to deal with; and his father Joe, tragically widowed and oscillating between loving and caring sentimentalist and brute. Keri and Joe are drawn together by the boy.
Peppered with mellifluous Māori phrases, that are only sometimes translated to English, it is pleasurable to audioread this book.
I enjoy the writing and I enjoy the audio narration that is in a bright and pleasant NZ accent and brings a liveliness to the text. Though at times I am puzzled by the POV taken in the text, which appears to me to place Keriwen as speaking of herself in the third person. Joe and Simon experience similar treatment. This ambiguity at times is appealing, at times confusing, I find. Dream or awake? Memory or present? Magic realism. Dreams.
The shifting of the narratorial point of view. Three damaged people. Will they heal each other somehow?
What to make of the prolonged section near the end, of Joe’s meeting with the Māori mystic Kaumatua and what ensues?
This is well written with many eye-catching phrases that I savour. Yet I often find myself wondering why I liked this book so much back then, a comment on how my current self views my nearly forty years younger self, and I also think about changed social values and my own shifted sensitivities and deepened understanding of indigenous matters over nearly 40 years. Be warned that there are some confronting issues contained, which I describe in the spoiler below. #areadersjourney
SPOILER ALERT - do not read on if you don’t want spoilers.
The book troubles me greatly at times. It contains episodes of child abuse causing severe physical damage. Is the perpetrator to be excused? What of by-standers and enablers?
And there’s the recognition of:
- The person who abuses may also be a source of love and support for the abused person.
- This duality is a form of grooming, even if not planned as such in this case.
And beyond the physical abuse there’s other issues. This young child of indeterminate age (sub-10) is given alcohol and cigarettes. What’s going on?!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse
I liked the characters and the plot but perhaps the story was quite different from what I was expecting. The peculiarity of the characters is something I liked but I felt the story just spun around people getting drunk. I would have liked to learn more about the characters and why they ended up with their peculiarities. I also picked up this book because it apparently is about Maori culture but I must say that I haven't learnt anything significant about Maori culture after finishing the book.
Up to about two-thirds of the book the story just went like two adults getting sloshed all the time while sometimes including the kid in the drinking sessions. In between they manage to cook some food as well. Then there is an abrupt transition (like an explosion) that tears apart the lives of the characters. Then they all apparently try to seek redemption. I was still hopeful that in the end something meaningful (to me) would emerge but the story ended abruptly.
Up to about two-thirds of the book the story just went like two adults getting sloshed all the time while sometimes including the kid in the drinking sessions. In between they manage to cook some food as well. Then there is an abrupt transition (like an explosion) that tears apart the lives of the characters. Then they all apparently try to seek redemption. I was still hopeful that in the end something meaningful (to me) would emerge but the story ended abruptly.
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence
The bone people made me very emotional, as I suspect it did many. I come from a family who doesn't see anything wrong with corporal punishment, a family locked in its own intergenerational trauma, and so, a lot of what happens in the book I can relate. Abuse is no light matter, but the book, in my opinion, showcases a very nuanced take on it. Real life is messy and complicated, and conflicting objectives can coexist in the same space – there is love and support, but there is also hurt and fear. The Bone People has given me a lot to think about: of love, and how it manifests in different ways, the different kinds of love; of human fallibility, even as we are held to task over the lives of others; of abuse, of trauma, and the intersection between the two; of the ways in which contentment and suffering can coexist, as counterintuitive as it seems; of Stockholm syndromes, but also of colonialism; but also finally for me, of the many ways where things happen in the book are familiar to me.
The conversation between the kaumatua and Joseph about moths also got me thinking a lot about my late grandmother.
And then there's Kerewin, tortured Kerewin. Haunted by a history that never really gets explained, she spends her days in solitude, but her loneliness is oh so palpable. Perhaps it doesn't matter what happened, just the aftermath of it. Perhaps it doesn't matter even if nothing really happened. Cloistered in that tower of hers, locked up within herself, finding solace in the company of strangers, strangers who in their own ways are trying to heal as well, then getting a new lease of life – with everything that I've gone through in the last 2 years, how can I not relate?
The conversation between the kaumatua and Joseph about moths also got me thinking a lot about my late grandmother.
And then there's Kerewin, tortured Kerewin. Haunted by a history that never really gets explained, she spends her days in solitude, but her loneliness is oh so palpable. Perhaps it doesn't matter what happened, just the aftermath of it. Perhaps it doesn't matter even if nothing really happened. Cloistered in that tower of hers, locked up within herself, finding solace in the company of strangers, strangers who in their own ways are trying to heal as well, then getting a new lease of life – with everything that I've gone through in the last 2 years, how can I not relate?
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's a lighter stream-of-consciousness than say, Toni Morrison's works. As well as a much lighter allegory than say Life of Pi. Maori mythology weaves in and out throughout the tale. Along with those styles, the chapters are structured in such a fluid style that keeping track takes work. The first half is part of the weaving, whilst the second focuses on their individual journeys. Hulme's prose is poetic and possibly the pivotal reason I remained with it. I was glad I did. The ending chapters feel disconnected from the first and that's possibly my only real criticism.
Hulme does a fabulous job of creating a sense of isolation. Of place and soul. The rugged landscape of New Zealand's South Island coastline is a magnificent backdrop and symbol.
I found the child abuse difficult work to walk through. Yet, not as difficult as I would have thought. Perhaps it's the novel's other-worldliness, the child's maturity, the child as Christ symbol, the necessity to know about these occurrences, or Hulme's storytelling abilities. Troubling yes, but somehow it all made sense and was necessary to understand.
I didn't feel deeply for any of the characters, and yet, they are so well-developed, that I needed to know about them. They are too terribly flawed to connect with, but that is their purpose in this tale. This is a character-driven novel where just enough occurs to keep them tied to the real world of movement, but always playing second-fiddle.
It's an intense ride, one that I'm unsure whether to recommend. Possibly only to those who care for such intensity and mysticism. I am glad for reading it. It touched me and troubled me. Yet it was a lyrical journey that stayed with me for some time afterwards.
Hulme does a fabulous job of creating a sense of isolation. Of place and soul. The rugged landscape of New Zealand's South Island coastline is a magnificent backdrop and symbol.
I found the child abuse difficult work to walk through. Yet, not as difficult as I would have thought. Perhaps it's the novel's other-worldliness, the child's maturity, the child as Christ symbol, the necessity to know about these occurrences, or Hulme's storytelling abilities. Troubling yes, but somehow it all made sense and was necessary to understand.
I didn't feel deeply for any of the characters, and yet, they are so well-developed, that I needed to know about them. They are too terribly flawed to connect with, but that is their purpose in this tale. This is a character-driven novel where just enough occurs to keep them tied to the real world of movement, but always playing second-fiddle.
It's an intense ride, one that I'm unsure whether to recommend. Possibly only to those who care for such intensity and mysticism. I am glad for reading it. It touched me and troubled me. Yet it was a lyrical journey that stayed with me for some time afterwards.
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes