Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
I MEAAAAN!! Where do I even begin ? This book wasn’t just any ordinary read, it was an amazing experience. The three main characters are all very well crafted, altogether imperfect, but very lovable. This novel is mystical, atmospheric, and full of interesting elements. I feel lucky to be working on it for my thesis because I will have a great time dissecting and analysing it.
This book is something special. The story is told with heart and nuance, and it felt like watching a train crash (in which I had grown deeply invested) from only one angle and in slow motion. It was detailed and emotionally painful (in an engaging way) and there’s a lot of complexity that the reader cannot see but knows is there. The writing is expressive, rooted in the Maori culture and language, and I was deeply engaged by this book. Sadly, after hundreds of pages mastering the nuanced meaning of gestures between characters, the book ends in an abrupt sweep that I didn’t find believable and it felt like whiplash. That far from ruined this experience for me, though it did taint it a bit. I am still thinking about this book, and I know that I will be for a while. I see why it won the Booker Prize. I haven’t read anything quite like it.
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
So very many feels. I did not expect, going in, that the Bone People was going to hit as hard as it did. While it won't be everyone's cup of tea, it grabbed me pretty early and wouldn't let me go. The writing makes you work for it just enough - so that you have to focus, but not so much that you get frustrated. Hulme's insight into people, and her skill at showing them from their own perspective, is completely compelling. This is especially true in their flaws. Kerewin is agonisingly aware of her own failures - she stomps around expecting less of herself than we want her too. Frequently she delivers, but with agonising slowness, she comes to want more, and to try to rise towards it. Her interactions with Simon are a masterpiece of this growth, the push and pull of love and connection.
Joe is a broken man, and Hulme draws him with deep compassion. In almost the reverse of Kerewin, Jo tries to be more than he can currently sustain, and we watch him fall and recover and cling to Kerewin. Their relationship, with a mutual tolerance as much as affection, feels real and viable.
The problem, of course, is Simon. Because while the violence of Joe, and poor judgement of Kerewin, feel completely, devastatingly, realistic - especially as they are inevitably unleashed by alcohol - Simon's uncomplicated love for an abuser does not feel realistic at all. It feels as if Hulme has taken the outward behaviour of a child being abused, and read into it an interior state which we know now, is not so simple. This made the book increasingly hard to take for me, creating an at times unbearable tension between the immersion of the book and the absence of a compelling voice for the child at the heart.
So, yeah, I'm not sure I have much more to say on this one. The web of community - especially Maori community - is wonderfully drawn too, the complexity of how we relate to each other, and ultimately, the value of that. The impact on Kerewin of being asexual - not the way her sexuality makes her feel but the exclusion it creates from a society that has few other/accepting models - was really helpful to me in understanding. I learned a lot - but there is still a bitter tang I can't ignore.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse
This is one of those books I've read over and over, although less so in later years. I keep coming back to it for its lyricism and poetic quality, the portrayal of three very flawed people with complicated relationships and difficult lives, the Maori culture, and the fact that it tackles a horrible subject without demonising the perpetrator. The detective-style clues to Simon's origins also kept me guessing. It irritates me sometimes (the self-insertion of the author, the challenging style which in my less generous moments I think is self-indulgent) but I always come back - which I guess makes the book a little like Kerewin, challenging and frustrating and rewarding in equal quantities! I first read it in university and the book polarised the class tremendously.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I like the unusual narrative style a lot. The author is a poet and usually I find books with a poetic focus unreadable because they don't have a story to tell. This one has a story although it is not a predictable story.
The fact that I "enjoyed reading this book" is remarkable because it is about child abuse. I normally will not read a book about the hurting of children. Hulme's telling of this part of the story is so felt without being voyeuristic that I could read it.
What I don't like is the self-indulgence of the main character's self-description.
The fact that I "enjoyed reading this book" is remarkable because it is about child abuse. I normally will not read a book about the hurting of children. Hulme's telling of this part of the story is so felt without being voyeuristic that I could read it.
What I don't like is the self-indulgence of the main character's self-description.
i really dug this book on many levels and take the uncomfortable position that it could and probably should have been edited down by 20-30%. i admire the anarchy and unwieldiness at the same time. kerewin holmes is an impossibly awesome person who knows everything about everything, so it's hard not to be skeptical about her character. but she does fuck up bigtime at one point at least. the book is a sympathetic portrayal of child abuse and alcoholism, but also about a family brought together neither by blood or sex. which is kind of terrific.
Okay. So. I really, really adored the beginning of this book. It was so difficult emotionally, and it reduced me to a sobbing mess -- you think I'm exaggerating, but I actually cried my eyes out -- two days in a row. It had so much potential, and I loved it.
But then, I'll be honest, the latter part of the book kind of put me off. It represented, I think, my biggest issue with the book as a whole: too vague, too esoteric. There's a difference between leaving things up to the reader's interpretation and being entirely so vague that it's a chore for the reader to get through, and much of the latter part of the book was like that.
Maybe it's because I had a week in between reading most of the book and finishing it, too, which made it feel disjointed, but that's just how the resolution of the book felt to me.
I should definitely reread it, because I truly did love the beginning.
But then, I'll be honest, the latter part of the book kind of put me off. It represented, I think, my biggest issue with the book as a whole: too vague, too esoteric. There's a difference between leaving things up to the reader's interpretation and being entirely so vague that it's a chore for the reader to get through, and much of the latter part of the book was like that.
Maybe it's because I had a week in between reading most of the book and finishing it, too, which made it feel disjointed, but that's just how the resolution of the book felt to me.
I should definitely reread it, because I truly did love the beginning.
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What I loved: learning more about a part of the world I know little about, tale of misfits who find meaning together despite difficult lives, some truly beautiful writing
What I struggled with: pace is uneven and it's sometimes difficult to tell what is happening, very hard to read about abusive parent even if ultimately redemptive
What I struggled with: pace is uneven and it's sometimes difficult to tell what is happening, very hard to read about abusive parent even if ultimately redemptive
Unconventional and groundbreaking, but also confusing and unresolved.
The Ups: This book is truly extraordinary. It doesn't care about following any conventions of fiction, and doesn't hide from disclosing everything about its characters. The manipulation of language and the frequent cross between the spiritual and real realm is unapologetic. It definitely trusts in an intelligent reader, or doesn't really pay much mind to a total comprehension of the story by the reader.
I loved the three main characters in this: Kerewin, Simon, and Joe. Kerewin is definitely the focus of the novel, a strong, resilient woman who is also grappling with herself and how to handle her inability to create like before. Her relationship with Simon is so intriguing, as she interacts with him almost as a maternal figure, with a want to love and protect, but also struggles with her own growing affection for the boy, realizing she knows almost close to nothing about him.
Joe, who has an extremely complex relationship with Kerewin, one of love and comfort but also of hurt and distance, brought up all kinds of conflicting emotions in me. He tests the reader's moral compass, committing absolutely horrible acts to his child but still loving him. He provoked a lot of thoughts in my head about how the expression of love and loving someone right can be unintentionally skewed for a lot of people.
Watching these three get to know each other and seeing the distinct, fully formed, discoveries of themselves was very enjoyable.
The Downs: That being said, probably because the piece is so experimental in a lot of its choices, I found myself confused and sometimes detached and bored while reading. The book is very long, and already from the first few pages it wasn't clear what exactly was occurring. When I spent more time with the story, it mostly made sense, but I still had aspects, especially as I neared the end of the book, that I couldn't make sense of. It made the finish of the book empty and unremarkable.
Being set in New Zealand, there is definitely a strong mention and connection to Maori history and culture in the book. It's very subtly weaved in, and I thought it could have been more intriguing to see it more clearly explored, especially as the scenes where the spirituality of the culture was the focus I found difficult to comprehend.
The writing style also felt quite drawn out and incorporated sometimes ethereal and other times difficult imagery. It was a hit-or-miss for a lot of the descriptions and plot points. Some I adored, some I wanted to skip entirely. Probably expected from the experimental nature of the novel, but there were definitely parts I couldn't connect with.
The Ups: This book is truly extraordinary. It doesn't care about following any conventions of fiction, and doesn't hide from disclosing everything about its characters. The manipulation of language and the frequent cross between the spiritual and real realm is unapologetic. It definitely trusts in an intelligent reader, or doesn't really pay much mind to a total comprehension of the story by the reader.
I loved the three main characters in this: Kerewin, Simon, and Joe. Kerewin is definitely the focus of the novel, a strong, resilient woman who is also grappling with herself and how to handle her inability to create like before. Her relationship with Simon is so intriguing, as she interacts with him almost as a maternal figure, with a want to love and protect, but also struggles with her own growing affection for the boy, realizing she knows almost close to nothing about him.
Joe, who has an extremely complex relationship with Kerewin, one of love and comfort but also of hurt and distance, brought up all kinds of conflicting emotions in me. He tests the reader's moral compass, committing absolutely horrible acts to his child but still loving him. He provoked a lot of thoughts in my head about how the expression of love and loving someone right can be unintentionally skewed for a lot of people.
Watching these three get to know each other and seeing the distinct, fully formed, discoveries of themselves was very enjoyable.
The Downs: That being said, probably because the piece is so experimental in a lot of its choices, I found myself confused and sometimes detached and bored while reading. The book is very long, and already from the first few pages it wasn't clear what exactly was occurring. When I spent more time with the story, it mostly made sense, but I still had aspects, especially as I neared the end of the book, that I couldn't make sense of. It made the finish of the book empty and unremarkable.
Being set in New Zealand, there is definitely a strong mention and connection to Maori history and culture in the book. It's very subtly weaved in, and I thought it could have been more intriguing to see it more clearly explored, especially as the scenes where the spirituality of the culture was the focus I found difficult to comprehend.
The writing style also felt quite drawn out and incorporated sometimes ethereal and other times difficult imagery. It was a hit-or-miss for a lot of the descriptions and plot points. Some I adored, some I wanted to skip entirely. Probably expected from the experimental nature of the novel, but there were definitely parts I couldn't connect with.