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A review by what_risa_is_reading
The Bone People by Keri Hulme
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I decided to read The Bone People as part of the 2022 PopSugar Reading Challenge (Prompt #15: A book by an Asian-American or Pacific Islander author). If it hadn't been for that purpose, I doubt I ever would have picked this one up, because as intrigued as I was by the premise, I wasn't terribly motivated to read it otherwise. Having said that... After I finished reading it last night, I literally went to Facebook and posted this:
"Have you ever read a book and kind of hated it but at the same time have a deep respect for the artistry that went into creating it and have zero regrets about having read it? Yeah. That was The Bone People for me."
This was, at the moment, the best way that I could describe my feelings about it. Since then, I've had a bit of time to think and the conclusion that I've come to is that, while I didn't like this book and wouldn't personally recommend it, I have a deep respect for the artistry of Keri Hulme's writing and I can appreciate why people think that this book is so well-written. Because it is. And so, I gave it two stars for the artistry. The characters were also really compelling in the depth of their development. Unfortunately, that's pretty much where my "good things I can say about this book" end.
As well-developed and compelling as the characters were, they weren't very sympathetic. Not even Simon (the little boy) was a sympathetic character. (Now, that speaks to the level of Keri Hulme's artistry that she was able to take a child character and make me feel very little sympathy for him, except in very specific ways, which I'll get to in just a minute.) I understand, or at least I think that I understand, that the characters weren't supposed to be likeable. I got the sense, from the entire book, that the whole purpose of this story was to highlight and examine the flawed humanity of the characters and, to that end, it was incredibly successful. I just didn't particularly like any of the characters that it examined.
Another thing, and I want to make this abundantly clear to anyone who is thinking about reading this book, because no one told me: I was NOT prepared for the graphic depictions of child abuse and alcoholism that run through the entire story. In fact, the extreme child abuse is one of the major plot (if you can say that it has a plot) motivators. There are also mild mentions of suicide and suicidal ideation by both adult and juvenile characters, so there's that, as well.
In addition to incredibly challenging and potentially triggering content in the story, this novel was also difficult to read because it moves so. incredibly. slowly. I'm fairly certain that part of that is attributable to the specific edition that I was reading having text that is so densely printed that, when you look at the pages from a (not-too-distant) distance it doesn't even look like individual lines of text, but giant blurry grayish-black patches of ink on the page, but I also think that part of it was just that there wasn't really a clear plot to follow to speak of. I guess that the events of the story followed a kind of loosely-linear organizational structure, but you have to be paying close attention to be able to find it, let alone follow it. There were also a lot of sudden shifts in point of view between the three main characters with no clear delineation, so a lot of it felt like reading three overlapping and intertwined streams of consciousness.
I think that the things that I like the most about it were the elements of magical realism and Maori culture that were incorporated throughout the novel. It was also pretty cool to read a text that included actual Maori language (there was a handy page-by-page glossary with translations at the end of the book) because I haven't had that experience before. The style was artistic and I really respect and appreciate the work that clearly went into developing the characters; I also appreciate that Keri Hulme clearly had an intimate knowledge of the settings and culture in which the story was set, but it was still incredibly challenging to read for both stylistic/technical, as well as content reasons.
Ultimately, I kind of hated The Bone People, but I didn't hate it at the same time. I definitely cannot say that I liked it but, as I mentioned previously, I still gave it two stars because I can appreciate the artistry of it, but at the end of everything, it was really just a terrible "story" about terrible people.
"Have you ever read a book and kind of hated it but at the same time have a deep respect for the artistry that went into creating it and have zero regrets about having read it? Yeah. That was The Bone People for me."
This was, at the moment, the best way that I could describe my feelings about it. Since then, I've had a bit of time to think and the conclusion that I've come to is that, while I didn't like this book and wouldn't personally recommend it, I have a deep respect for the artistry of Keri Hulme's writing and I can appreciate why people think that this book is so well-written. Because it is. And so, I gave it two stars for the artistry. The characters were also really compelling in the depth of their development. Unfortunately, that's pretty much where my "good things I can say about this book" end.
As well-developed and compelling as the characters were, they weren't very sympathetic. Not even Simon (the little boy) was a sympathetic character. (Now, that speaks to the level of Keri Hulme's artistry that she was able to take a child character and make me feel very little sympathy for him, except in very specific ways, which I'll get to in just a minute.) I understand, or at least I think that I understand, that the characters weren't supposed to be likeable. I got the sense, from the entire book, that the whole purpose of this story was to highlight and examine the flawed humanity of the characters and, to that end, it was incredibly successful. I just didn't particularly like any of the characters that it examined.
Another thing, and I want to make this abundantly clear to anyone who is thinking about reading this book, because no one told me: I was NOT prepared for the graphic depictions of child abuse and alcoholism that run through the entire story. In fact, the extreme child abuse is one of the major plot (if you can say that it has a plot) motivators. There are also mild mentions of suicide and suicidal ideation by both adult and juvenile characters, so there's that, as well.
In addition to incredibly challenging and potentially triggering content in the story, this novel was also difficult to read because it moves so. incredibly. slowly. I'm fairly certain that part of that is attributable to the specific edition that I was reading having text that is so densely printed that, when you look at the pages from a (not-too-distant) distance it doesn't even look like individual lines of text, but giant blurry grayish-black patches of ink on the page, but I also think that part of it was just that there wasn't really a clear plot to follow to speak of. I guess that the events of the story followed a kind of loosely-linear organizational structure, but you have to be paying close attention to be able to find it, let alone follow it. There were also a lot of sudden shifts in point of view between the three main characters with no clear delineation, so a lot of it felt like reading three overlapping and intertwined streams of consciousness.
I think that the things that I like the most about it were the elements of magical realism and Maori culture that were incorporated throughout the novel. It was also pretty cool to read a text that included actual Maori language (there was a handy page-by-page glossary with translations at the end of the book) because I haven't had that experience before. The style was artistic and I really respect and appreciate the work that clearly went into developing the characters; I also appreciate that Keri Hulme clearly had an intimate knowledge of the settings and culture in which the story was set, but it was still incredibly challenging to read for both stylistic/technical, as well as content reasons.
Ultimately, I kind of hated The Bone People, but I didn't hate it at the same time. I definitely cannot say that I liked it but, as I mentioned previously, I still gave it two stars because I can appreciate the artistry of it, but at the end of everything, it was really just a terrible "story" about terrible people.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism and Child abuse
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Drug abuse