Summer 2013 Rowing
Regatta, Clive River.
I looked along the row of parents supporting their offspring
and counted 9 of us all reading ‘The Luminaries’ by Eleanor Catton which had
recently won the 2013 Man Booker Prize. A
few weeks later, I was discovering that while many people had bought or
borrowed the book I knew very few who had finished it – let alone understood or
enjoyed it.
‘The Bone People’ by Keri Hulme, a Booker Prize winner in
1984, suffered the same fate and as a young library assistant I remember dozens
of library members returning it unfinished. I read it myself and while I found
it ‘so so’ it has always sat in the back of my mind. I reread it a few months
ago and wow. I will no doubt read ‘The Luminaries’ again too – because I have
to figure out the zodiac references and I completely missed that each chapter
was half the length of the previous ones and that’s why I felt ‘rushed’ the
closer to the end I got; so interesting!
Good fiction can sometimes feel a bit too ‘clever’ on first
reading, making us feel incompetent or dull for not ‘getting it’. I remember
reading ‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf. I struggled through it the first time
feeling completely confused because the entire book is written as internal
monologues but it skips from one person to another – without telling you whose
head you are in! By the time I reached the last page I vividly remember starting
straight over again from the front because I’d finally figured out how to read
it!
‘The Matriach’ by Witi Ihimaera, Wattie Book of the Year
1986, was another astounding book. It contained huge blocks of text in Italian.
I remember feeling so disconcerted and disoriented because I really wanted to
know what was happening but I just didn’t understand the language. Well guess
what: welcome to the struggles of Maori in the land alienation shenanigans by
European settlers and Land Courts. This was such a powerful way to force the
reader to empathise with the main characters and their struggle comprehending
the whole new ‘language’ of land ownership.
Award winning literature
is a funny business. Literary prizes have been awarded since the days of the
Greek playwrights and for millennia there have been arguments about what constitutes
an award winner. We want awards to be clear markers of excellence but there are
no absolute standards for judging aesthetic matters. The criteria for
excellence in literature are entirely subjective; It all comes down to personal
taste.
The Library has just
launched a collection of award winning books for readers to get their teeth
into so pop on down to your local library or view online: List: “Award Winners”
on www.library.org.nz
Jo’s pick of interesting ‘new’ Award Winners
- A Tale for the time being by Ruth Ozeki
- Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon
- The Testament of Mary by Colm Tobin
- J by Howard Jacobson
- To rise again at a decent hour by Joshua Ferris
- The Ploughman by Kim Zupan
- All the birds singing by Evie Wyld
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