BOOK REVIEW

Tu Tangata, Issue 12, 1 June 1983, Page 40

BOOK REVIEW

New Zealand Now, Short Stories collected by Bernard Gadd, Longman Paul.

Not being a short story fan I was pleasantly surprised by New Zealand Now. The stories collected all work well and though a few of the styles sit ungainly by one another, none are submerged. Some of the more wellknown authors are here, Patricia Grace, Craig Harrison, Margaret Orbell, Hone Tuwhare while Keri Hulme, L.E. Scott and others make welcome appearances. If I had to choose which ones I enjoyed most I’d plump for Patricia Grace’s Letters from Whetu, a lighthearted series of letters from a bored school-girl. Just the right amount of realism and imagination and colloquial expressions. And then there is Keri Hulme’s Hooks and Feelers, a chiller of a tale about a crises in a family, not to mention A Nightsong for the Shining Cuckoo by Kai Tainui who sounds like a cousin of Keri’s. Both these short stories capture a Maori feeling that leaps off the page

with a distinct New Zealand style and flavour. New Zealand Now features Christopher Bates, Joy Cowley, Yvonne de Fresne, Bernard Gadd, Patricia Grace, Russell Haley, Craig Harrison, Barbara Hedley, Noel Hilliard, Keri Hulme, Gary Langford, Margaret Orbell, L.E. Scott, Barbara Strong, Kai Tainui, Hone Tuwhare, Lorrain Williams, Spiro Zavos.