The Bone People
As we have no broadband at the moment I have decided to write a few posts sans pics. Normal service will resume shortly. Do not adjust your PC's!
Before we left Ireland we got a very nice gift of a book from Norah & Ian called The Bone People. It won the 1985 Booker Prize. It is based in New Zealand and written by a Kiwi named Keri Humle. It was a most appropriate going away, to New Zealand, present and a book that I really enjoyed despite the odd grievance on which, I am about to elaborate.
As a sort of preface to this short story, I will explain a little bit about my reading habits.
Unfortunately I am a very slow reader which would not be a problem if it wasn’t for my second idiosyncrasy, the inability to skim read. I cannot skip the descriptive pieces of a novel that others might consider superfluous. I have to understand everything or I become quite irritated! No real problem there you would think until you get to the book in question.
The book itself, was without doubt one of the most difficult books I have ever read, not that I have read very many, and certainly very few “classics.” The English was difficult but the Maori, yes that’s right Maori, was naturally incomprehensible! It would seem that the Maori characters, of which there was a lot, would only speak Maori to each other when they wanted to place great emphasis on something. So here’s the “scene” you are just arriving at a critical piece of, admittedly a sub plot of a sub plot and they start speaking Maori!
I remember saying to Sharon on several occasions that the book was incredibly annoying and you never knew who was speaking or what they were speaking. To make matters worse the author did not differentiate the public and private thoughts of the various characters but decided to intermingle them like confetti throughout the book. Then to top it all off the author decides to have the characters spouting Maori!
You’ll understand the frustration that enveloped me when I finally turned the last page and there on the opposite page, mocking me, was the following:
Translation of Maori Words and Phrases
Page 14 Aue= Exclamation of dismay, or despair
Page 15 Te Kaihau= lit. windeater. Can mean either a wanderer or loafer
Teno Koe= hello, greeting to one person
Page 17 Raupo=a variety………..
Ahhhhh!!!!!!!As you can appreciate I had a few choice incomprehensible words of my own at that stage. Sharon on the other hand just couldn’t stop laughing!
I am currently reading The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, there are no difficult passages, and the author puts the character’s names at the beginning of the various passages to avoid any confusion. Notwithstanding all that, I am not enjoying it nearly as much as The Bone People, considering the above, that’s high praise indeed!
Haere ra.
Cathal
Before we left Ireland we got a very nice gift of a book from Norah & Ian called The Bone People. It won the 1985 Booker Prize. It is based in New Zealand and written by a Kiwi named Keri Humle. It was a most appropriate going away, to New Zealand, present and a book that I really enjoyed despite the odd grievance on which, I am about to elaborate.
As a sort of preface to this short story, I will explain a little bit about my reading habits.
Unfortunately I am a very slow reader which would not be a problem if it wasn’t for my second idiosyncrasy, the inability to skim read. I cannot skip the descriptive pieces of a novel that others might consider superfluous. I have to understand everything or I become quite irritated! No real problem there you would think until you get to the book in question.
The book itself, was without doubt one of the most difficult books I have ever read, not that I have read very many, and certainly very few “classics.” The English was difficult but the Maori, yes that’s right Maori, was naturally incomprehensible! It would seem that the Maori characters, of which there was a lot, would only speak Maori to each other when they wanted to place great emphasis on something. So here’s the “scene” you are just arriving at a critical piece of, admittedly a sub plot of a sub plot and they start speaking Maori!
I remember saying to Sharon on several occasions that the book was incredibly annoying and you never knew who was speaking or what they were speaking. To make matters worse the author did not differentiate the public and private thoughts of the various characters but decided to intermingle them like confetti throughout the book. Then to top it all off the author decides to have the characters spouting Maori!
You’ll understand the frustration that enveloped me when I finally turned the last page and there on the opposite page, mocking me, was the following:
Translation of Maori Words and Phrases
Page 14 Aue= Exclamation of dismay, or despair
Page 15 Te Kaihau= lit. windeater. Can mean either a wanderer or loafer
Teno Koe= hello, greeting to one person
Page 17 Raupo=a variety………..
Ahhhhh!!!!!!!As you can appreciate I had a few choice incomprehensible words of my own at that stage. Sharon on the other hand just couldn’t stop laughing!
I am currently reading The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, there are no difficult passages, and the author puts the character’s names at the beginning of the various passages to avoid any confusion. Notwithstanding all that, I am not enjoying it nearly as much as The Bone People, considering the above, that’s high praise indeed!
Haere ra.
Cathal
Labels: Misc., New Zealand
posted by Sharon in Ireland/NZ @ 2:22 PM
2 Comments:
At 10:28 AM,
Anonymous said…
I LOVED The Time Travellers Wife, I have it in my collection ready to read again at a later
date. I would be very interested to see how you feel about it after you finish reading it....
At 1:04 AM,
Anonymous said…
I found that book very good - especially as it falls into one of the very few works of fiction (both written or visual) which makes a librarian look cool. Remarkably, much to my surprise, I cried when reading it. Given that I havent cried (sober) in lord knows how long, thats quite an accolade.
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