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Bone People
HULME,Keri, The Bone People. London, Great Britain: Picador, 1986. 450 p. ISBN 0-330-29387-7 (pa), £7.99. Indexed.
The complexity in the reply to the question above is answer enough that the person responding does indeed understand more than a bit of Maori. In fact, the respondent, Kerewin Holmes is completely fluent. This work ties deep into Moari culture (both traditional and contemporary) and, though Kerewin Holmes (Keri Hulme’s ingénue and alter ego) is Pakeha (non-indigenous New Zealander), she struggles with wanting to embrace and be embraced by the culture she fundamentally identifies with.
With its rich mix of cultures, Keri Hulme has produced a novel of high value: it won the coveted international Booker Prize in 1985. Hulme was born in 1947 and raised in Otautahi, Christchurch, and is the eldest of six children. After working as a tobacco picker in Motueka for a number of years (shunning other work in favor of this), she eventually quit to write full time. It paid off as several of her writings won awards, including the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award for her short story Hooks and Feelers (1975), the Maori Trust Fund Prize (1977), the ICI Writing Bursary (1982) and the New Zealand Writing Bursary (1983). Persistence in wanting to keep the novel hers when several publishers recommended severe editing of The Bone People, Hulme refused to allow anyone to ‘go through [her] work with shears’ or be ‘a silent partner’ in her work.
At her core, Hulme is a poet and this work doesn’t spoon feed her message. Adding to the book’s poetic style is the use of Maori as a legitimate and substantive force. Hulme includes a translation index in the back of the book, which makes it all the more personal. When the reader feels that Hulme truly wants to communicate, but wants to do so without compromising her voice, there is a sense of accomplishment for both parties, and the message isn’t always rosy.
Parts of the book aren’t for the faint of heart, but the graphic violence offers a necessary insight into the lives of the characters. The three main characters (there are very few additional characters which makes for an intricate and emotional look at a small but mighty microcosm) are: Kerewin Holmes, Joseph Gillayley, and Simon Gillayley.
Kerewin plays the guitar with spirit, drinks constantly, fishes better than any man, and seemingly hates people with a passion. She won the lottery some time back and was set for life. She built herself a tower home with a staircase that resembles a spiraling shell in a secluded part of New Zealand’s Southern Island. It’s her sanctuary, designed specifically to her liking: cold, strange, unique, and empty.
Joseph Gillayley is a Maori man who has recently lost his wife. A sensitive man who is close to his family but distanced from them because of his alcoholism and violent abuse of the adopted son he loves dearly, Simon, he battles with demons that won’t seem to let go. He finds comfort in Kerewin’s odd standoffish ways and her ability to drink in to oblivion with him.
Simon Gillayley was on a boat that shipwrecked, presumably losing his parents to the dark waters. He is never able to tell Joe where or who he came from because he was found at the age of three, and it became apparent right away that Simon can’t speak. With traumatic blocks in memory, in addition to probably speaking French for his first three years, Simon has incredible anger fits and often runs from Joe. One day, he escapes to Kerewin’s home and the strange union of three is set in motion.
________________
Aside from the storyline are the practical elements of the book. This book is not written on acid-free paper, nor does it have exceptional binding, but it is affordable, it has a great index with the author’s own personal quips interspersed with the translations, and it is a complex beautiful piece of literature that will stand the test of time. Because of its affordability and its step above the sometimes simple and predictable best sellers, The Bone People is a must have for any respectable library, but especially for a library whose patrons are frequently from the Pacific Islands, including New Zealand/Aotearoa.
The story behind the journey that manuscripts go through before reaching our fingertips can make one even more thankful for the work of art. Originally, The Bone People was rejected by many publishers when, in 1981, a small feminist publishing company, the Spiral, was formed by women who were enthusiastic about the novel. For more information on her works, please visit: http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/nzp/nzlit2/hulme.htm. The Bone People is no longer available through Picador, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa library has one library-use only copy. The best chance for owning this book is to go to an online bookstore such as Amazon.com, Abebooks.com, or Barnesandnoble.com.
E korero Maori ana koe? = Do you speak Maori?
He iti iti noa iho taku mohio = Oh, I understand a bit.
Excerpt with translation from The Bone People
He iti iti noa iho taku mohio = Oh, I understand a bit.
Excerpt with translation from The Bone People
The complexity in the reply to the question above is answer enough that the person responding does indeed understand more than a bit of Maori. In fact, the respondent, Kerewin Holmes is completely fluent. This work ties deep into Moari culture (both traditional and contemporary) and, though Kerewin Holmes (Keri Hulme’s ingénue and alter ego) is Pakeha (non-indigenous New Zealander), she struggles with wanting to embrace and be embraced by the culture she fundamentally identifies with.
With its rich mix of cultures, Keri Hulme has produced a novel of high value: it won the coveted international Booker Prize in 1985. Hulme was born in 1947 and raised in Otautahi, Christchurch, and is the eldest of six children. After working as a tobacco picker in Motueka for a number of years (shunning other work in favor of this), she eventually quit to write full time. It paid off as several of her writings won awards, including the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award for her short story Hooks and Feelers (1975), the Maori Trust Fund Prize (1977), the ICI Writing Bursary (1982) and the New Zealand Writing Bursary (1983). Persistence in wanting to keep the novel hers when several publishers recommended severe editing of The Bone People, Hulme refused to allow anyone to ‘go through [her] work with shears’ or be ‘a silent partner’ in her work.
At her core, Hulme is a poet and this work doesn’t spoon feed her message. Adding to the book’s poetic style is the use of Maori as a legitimate and substantive force. Hulme includes a translation index in the back of the book, which makes it all the more personal. When the reader feels that Hulme truly wants to communicate, but wants to do so without compromising her voice, there is a sense of accomplishment for both parties, and the message isn’t always rosy.
Parts of the book aren’t for the faint of heart, but the graphic violence offers a necessary insight into the lives of the characters. The three main characters (there are very few additional characters which makes for an intricate and emotional look at a small but mighty microcosm) are: Kerewin Holmes, Joseph Gillayley, and Simon Gillayley.
Kerewin plays the guitar with spirit, drinks constantly, fishes better than any man, and seemingly hates people with a passion. She won the lottery some time back and was set for life. She built herself a tower home with a staircase that resembles a spiraling shell in a secluded part of New Zealand’s Southern Island. It’s her sanctuary, designed specifically to her liking: cold, strange, unique, and empty.
Joseph Gillayley is a Maori man who has recently lost his wife. A sensitive man who is close to his family but distanced from them because of his alcoholism and violent abuse of the adopted son he loves dearly, Simon, he battles with demons that won’t seem to let go. He finds comfort in Kerewin’s odd standoffish ways and her ability to drink in to oblivion with him.
Simon Gillayley was on a boat that shipwrecked, presumably losing his parents to the dark waters. He is never able to tell Joe where or who he came from because he was found at the age of three, and it became apparent right away that Simon can’t speak. With traumatic blocks in memory, in addition to probably speaking French for his first three years, Simon has incredible anger fits and often runs from Joe. One day, he escapes to Kerewin’s home and the strange union of three is set in motion.
________________
Aside from the storyline are the practical elements of the book. This book is not written on acid-free paper, nor does it have exceptional binding, but it is affordable, it has a great index with the author’s own personal quips interspersed with the translations, and it is a complex beautiful piece of literature that will stand the test of time. Because of its affordability and its step above the sometimes simple and predictable best sellers, The Bone People is a must have for any respectable library, but especially for a library whose patrons are frequently from the Pacific Islands, including New Zealand/Aotearoa.
The story behind the journey that manuscripts go through before reaching our fingertips can make one even more thankful for the work of art. Originally, The Bone People was rejected by many publishers when, in 1981, a small feminist publishing company, the Spiral, was formed by women who were enthusiastic about the novel. For more information on her works, please visit: http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/subjects/nzp/nzlit2/hulme.htm. The Bone People is no longer available through Picador, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa library has one library-use only copy. The best chance for owning this book is to go to an online bookstore such as Amazon.com, Abebooks.com, or Barnesandnoble.com.
Submitted in April 2008 by Karen Brown, LIS Student, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
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