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| Jan 1 2008, 8:05 PM EST (current) | DrDrewHonolulu | 605 words added |
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GRACE, Patricia. Tu. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press (2840 Kolowalu St., Honolulu, HI 96822), 2004. 287 pages, ISBN 0-8248-2927-1 (pa), $16.
“Off I ran, out of the iron gates and away to war.” This is the sentence that appears on the cover and within the body of Patricia Grace’s novel Tu. It sums up the feelings of the narrator Tu, a Maori boy, explaining his exultant feelings as left his native New Zealand to fight in Europe in World War II. This Tu in 1943 is a mere seventeen years old, desperate to do his part to end the war and bring his brothers and cousins home.
Tu’s story begins with a letter he wrote to his niece and nephew (Rimini and Benedict) in response to their inquiries regarding their father, Tu’s brother Pita, who had died during the war. Tu presents them with his diary, which he had carried with him across Italy. He hopes that the truths revealed will not hurt them.Through the following chapters, Tu writes in his diary, switching between his present (1943-6) and the past of growing up with his two older brothers and two older sisters. Because the story jumps over the years, the story comes out slowly. The reader pieces together the details of the lives of Tu, Pita, Rangi, and the others. As the story progresses, the reader comes to understand that this tale is half about Tu and half about Tu’s eldest brother Pita. Tu, the youngest, was the family’s hope for the future. He was the brightest, the most sheltered. Pita, as the eldest, early on became the provider and protector of the family after their father’s death. He is called “Little Father,” although to Tu he is “Big Brother.” Tu admits that he had been protected as a child; Tu’s view of life is different because his family sheltered him from the crueler aspects of life.
Grace employs the technique of switching narrators to be able to present the story from different viewpoints. In his diary, Tu narrates the stories that take place in war-torn Europe. He also uses the all-seeing third-person narrator to tell Pita’s tale. Other writers, most notably William Faulkner, have employed this changing narrator technique before. Whereas Faulkner switched narrators because he wrote in the stream-of-consciousness style, Grace switches narrators to be able to better tell the story. The third-person narrator knows and sees things that Tu could not have known. Grace’s use of narrator is, in my opinion, much stronger and more effective than Faulkner.
Grace’s strength is in her detailed imagery. She invites the reader to see, hear, taste, smell, feel, and experience. We crawl with Tu across the blood stained soil of Italy. We stand beside Pita in a cake shop, marveling less at the rows of sponge cakes than at the girl with the disappearing eyes. We suffer with the soldiers aboard ships creeping their way across the Pacific. We feel the pain of loss, of injuries, of heartbreaking emptiness. Tu’s world becomes ours.
Tu is Patricia Grace’s sixth published novel. She has also written several short stories and four books for children. She won the New Zealand Fiction award for Potiki in 1987, the Children’s Picture Book of the Year for The Kuia and the Spider in 1982, the Hubert Church Prose Award for best first book for Waiariki in 1976, and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Fiction Prize for Dogside Story in 2001. Grace was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1937 and today lives in Plimmerton
Submitted in May 2006 by Robyn N. Chinaka, LIS student, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
“Off I ran, out of the iron gates and away to war.” This is the sentence that appears on the cover and within the body of Patricia Grace’s novel Tu. It sums up the feelings of the narrator Tu, a Maori boy, explaining his exultant feelings as left his native New Zealand to fight in Europe in World War II. This Tu in 1943 is a mere seventeen years old, desperate to do his part to end the war and bring his brothers and cousins home.
Tu’s story begins with a letter he wrote to his niece and nephew (Rimini and Benedict) in response to their inquiries regarding their father, Tu’s brother Pita, who had died during the war. Tu presents them with his diary, which he had carried with him across Italy. He hopes that the truths revealed will not hurt them.Through the following chapters, Tu writes in his diary, switching between his present (1943-6) and the past of growing up with his two older brothers and two older sisters. Because the story jumps over the years, the story comes out slowly. The reader pieces together the details of the lives of Tu, Pita, Rangi, and the others. As the story progresses, the reader comes to understand that this tale is half about Tu and half about Tu’s eldest brother Pita. Tu, the youngest, was the family’s hope for the future. He was the brightest, the most sheltered. Pita, as the eldest, early on became the provider and protector of the family after their father’s death. He is called “Little Father,” although to Tu he is “Big Brother.” Tu admits that he had been protected as a child; Tu’s view of life is different because his family sheltered him from the crueler aspects of life.
Grace employs the technique of switching narrators to be able to present the story from different viewpoints. In his diary, Tu narrates the stories that take place in war-torn Europe. He also uses the all-seeing third-person narrator to tell Pita’s tale. Other writers, most notably William Faulkner, have employed this changing narrator technique before. Whereas Faulkner switched narrators because he wrote in the stream-of-consciousness style, Grace switches narrators to be able to better tell the story. The third-person narrator knows and sees things that Tu could not have known. Grace’s use of narrator is, in my opinion, much stronger and more effective than Faulkner.
Grace’s strength is in her detailed imagery. She invites the reader to see, hear, taste, smell, feel, and experience. We crawl with Tu across the blood stained soil of Italy. We stand beside Pita in a cake shop, marveling less at the rows of sponge cakes than at the girl with the disappearing eyes. We suffer with the soldiers aboard ships creeping their way across the Pacific. We feel the pain of loss, of injuries, of heartbreaking emptiness. Tu’s world becomes ours.
Tu is Patricia Grace’s sixth published novel. She has also written several short stories and four books for children. She won the New Zealand Fiction award for Potiki in 1987, the Children’s Picture Book of the Year for The Kuia and the Spider in 1982, the Hubert Church Prose Award for best first book for Waiariki in 1976, and the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Fiction Prize for Dogside Story in 2001. Grace was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1937 and today lives in Plimmerton
