Kiwi Book Lover

This book is unexpectedly great. I say unexpectedly because it has been sitting on my shelf for abnout 2 years, from my days working in a book shop where many of my customers reccommended it to me. Personally I took one look at it and thought it was one of those pieces of historical fiction that was hardgoing and required a fair bit of time and patience to get through. However, I picked it up the other day, after exhausting my reading reserves and was instantly gripped. You certainly care about the characters and want to read on for the purposes of discovering what happens to them through their descendents (it does skip decades). But I have found the beauty of the novel is that is almost like a collection of seqential short stories. If you only have half an hour, you can read about the tears and triumphs of a single life/ family. You can then pick it up the next day and read about the tears and triumphs of that persons grandchild/ great grandchild. It is so unique and epic, but so highly readable!

I certainly understand the less favourable comments on this novel! However, I found the writing itself pretty great.... I was gripped from the first chapter where Shriver describes the way in which couples come home from their respective days and drop morsels of their activities at each others feet in a similar way to cats dropping mice as offerings at their owners feet. Isn't that exactly what we do? In terms of the parent/child relationship, I found that the novel played on my own insecurities. As someone without a close relationship to my own mother, I have often wondered if I am capable of being a natural maternal mother. Its the age old question, nature versus nurture? My book club got a lot of fodder for this question within this novel! I am definately a fan.

Great to hear! Personally I have gained such insight from reading literature from other cultures, last year I did a paper on African literature and it was not only enjoyable but gave a view to aspects of cultures that I could never have gained from text books etc. i would love to hear your feedback once you have read a bit of Kiwi lit! have fun.

Hello, Well, I am new to the forum... but as a New Zealander I think it only prudent that I start a thread based on Kiwi literature. I am familar, and in fact a fan if many British, American, Australian and African authors but as a New Zealander I wonder how many of you are familar with some of our greatest authors. For this purpose I will mention a few that you may or may not know, but that that I feel are worthy of a mention, and for that matter, a good read. Firstly, and perhaps the most notable is Janet Frame. Nominated for the nobel Prize in Literature twice and a quintessential New Zealand writer, for those unfamilar with this author I would highly reccomend starting with her novel 'Owls do cry'. This novel was cutting edge in its form- but in terms of content, poignantly discusses the way we are bound by family ties and childhood events, as well as the issue of sanity; what is sane? what is sick? and are the lines between the two really that definitive? Anyone interested in a small taster of Kiwi literature without the commitment of embarking on a full length novel? If so.... my personal favourite would have to be Frank Sargeson whose short stories are sparse and direct, but say more about the human psyche in a few short words than a full length novel. Start with 'My Uncle', 'A piece of yellow soap' and the hole that Jack dug'. Well, thats a start, if anyone has any comments of Kiwi literature I would love to hear them!