Purity, by Jonathan Franzen ‘All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ Given how routinely Jonathan Franzen is now compared to Tolstoy it’s easy to imagine the iconic opening line of Anna Karenina speaking to a younger Franzen as a kind of career modus operandi. True, his first … Read more
Reckless: My Life by Chrissie Hynde A single comment from Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde has overshadowed everything about her memoir. In an interview with the Times, she said that she took the blame for being the victim of a sexual assault. She describes the incident in her book. Hynde was 21, on Quaaludes, and alone … Read more
“Bullrush,” says Josh Kronfeld, “is rugby without the ball.” David Slack pays tribute to the sport without a point in his warm and wonderfully entertaining book Bullrush!: A Celebration of the Great New Zealand Game. The finest game of Bullrush you will ever see is three and half minutes long and you will find it … Read more
For some reason children’s authors often seem to get treated a little like small children themselves. Even so, I did a double-take when I read the invitation instructions for the Book Awards after-party at Government House: “You are invited for post-award drinks in the house at 6.36pm. Departure time will be at 7.10pm.” “It’s not … Read more
Now and again, not often, a novel and a novelist comes along and knocks everyone on their ass. It’s happening with Elena Ferrante and it’s happening with Hanya Yanagihara, the New York writer whose novel A Little Life has mesmerized readers with its story telling and its ability to harrow. It’s shortlisted for the Man … Read more
Who are the most powerful figures in New Zealand literature? The most respected, the most admired, the most sucked-up-to? A panel of experts sat down and bitched and argued until they agreed on a ranking to end all rankings. Their methodology was precise. Much of it was based on the level of fear they would … Read more
Who writes good creative non-fiction in New Zealand? Journalists hammer away at it with their big fat thumbs, but writer John Summers is rather more nuanced in his fascinating and recently published collection of true stories, The Mermaid Boy (Hue & Cry Press, $30). We got up early, packed away our things and began our … Read more