Book Review
Feb. 25th, 2005 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Bone People
by Keri Hulme
This is the very first novel I've read written by a New Zealander and set there. It's really quite good, although I have the feeling that my actual enjoyment of it was not equal to its quality.
The book is about three people: Kerewin Holmes, Joe Gillayley, and his adopted son Simon. The real concern of the novel is the characters themselves and the relationships building between them. Hulme writes some of the most complex and interesting characters I've ever read about, and their relationships are correspondingly complex and interesting. A lot of the unfolding story delves into the subtle, often very small, and mysterious things (words, moments, feelings) that can bind people together or strain them apart. There is also a mythic aspect to the story: the three people are all un-whole in some way and they must each go through a death-like experience in order to become whole, as individuals and as a group.
by Keri Hulme
This is the very first novel I've read written by a New Zealander and set there. It's really quite good, although I have the feeling that my actual enjoyment of it was not equal to its quality.
The book is about three people: Kerewin Holmes, Joe Gillayley, and his adopted son Simon. The real concern of the novel is the characters themselves and the relationships building between them. Hulme writes some of the most complex and interesting characters I've ever read about, and their relationships are correspondingly complex and interesting. A lot of the unfolding story delves into the subtle, often very small, and mysterious things (words, moments, feelings) that can bind people together or strain them apart. There is also a mythic aspect to the story: the three people are all un-whole in some way and they must each go through a death-like experience in order to become whole, as individuals and as a group.
