New Zealand Books

I loved this book. I've read a number of books about tango, and enjoyed them all, but this is my favorite. (Second favorite: Long After Midnight at Niño Bien.)

Good story, engaging characters, and a wonderful take on how Argentine tango can affect you in ways you hadn't imagined before you took your first lessons.

Peter Silverman, Ashland, Oregon

This is a perfect book for any reader who ever finished The Notebook and said, "You know, I liked it, but I wish it was written by a less talented writer*. And I wish the story revolved not around an elderly man trying to recapture the spark of love in his ailing and mentally frail wife, but around a middle aged Argentine restaurateur trying to recreate her grandfather's life-long affair with his store clerk mistress by seducing the first year University student she employees as a dish washer." Then, write the story in prose that tries to be minimalistic and terse but falls into flat-out bad, with a romance as bland, predictable, and lifeless as Wonder Bread and you have Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance.

* - When I say "less talented writer" you should be aware that I really don't like Nicholas Sparks' writing. At all.

Lloyd Jones' HERE AT THE END OF THE WORLD WE LEARN TO DANCE follows a love affair that spans continents and decades that began during World War I in a cave in New Zealand when a young girl named Louise and a German piano tuner named Schmidt, whom she had hidden to save his life, dance a tango that lasts three minutes and fall immediately and forever in love. "She feels the piano tuner's hand arrive at the small of her back. The hand gives a little shove and resettles." Years later Schmidt's grandaughter, the sensuous Rosa, tells of Louise and Schmidt's great love affair to a much younger dishwasher-- he is 19; she is 36 and married-- Lionel who is besotted by her and who works in her restaurant where she teaches him the tango after hours.

Jones' novel teems with love, passion and ultimately great sorrow as, according to Ernest Hemingway, every love affair is tragic because it eventually ends in death. Louise and Schmidt's love story conjures up Hemingway's A FAREWELL TO ARMS, McEwan's ATONEMENT, Joyce's beautiful short novel THE DEAD, Marquez' tale of love in old age LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, even some of Robert Browning's poetry: "grow old along with me," for example.

Jones' haunting story of missed connections and love in old age really has no bad characters. Billy, for instance, the husband Louise leaves for Schmidt, is as decent a character as you are apt to find in any novel. In Louise's obsession, she goes to Buenos Aires where she never learns the language, hates Christmas because she always has to spend it alone and likes to meet Schmidt in later years on Sundays by the waterfront because she can see the horizon that reminds her of rural New Zealand. She has forsaken much, but she is saved from what Jones describes as a "wallpaper life." His description of her-- and much of his writing-- read like a prose poem: "Louise was usually the first one there [the waterfront]. There she is, sitting on a bench waiting for Schmidt to extricate himself from his comfortable apartment. . . He always hoped to see her first. Sometimes he did, and these days hobbling on bad knees he stops to squint into the untrustful distance, admiring the view. The way the river air pushes her skirt against her legs. To his eyes Louise is still young, forever young; the sight of her still excites."

Throughout these two love stories that have many parallels there is always of course the throbbing tango.

Highly recommended.

I found this gently satirical romance novel highly entertaining. I believe it will appeal to anyone who admires Charlotte Brontë's masterly style. The hilarious sexual symbolism is perhaps less accessible to those who see the Victorian era through rose-tinted spectacles, as a time of general sweetness and light. The author comes down particularly hard on the local representative of the Church of England, portrayed as a philandering hypocrite. But anyone with the scantiest acquaintance with the sexual antics of nineteenth century missionaries in the South Pacific will appreciate that this is not merely the creation of a morbidly feverish imagination.

I can't do better than quote from Jane Stafford's review of this novel in New Zealand Books:

If Johanna's World strives to convince the reader of its veracity, Mrs Rochester, from the outset, overtly signals its complete lack of historical truth. Other truths are, however, called upon instead. At the end of Charlotte Brontë's 1848 novel Jane Eyre, we left the narrator married to the gorgeous, albeit mutilated, Mr Rochester, celebrating the birth of their first child. The trouble with realism is that it convinces us the characters have life outside the pages that contain them. The trouble with autobiographical fiction such as Jane Eyre is that we want to know what happened after the conclusion. "Reader, I married him"-but then what? According to Warwick Blanchett, quite a lot. Mr Rochester finds recovery from the Thornfield fire difficult, and succumbs to an early death, though not before losing the family fortune. His children (Hugo and Helen) are safely at school, but what of poor Mrs Rochester? Out on the governess market again, alas, and this time, trying her luck in New Zealand rather than Yorkshire.
The most enjoyable thing about Blanchett's treatment is the firmness with which his tongue is placed in his cheek. Unlike the intensely mundane world of Johanna and her family, with Mrs Rochester we are always aware of inhabiting not just a work of fiction but a work which plays upon that fiction. Delightful literary jokes abound: Blanche Ingram has married and become Mrs Henry Lynn-a composite created from the real-life author Mrs Henry Wood and the title of her famous Victorian bodice-ripper East Lynne. Lost in a bush burn-off, Jane hears the voice of Mr Rochester calling to her, just as she did first time around, lost on the moors. The place-names of the new colony are strangely reminiscent of the geography of the Brontës' childhood games, and the bedroom the heroine is placed in is, of course, red. Jane is much as we remember her from the original novel: intense, feisty, and, for some reason, irresistible to men. In fact, the plot of Mrs Rochester consists almost entirely of Jane working her way through a list of suitors, from the dashing leutenant Trevelyan to the randy Archdeacon Parfitt to the bucolic/Byronic Caleb, son of Jane Eyre's Diana Rivers.
Blanchett is wonderfully true to the tone and style of the original. Landscape and setting are appropriately lush and exotic; storms and tempests appear on cue as the emotional weather of the plot demands. Manners and modes of speech are appropriately Victorian: Jane talks of "relieving the island's ovine population of their winter coats" instead of shearing sheep; women are described as being "the cynosure of all eyes"; Maori singing is described as "keening polyphony". All this could become a little tedious taken to excess. But Blanchett drives his plot along briskly, and judges exactly how long to play what is essentially an extended literary joke.
Literary sequels or spin-offs have become a little sub-genre of their own: from Emma Tennant's Pemberley (sequel to Pride and Prejudice) to Joan Aiken's Jane Fairfax (spin-off from Emma) to the truly dreadful Scarlett (Gone with the Wind Part II). Most confine themselves to a somewhat pedestrian delineation of "what happened next". Mrs Rochester's colonial setting (comparable perhaps to Peter Carey's Jack Maggs, a spin-off from Great Expectations) allows more scope, as Blanchett offers us not just an extension of Jane Eyre, but an imitation of the sort of Maoriland romance that was popular here in the second half of the 19th century.
It can be argued that the maturity of a national literature is measured not in its production of high culture, but in the ease and adaptability with which it processes and makes use of the popular. Romance was the dominant fictional form in colonial writing. Crude and mechanical as it was, romance helped the new population to read themselves, in all senses, into a landscape, in a way that was not just measured by complexity and seriousness of purpose, but by its ability to give play to adaptations of stereotypes of the popular. We need to do more of it today.

"Jane Eyre" has long been one of my favorite books, so when I saw this sequel in a New Zealand bookstore, I snapped it up. I wish I hadn't.

The story is completely at odds to the character Jane was in "Jane Eyre" and completely skips over some of the parts that would have been vaguely interesting. There is a brief allusion to a "vision" she had on the night of Mr Rochester's death that piqued my curiousity...surely, the author would elaborate on such a thing? He did not.

There are many melodramatic plot twists, which is fine if this is supposed to be a parody, but if it's supposed to be viewed as a serious sequel there needed to be much more exposition. *spoiler alert* For example: Why does Jane fall in love with her cousin? The only thing they have in common is that they write...this is not enough to explain the link given the difference in their ages and personalities. And the "scandal" with the lieutenant was hardly a scandal at all.

I felt like the publisher told the writer to hurry things up at the end and things were quickly finished off rather than nicely rounded out. I'm going to have to re-read the original Bronte just to get the foul taste of this book out of my imagination. It's polluted my memory of a classic.

The best thing about it is the inclusion of different aspects of early New Zealand colonial life, which was quite fascinating to a person who lived there for many years.

Mr. Stanley treads lightly on the English generals who bungled this campaign. Did it really matter whether the New Zealanders kept Quinn's Post more tidy than the Aussie's?? Churchill, Kitchener, and Hamilton got thousands of good men killed for nothing. Stanley must be hoping for an English edition later.

This book conveys what happened at Gallipoli when enemy soldiers were at very close quarters, even by the standards of World War I. Turkish trenches at Quinn's Post were a few meters from those occupied by Australians or New Zealanders, and these lines did not move throughout the campaign. Stanley has tapped an immense reservoir of correspondence and other material accessible through his association with the Australian War Memorial. New Zealand receives the credit earned by her soldiers who solely occupied the post much of the time.

An account of what took place in such a small area might become tedious. This does not. Stanley is an excellent writer. He duly chronicles the Turkish and Anzac attacks. But the most fascinating aspects of his tale relate to the soldiers themselves. He melds the personal stories of changing tenants, the micro-arms race of bombs (grenades), and the growing respect between Turk and Anzac. The eight (!) maps are invaluable and there are many substantive photos, almost all of which were unpublished.

If you seek a book covering World War I, or even the Gallipoli campaign, this one is not appropriate. But I know of no book exposing the reader to as intense a struggle over as small a patch of ground for as long a time. It is incomparable.

In any collection of Australian military history books you will find a wide assortment of books on the Gallipoli campaign. Here in the United States there isn't much on Gallipoli, after all, our troops were not there. To be sure, the campaign itself is covered in the general histories, but not the details.

In this book Dr. Stanley looks at one little part of the battle. It was a position held by Quinn and his company throughout almost all of the campaign. It was a critical point, almost in the middle of the ANZAC lines. From the standpoint of this one position, the essense of the whole campaign can be understood. Not the grand strategy that Churchill had in mind, but the story of what was happening on the ground in the middle of the mess.

The book is well researched, and a story well told. But the best part is the feeling that it gives of the overall situation that must have existed at Quinn's Post. Tragic Story, Excellent Book.

Neil Sheehan adds a short addendum to his Pulitzer Prize "A Bright Shining Lie," one of the most interesting books out of the many written about this debacle. The primary locations of this book are Hanoi and the north and Saigon and south. Sheehan also takes a look into other places he spent time at as a journalist in the 1960s and 70s, and how they've transformed or changed, and/or haven't, up to 1990. He notes some relevant points from his previous book, including the prophetic Ap Bac battle that took place in the early 1960s.

He returns to many of the places of conflict and speaks with the people. His time in Vietnam and the relationships he had there had an enormous influence on him. His return seems to be a mix of catharthism and a quest for objective observation and curiosity. It should be up to a nation's own people to decide how to do things, but in one regard he could have been more critical and questioning of the policies of the post-1975 Vietnamese government. 100,000 people were sent to "re-education" prisons. Southern supporters and participants of the NVA (Viet-Cong) were forced out to be dominated by northerners: The communists were very repressive.

The title does make one wonder. "After the War Was Over," was written 14 years after the fall of Saigon. Another Vietnam "War" book? Not really, and that is good. It discusses the lives and conditions of those who participated in the drawn-out conflict from not just both, but the many sides that actually existed, and where these people are at today in their lives.

Some of the post-war communistic economic policies and later reforms were described, which are interesting. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, De Luan and the communists in Vietnam tried to collectivise agriculture. A proven disaster 50 years before in the Soviet Union, and then again in Maoist China. Collectivization was an outright failure in Vietnam as well. In addition to collectivization policies, the Northern Cadres forced the northern concept of central planning on the entrepreneurial South Vietnamese, which again, just simply doesn't work, being so contrary to human nature. It doesn't spur efficient production nor proper means of distribution of resources and goods. Did the Vietnamese communists learn anything? Yes, they did--after the fact. Now they claim to be the "first ones" to have departed (in 1986) from the moribund Soviet model. A patriotic communist Nguyen Van Linh, was reformist minded and his positions on policy within the government have labled him as the Vietnamese "Gorbachev." He had ideas that were considered by the post-75ers to be "right wing" or radical, but in the end he had their ear, showing some of the ways the South Vietnamese did things, which were objectively speaking, successful.

In this piece two cities are described, Hanoi and Saigon. Street addresses are mentioned and you can learn where significant happenings took place in both cities if you are going there. Many modern buildings, houses, and hotels are noted also. If someone is coming to Hanoi or Saigon, this book can be useful to learn about where things happened. I discovered that I work in the same building where the Pentagon press briefings called the "five o'clock follies" took place.

Some of Sheehan's coverage of Vietnamese history noted how the Vietnamese drove out the Mongols in the 13th Century, and have been invaded by the Chinese no less than 17 times prior to the 20th century. This book can be knocked off in a day.

This was not a completely balanced account of post war Vietnam. It is obvious the author was seduced by the Communist authorities when he visited Vietnam in 1989. I say that because when he talks of the effects of war on the south, he mentions the white terror of Diem without mentioning the red terror of the Viet Cong. The red terror targeted not military targets but teachers and bureaucrats. Sheehan does not mention that but Diem's terror campaign, which was mild compared to the red terror. Also when he talks of the 1963 coup against Diem, he terms it the American led coup. Again another fallacy since the coup leaderes had Washington's blessings, but was not led by Americans. Another small lie was the Cambodia invasion by Vietanm. Sheehan wants us to believe that Hanoi was not interested in dominating Cambodia. Most analysts would view this an incorrect statement. If you can read through Sheehan's opinions, it gives those interested in the war some perspective of what happened after the war. Caution is in order for Sheehan's opinions.

As an American participant in the association with the Australians and New Zealanders, and being a named individual in this book, I can attest to the accuracy and authentic descriptions of the events described by Steinbrook. The professional relationships established by this unique association of nationalities fostered friendships and respect that has endured for over 30 years despite the fact that many have not seen each other in that time. It was a magnificent undertaking by Steinbrook to record his observations during the most vivid and rewarding period of my military career and to mark for history a true example of on-the-scene bonding of individuals, most of whom were not career soldiers, dedicated to accomplishing a very difficult task.

Gordon Steinbrook uses old letters written home to recall the day to day events of his year in Vietnam. Steinbrook has one of the truly unique experiences of the war, serving with both US and Australian forces primarily as a forward observer and fire direction officer in artillery. Although his account does not include much 'combat', it does, none the less, give one a true picture of the way it was for many of us. .."long periods of extreme boredom punctuated by short intervals of extreme 'urgency'". I can personally testify to the accuracy of this work.

While reading Road to Mount Buggery,(Mark Whittaker and Amy Willesee) my attention was drawn to the possible contact and mix between Dutch survivors of the Zuytdorp and the Aboriginals of Western Australia. Travelling to Australia as often as I can, I had to known more about this topic. The book has not disapointed me at all, and gave me all the information that is probably available. Good references for further reading.
Very interesting for those who want to read about marine archeology in Western Australian waters in general, history and shipwrecks of(Dutch)VOC, and the area where Australian and Dutch history meet. It has been a starting point for me to read more about the VOC and their shipwrecks in the world (best known are Batavia and Zuydwijk)

If you are interested in history, treasure hunting, diving, or true life adventure stories, you will enjoy this book! Meticulously researched and intertainingly presented.

This story begins in the middle of world war ll. Rex is a 6 year old boy that likes his bb gun and has made a picture of hittler and a Japamize jeneral. Rex finds our that they are spondering a wonded soljior from America. Rex is so excited that he made a banner that said that they were glad to have him at their home. When the soljior gets to their house Rex find out he is a black man and that he is afraid of the war and hates all the killing. latter on Rex finds out that it dose not matter if he is black or white but what is on the inside. When the wounded soljior goes back to the war Rex has just started to be friends with him and then he has to go back. Rex never sees the soljior ever agian and never hears from him eather.

I am 12 years old and we had to read an older book and I read the champion and really enjoyed it.I think that if you enjoy a good read you will like this book.It is written really well.

This book is a landmark in New Zealand publishing. For the first time painters are seen as being central to the culture of New Zealand. In a brilliant text by Jim and Mary Barr one becomes aware that New Zealand has a short yet very intense art history. Marti Friedlander's photographs are incisive and generous in their vision of artist's lives. Her empathy is obvious and the photographs are not overwhelmed by design elements. This is a real treasure of a book and one of the best art publications produced in New Zealand.

This book is a landmark in New Zealand publishing. For the first time painters are seen as being central to the culture of New Zealand. In a brilliant text by Jim and Mary Barr one becomes aware that New Zealand has a short yet very intense art history. Marti Friedlander's photographs are incisive and generous in their vision of artist's lives. Her empathy is obvious and the photographs are not overwhelmed by design elements. This is a real treasure of a book and one of the best art publications produced in New Zealand.

I read this book over a year ago now, but it stays in my mind and I come back and back to some of Folds's central arguments.

It's the first book I read that attempts to get inside the minds of Indigenous people (in this case the Pintubi) and understand where they're coming from. Some of the common misconceptions they have about politics, the world etc. are examined, and I don't think many people are aware of these.

It is similar in this way to Trudgen's "Why Warriors Lie Down and Die", which deals with the Yolngu, and which I read subsequently.

Anyone who wonders why government programs seem to fail ... without fail, would do well to have a read of this.

Folds isn't arguing that the Pintubi are right and governments are wrong per se. He's attempting to show the "crossed purposes" that exist in the minds - and actions - of many people, both Pintubi and White.

An odd and somewhat desperate little book, which given its essential point, leaves this reader wondering why it was necessary to develop beyond essay length. The best of reasons for the book's existence is that it attempts to explain why official programs, governmental and otherwise, are doomed to failure, given the profound family polity of indigenous groups. But really, given his decade 'out there' I would have expected more productive and resolved 'bite' than what is a preface to a concerted negotiation session with indigenous peoples. The read consists mainly of a re-reading of other sources, a secondary text for academics. As the author notes, with studious reference to all his authorial forbears, Fred Myers,Tim Rowse,Colin Tatz & Will Stanner etc. none of his claims are news. It's just that the news is not being recognised! There is little, however, in the way of reflection about the violence, despair, sexual crimes, and drug abuse in remote communities of central Australia. Rather, there is an almost haughty sense of justification for Pintubi lifeways, a sympathy for their creative resilience, and 'a keep out of our backyard' style of protection. Whatever the resolution, be it an 'equitable' standard of living or not, the author must recognise that all such communities exist within the economic, if not spiritual home of the nation. Between the lines, I sense a disaffection, if not rebuffal of mainstream society.

Superb text on the importance of relationships in classroom especially for Maori students. Very worthwhile read

This book continues a trend in Maori education research looking beyond the Western research paradigms to those appropriate to the culture the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand, and which is instructive to researchers working with other indigenous peoples. Both authors are highly placed academics in New Zealand universities and experienced researchers with Maori people. Bishop is himself of Maori and Celtic origins.

In Aotearoa the Treaty of Waitangi gives a legal standing to the relationship between the colonised and coloniser which is lacking in many other postcolonial societies, particularly in Australia. Although the treaty may be considered to have failed Maori people in the past, its presence is now being used to promote self-determination and power-sharing in a more articulate Maori society. The treaty is fundamental to the purpose of this book but this doesn't compromise the book's applicability elsewhere.

The book is organised into five chapters. The first takes a historical perspective on the development of the pattern of dominance and subordination of Maori, even with the presence of the Treaty of Waitangi, its impacts on New Zealand society in general and on Maori in particular. A model for evaluating power relationships is devised using five issues: initiation, benefits, representation, legitimation and accountability. This becomes a template used in further chapters. The second chapter looks at recent Maori educational initiatives using the model of power-sharing relationships, as well as developing community-controlled education facilities.

The third chapter relates to power and control relationships in educational research with Maori, and in a wider context Indigenous, peoples. It questions who gets the value from the research, the researched or the researcher, and looks to ways in which the imbalance can be rectified. It suggests moving towards structured "interviews as conversation" as a research methodology with some examples. The template is used again to allow a researcher to evaluate the purpose of their research, which they would also need to place in the context of those they are researching.

The last two chapters deal with power relationships in classrooms, the first with dealing with unequal relationships and the second with new approaches. These chapters should not be seen as separate from the rest of the book and the last chapter is synthesised from the experiences throughout it.

I found the book very engaging and easy to follow. The template with its five fields should be useful to researchers working in similar situations, as a way of orienting their research. The lack of a glossary of Maori words makes it difficult for an outsider to remember their meanings while working through the text. Many of the references are from New Zealand but I would have liked to see, for instance, how their research methodologies relate to some western ones, such as Guba and Lincoln's hermenuitic cycle.