Dogside Story

by Patricia Grace

There is conflict in the whanau. The young man, Te Rua, holds a "secret for life, the one to die with." But he realizes that if he is to acknowledge and claim his daughter, the secret will have to be told.

"The Sisters" are threatening to drag the whanau through the courts. But why? What is really going on?

Meanwhile, wider events are encroaching. To this East Coast site visitors will arrive in numbers, wanting to be among the first in the world to see the new millennium sunrise. There are plans to be put into action, there's money to be made, and there's high drama as the millennium turns....

Like Patricia Grace's award-winning novel Potiki before it, Dogside Story is set in a rural Maori coastal community. The power of the land, the strength of the whanau, are life-preserving forces. This rich and dramatic novel, threaded with humor, by one of New Zealand's finest writers presents a powerful picture of Maori in modern times.

Genres: Indigenous, Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, School, Travel, Unfinished

301 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Patricia Grace is a major New Zealand novelist, short story writer and children’s writer, of Ngati Toa, Ngati Raukawa and Te Ati Awa descent, and is affiliated to Ngati Porou by marriage. Grace began writing early, while teaching and raising her family of seven children, and has since won many national and international awards, including the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize for fiction, the Deutz Medal for Fiction, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, widely considered the most prestigious literary prize after the Nobel. A deeply subtle, moving and subversive writer, in 2007 Grace received a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to literature.

Reviews

[Kristiana Kahakauwila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm planning on teaching Dogside in my Pac Lit course in the Winter. I read it looking to pick up the themes of the course-- the ocean, the canoe, the use of narratives-- and found myself lost in the rhythm of speech that she uses so well. Her use of these rhythms was akin to yoga for my own writing-- she limbered me up, and now I'm back at my own work again. Just listening to her writing is pleasure enough.

[Caroline Lonsdale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a visit to a foreign land for me. Not as a tourist, but more of a voyeur - which I think is intentional in the writing. I wanted to know more about New Zealand, and did pick up some cultural knowledge and a few words of Te Reo. mostly though the idea of the `same age cousin`` as your closest relative has stayed with me, and I thank her for that. In the year or more since I have read it, snippets have come back to me walking through the Auckland Museum or thinking about my own same age cousin, or those of my sons. There is a universality and humanity in her characters, as well as desperate tragedy. I`m not sure I fully engaged with it - but I think she wants the Pakeha reader to be reflective rather than caught up. Lots of tales in the rafters that are not meant for me - that I can only see through a glass darkly. Fair enough.

[Monique Engelen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't start enjoying the book until about a fifth of the way in. I know grace was portraying the many voices at the beginning but found the execution clunky and laborious. once the genealogy was established and things started to fall in place I enjoyed it a lot more. I still often found it over laboured so tended to skim read in places. but I enjoyed the story line, the look into a small east coast Maori community in its raw form. imagery was fantastic and pleased I read it.

[Scott Bischke · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at the Maori culture and a nice companion while on recent travels in New Zealand. My recommendation is neutral because while I found the story quite interesting, I had a hard time deciphering the wording and phrasing. The choice of staying true (I assume) to the Maori vernacular was probably a great decision for reality, but definitely hindered my ability to follow the story.

[Rochelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. A bit challenging to follow at times... a few parts felt kind of Faulkner-esque. Grace gives the reader a sense of modern day Maori culture. Especially interesting are the connections with global tourism and with Maori diaspora.

[Siobhan Markwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paticia Grace's prose style seemed slightly disorientating at first but I soon came to love the way Dogside Story is written in a style that comes from a different storytelling tradition from the European one I'm familiar with. Starting with some Maori community history, presumably fictional but resembling traditional ones, the story flips into a gorgeously simple story of one man's low-key fight to keep custody of his daughter after he rescues her from a neglectful fostering by older aunties in his family. The language is poetic and a fascinating look at some of the most important aspects of Maori culture such as communal child-rearing, hospitality and consensus-based community solutions to disputes and familial or land problems. Woven through is a side plot about who benefits from the land as a money-making opportunity presents itself when tourists want to descend on the local coastal beauty spots to see in the new millennium. A bit of perseverance at the beginning of the book will pay off big time as you will meet some unforgettable characters and feel touched by a sense of love and community.

[Brodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love the way Patricia Grace writes time. i'm reading another book at the moment (non-fiction) that's trying to challenge western notions of time but it feels really forced and stilted and i can't bring myself into it. in contrast, the way Patricia writes and presents time is so natural, so fluid, that you can really tell she is writing what she knows, and moving us beyond our pākehā frameworks. the whole style took a bit to adjust to as a reader but once i did it was so worth it.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pace and rhythm of the story had an almost cultural feeling to it that was so different from me and what I am used to that I sometimes felt confused and often felt like the white person I am peeking into a culture outside my own, which I enjoyed. But I felt like the characters weren’t fully developed, like I was never fully able to step inside them the way I usually can in a book. But the conflict resolution was so beautifully done it was worth the read.

[zespri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a pakeha NewZealander, Patricia Grace's novels are a wonderful window into Maori culture and thinking. We are inside the community, with it's own way of looking at the world, and it's own way of dealing with social and personal issues.

The story centres around a young man and his daughter, and is beautifully written.

[Libby Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the vivid descriptions and the slow, meandering way the story unfolded. I liked the main character. I liked the writing style. The plot was well-paced with a satisfying ending. It's a story about a uniquely Maori life and perspective, but at the same time it's a story about a universal human experience. Patricia Grace is a talented and experienced writer and it shows.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really found the storytelling of this novel interesting, especially the small-town family feuds, which were relatable. The reason it isn't higher is that there were SO many characters and perspective switches that it was a little hard for me to keep up with, but that's my personal preference!

[Maura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lonely planet New Zealand recommendation.

The plot wasn't engaging to me, but the Maori society poverty was striking.

[Robbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story about family life on the Marae with all the complications that ensue.

[Helen Cummings · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for book club and even though this story is twenty years old the themes of land and whanau still resonate strongly in Aotearoa today. A family chart would have been a helpful inclusion.

[Julia Modde · Rating 2 out of 5]

Halfway through this book and I still have no clue what is happening and why and who is talking to whom about what! Language (elliptical, authentic = hard to decipher if English isn’t even your mother tongue) and plot (sooooo slow, so multilayered that most of the time I couldn’t quite grasp what tale the chapter was telling) were extremely challenging.
Yes it was a closer look to contemporary Maori society (or maybe a part of it) and an interesting set of characters - but for me it read so wooden that the spark of this novel never quite ignited with me.

🇳🇿 #readtheworld21

[Yoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een boek over een Maori-gemeenschap
Dit boek speelt zich af in een echt bestaande Maori-gemeenschap in Nieuw-Zeeland. De auteur woont zelf in Nieuw-Zeeland en is zelf een Maori. Bovendien heeft ze als documentatie een studie (een thesis, een proefschrift, ik weet het niet meer precies) gebruikt die over deze gemeenschap was gemaakt.

Het boek kent twee verhaallijnen, een familiekwestie en een gemeenschapszaak. Aan de hand daarvan leren we de Maori-gemeenschap kennen in deze tijden, hun gebruiken en hun leefomgeving, en een stukje van hun geschiedenis.

Geen illusies!
Wie dacht dat 'primitieve volkeren', mensen die leven in een andere maatschappijvorm dan de onze, ook edel zijn, minder agressief, minder hoekig zijn en minder problemen kennen dan mensen van onze maatschappij - waar nagenoeg alles fout loopt - heeft het goed mis. Dat blijkt al uit de eerste zin van het boek ("Het eerste deel van het verhaal gaat over twee zusters, Ngarua en Maraenohonoho, die ruzie met elkaar maakten over een kano"). Mensen zijn allemaal dezelfde, met dezelfde mentale problemen, welke ook hun maatschappijvorm is.

Uiteraard maakt dat het boek net interessant. We lezen het onder meer om de Maori-cultuur op realistische wijze te leren kennen, niet opdat ons een rad voor de ogen zou gedraaid worden.

Mooie landschapsbeschrijvingen
Erg mooi en aangenaam zijn de landschapsbeschrijvingen van de omgeving waar de hoofdpersoon in verblijft. Hij woont midden in de natuur en leeft van de visvangst. Ook natuurbeschrijvingen wanneer het om kinderen gaat die spelen bij het water en de kliffen.

Minder aangenaam echter...
Minder aangenaam is het feit dat er heel veel personages zijn. Het is een verhaal over een gemeenschap, en dat brengt vanzelf veel personages met zich mee. Dit maakt het verhaal echter behoorlijk verwarrend.

Ook gebruikt de auteur veel Maori-woorden. Dat zou erg goed zijn voor woorden die iets uitdrukken wat specifiek is voor de Maori-gemeenschap, zoals de whaernui, het gemeenschapshuis, of een bepaald soort struik, of 'de oudste van de gemeenschap'. Maar moeten banale woorden als 'mossel' 'aalscholver' of 'aap' nu echt in het Maori worden neergepend? Er zijn teveel Maori-woorden, en daardoor wordt iets wat een goed idee was, net iets wat het leesplezier wat tegenhoudt, want je vat niet alles van wat er staat.

Tenslotte ontbreekt nog iets essentieels aan dit boek, en dat is humor. De Maori zijn geen lieve, zachtaardige mensen. Ook hun humor is hard, of wrang - als die er al is. Had de auteur niet best zelf af en toe een grappige passage kunnen inlassen? Of vindt ze de Maori en hun situatie zo wrang, dat ze dit niet wilde?

Conclusie
Een vrij harde cultuur, al teveel personages, teveel Maori-taal, en een totaal gebrek aan humor... door dat alles wordt het boek wel soms vervelend om te lezen.
Maar het geeft een realistisch beeld over een Maori-gemeenschap, men leert veel bij, en het boek is alles bij elkaar best wel goed geschreven. Dus verdient het toch wel aanbeveling.

[Clinton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novel about family and community. The story, language and narrative structures were all unexpected - they are culturally specific to an East Coast Māori community in Aotearoa New Zealand, just before the millennium. It sometimes felt like a meandering story told by your elderly relatives, interspersed with seemingly tangential gossip, chatting, singing and dancing, but everything gets woven back into the whole story. I particularly enjoyed reading this as an audiobook so I could appreciate the ever-changing sound and rhythm of the spoken language and the story structure.

Added later: A good tool for understanding Dogside Story is Le Guin’s Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. Dogside Story might seem a bit confusing because the novel doesn’t have the typical linear plot that develops step by step towards a final achievement (or failure). Instead, the plot develops by adding something new chapter by chapter, like adding precious stones to a kete (basket), until a whole meaningful pattern emerges. In one chapter the author adds genealogy; Then the next chapter might add the story from one time, place and perspective; followed by the story from another time, place and perspective. Other chapters add in historical context; and, yet others add commentary about the story. All these chapters taken together make Dogside Story a meaningful whole.

[Declan B · Rating 3 out of 5]

It definitely took me a while to get into because I struggled to fully comprehend all the different characters and where everything was all going, this is so real of māori family gatherings where i meet cousins ive never met. BUT ANYWAYS, once i got my head around it I really enjoyed the story and the portrayal of contempoary māori and undoing generational traumas.

[Brent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a challenging and rewarding book. After a deceptively mythic opening, Grace plunges deep into the minds of several characters in a small NZ seaside community. I was amazed at how closely she held the narrative voice to the characters; it was an incredible feat of writing that left me feeling every bit of the characters' hurt and humor. I often had to read sections three or four times to understand what was happening. Grace makes no allowances for an outsider's lack of knowledge about Maori culture, which is a bold choice but one that fits perfectly with the book's premise. I can't say that I completely enjoyed this book, but I am impressed by it and glad that I read it.

[Lynne]

I'll have to give this a try another time. I found the content too distressing, the number of characters too large, the Maori culture and language so pervasive that I was often confused about who and what. I was getting closer to sorting it all out...after almost 100 pages...but decided "not now." Won the Kiriyami prize for Pacific rim fiction.

[Bronwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of Patricia Grace, and read this one years ago - it's time to get it off the shelf and reread it as i remember it as one of her best.
Because her books are so rooted in New Zealand, other readers might miss the intent of some cultural references but they'll be rewarded so richly by reading her. An exquisite writer not be missed!

[Shazzt]

A bit challenging to follow at times, especially at the beginning, but worth persevering with. An interesting and moving portrait of a very tight knit community dealing with secrets, jealousy and the year 2000 celebrations. I particularly loved the descriptions of the natural environment.

[Josephine Ensign · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book hooked me from the very first paragraph and was overall a good read except for some funky sketchy-confusing chapters 3/4 of the way into the story. Strong, memorable, complex characters and I loved the descriptions of culture clashes over 'child protection' issues.

[Alesa · Rating 2 out of 5]

For somebody who knows a bit about Maori culture, this would probably be a great book. However, I didn't know enough to follow it, despite really wanting to learn about the culture and New Zealand in general. Sadly, I gave up reading...

[Mariana · Rating 5 out of 5]

24-year-old Maori crayfish diver with one leg must reveal a terrible secret to provide a loving home for a ten-year-old girl is being abused. Will he tell it?

[V · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't even finish this.

[Sara]

01 longlisted for booker prize

[BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best Patricia Grace novel I've read so far.

[Els Willems · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read my review in Dutch on stukgelezen.nl: https://stukgelezen.wordpress.com/202...

[Mariya]

NO