From the Bookshelf of ManBookering…

The Bone People

Keri Hulme

Start date: December 1, 2017

Finish date: December 31, 2017

Discussion: Group Reads

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 14 topics — 756 comments total

Group Reads

December Group Read (2107) - The Bone People by Keri Hulme
By Britta · 59 posts · 134 views

last updated Jan 12, 2022 05:02AM

January/February Group Read (2019) - Saville
By Britta · 11 posts · 166 views

last updated Jan 26, 2019 09:30PM

showing 3 of 3 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Aug 26, 2018 Colin Davison rated it did not like it · review of another edition

It's remarkable, of course, that it was possible for a first novel, rejected by front-line publishers and first issued by a small collective in New Zealand, to win the Booker Prize. In the introduction the author even takes pride in having had no literary editor seeking to make changes.
All of which is not to say the book should have won. I've read all but five of the Booker winners since 1969 and this for my money is the least deserving. And if literary editors did not exist, The Bone People is It's remarkable, of course, that it was possible for a first novel, rejected by front-line publishers and first issued by a small collective in New Zealand, to win the Booker Prize. In the introduction the author even takes pride in having had no literary editor seeking to make changes.
All of which is not to say the book should have won. I've read all but five of the Booker winners since 1969 and this for my money is the least deserving. And if literary editors did not exist, The Bone People is surely the best argument that they should.
I can understand that many readers might be carried away by the book's ambitious vision, its reaching for inexpressible truths, its juxtaposition of cultures as represented by its three deracinated characters. The reviews below by Jude, Hugh and Whitaker cogently argue its virtues.
It is indeed a powerful story - some similarities with Peter Grimes - which claims psychological insight into these tortured lives. And the dialogue in moments of lucidity is strong. But ..
The small gripes first:
The language is so repetitive - smile, giggle, grin. The verbs seem a lazy way to convey emotion, and once they're noticed, they becomes obtrusive and distracting (I counted eight grins in two pages.)
The central female character Kerewin is not only a painter with painter's block, but also (spare me) a martial arts expert, not the sort of tired cliche I'd expect in a novel of this intellectual pretension. More seriously, the book too easily excuses that savage violence done by Joe upon the orphaned, previously abused and seriously disturbed child Simon, at one point seeming to applaud the superior, disciplined violence authorised by Kerewin's oddly-acquired skills in Aikido.
The novel grew from a Hulme short-story. Not every seed produces good fruit. This plant seems to have suffered from too much fertiliser of dubious content.
The opening is pretty close to impenetrable, fallen leaves probably from Hulme's poetry. After that, much of the story takes place inside the characters' heads, in reflection, in alcoholic stupor, or (spare me again) in dreams. Events roll by, credibly enough - although I doubt Joe would be given bail given his record of violence - but with comprehension teetering on the brink until about 100 pages from the end.
Then we plunge irretrievably into silly psychic mumbo-jumbo: "She has now become a moth ... and you must know what that means, o man of wisdom."
I got to the end, via the implausible rosy-hued finale, but I couldn't wait for it to be over. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review