Landfall Review Online

New Zealand books in review

Climate Fiction for the Sunset Generation

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Emma Gattey

Scorchers: A climate fiction anthology, edited by Paul Mountfort and Rosslyn Prosser (Eunoia Publishing, 2020), 280pp., $29

At the time of writing, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has just released its report on the physical science basis of climate change, including the role of human influence and the state of knowledge about possible climate futures. The findings are terrifying, sobering, devastating. They are also entirely unsurprising. Beyond the realms of climate research and science communication (although often with considerable overlap), fiction writers are among those who have long been grappling with eco-anxiety, futility and the overwhelming question of how on earth to compel people to care, and to act. [Read more…]

Easy Human Kindnesses

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Jordan Hamel

In Bed with the Feminists by Liz Breslin (Dead Bird Books, 2021), 69pp., $30; Felt by Johanna Emeney (Massey University Press, 2021), 80pp., $24.99; To the Occupant by Emma Neale (Otago University Press, 2019), 80pp., $27.95

Liz Breslin’s sophomore collection In Bed with the Feminists was one I was eagerly anticipating, and that anticipation was certainly warranted. Ever since bursting onto the Aotearoa literary scene a couple of years ago, Dead Bird Books has shown a particular knack for turning their releases into special occasions through comprehensive, nationwide launches and promoting books with strong concepts from distinct writers. Liz Breslin had the unenviable task of following one of the best collections of 2020, Mohamed Hassan’s Ockham-shortlisted National Anthem, and in the face of such expectation, In Bed with the Feminists did not disappoint. [Read more…]

Phantasmagorical Fiction 

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Vaughan Rapatahana

Bluffworld by Patrick Evans (Victoria University Press, 2021), 371 pp., $35

Bluffworld is a fable of fractious friction, a different kettle of fish to the typical shoal of Kiwi fiction. Yes, I deliberately cast cliché here, for Evan’s wordy novel is like playing a flashy computer game where the reader is constantly grasping at several streams of multicoloured aquatic life all at once: generally, with some success, but not always snaring the prime catch, if indeed there is such in this multi-layered novel. The saga is heavily embedded in Evans’ own experiences of academic life, where there is an endemic requirement to be as obscure and oblique, as pretentious and pedantic as possible regarding the involuted literary pursuits prevailing. I am not certain that the ‘author(s)’ quite know where to complete this fuliginous frolic, but eventually their ‘scriptor’, Patrick Evans, does end the volume with a satirical ‘Author’s Note’. [Read more…]

Legacies Celebrate 

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Angela Trolove 

More Favourable Waters: Aotearoa poets respond to Dante’s Purgatory, edited by Marco Sonzogni and Timothy Smith (The Cuba Press, 2021), 99pp., $25; This Twilight Menagerie: A whakanui of 40 years of Poetry Live!, edited by Jamie Trower and Sam Clements (Poetry Live! 2021), 218pp., $20

Dante’s trilogy is notoriously tough reading. But we’re in luck. The difficulty has been overcome by contemporary translators such as the late Clive James, to whose memory More Favourable Waters is dedicated. Now, with this volume, Dante’s cantos have become yet more accessible thanks to the thirty-three Kiwi poets reanimating them, one by one, in contexts recognisable to New Zealanders. The cantos that inspire the poems are listed at the back of the anthology under ‘Textual and musical notes’. Yes, these endnotes include, wondrously, a suite of instrumentals composed to enrich the cantos, accessible through a QR code. By Vittorio Zago and intended as musical interludes, they are subtle and atmospheric; they slur between tempos. Strings wail, wind squeals and spits and percussion scuffles. [Read more…]

Volumes for the Heart

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Jessica Thompson Carr

Colouring My Soul by Kat Maxwell (Mākaro Press, 2020), 142pp, $25; Gaps in the Light by Iona Winter (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2021), 110 pp, £11.99

In Kat Maxwell and Iona Winter we have two storytellers who draw on real experience as the source of their inspiration. Both writers share intimate perspectives drawn from their Māori culture, sharpened by their individuality as grown wāhine. While the writing styles are very different—Winter is fluid and dream-like while Maxwell has focused more on storytelling—the two works complement each other, when considered together, for their vulnerability and their mana. [Read more…]