Landfall

Landfall Review Online: Aotearoa New Zealand books in review

Giving a Damn 

Leave a Comment

Sally Blundell

Arms & Legs by Chloe Lane (Te Herenga Waka University Press, 2022), 208pp, $30 

‘Just arms and legs. It’s not worth a damn.’ Halfway through Chloe Lane’s new novel, our narrator, Georgie, recalls these words used by a character in a short story by Mississippi writer, Barry Hannah, to describe the dismal sex of an old affair. Her husband Dan repeats these words, reciting the lines with a finality, Georgie says, ‘that made me think with a certainty I’d always had in a way, but here it was with literary emphasis, that Dan would never cheat on me’. That certainty is not reciprocated. [Read more…]

The Kids are Alright, For Now

Leave a Comment

Craig Cliff

Down from Upland by Murdoch Stephens (Lawrence and Gibson, 2022), 240pp, $25

The title of Murdoch Stephens’ new novel refers to married couple Jacqui and Scott and their teenage son Axle, who live in a house down a path from Upland Road, the main thoroughfare in the well-to-do suburb of Kelburn, Wellington. We’re in the Land of Privilege, but also the Bureaucrat-race—Scott works in alcohol policy for the Ministry of Health; Jacqui is a non-sworn official for Police—which means no privilege can escape unremarked upon by the characters for long. [Read more…]

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

Leave a Comment

Sally Blundell 

A Good Winter by Gigi Fenster (Text Publishing, 2021), 272 pp, $38

By the end of the first paragraph of Gigi Fenster’s gripping novel, we know something is amiss. ‘It was a good winter’, her narrator, Olga, tells us. ‘For me it was a good winter. For Lara even. I don’t care what anyone says. The facts spoke for themselves.’ But as with Dickens, after the memorable opening of A Tale of Two Cities, the spring of hope turns into a winter of, if not despair, then foolishness and darkness. Relentlessly, inexorably, the tension implicit in this first defensive statement builds into a portrait of obsessive neediness (‘I’m not needy’, Olga says repeatedly) that drives the plot to its horrific ending on the very last page. That Fenster never slackens the pace or signposts exactly who will pay the price for her narrator’s deranged thinking is a credit to the author’s hold on the storyline and an indication of her unflagging allegiance to the manipulative, delusional and utterly awful nature of her main character.  [Read more…]

Moments More

Leave a Comment

Melanie Dixon

Breach of all Size: Small stories on Ulysses, love and Venice, edited by Michelle Elvy and Marco Sonzogni (The Cuba Press, 2022), 98pp, $30 

Thirty-six writers, thirty-six stories, 421 words each. This anthology attempts to bridge two worlds—that of Joyce and his modernist epic Ulysses, published 100 years ago, and the foundation of ancient Venice in the year 421. It seems a slightly odd premise for a modern collection of flash fiction, but the joining of themes from Joyce’s classic novel and the city of Venice has produced an astounding anthology featuring some of the best flash fiction writers in New Zealand. Between the covers of this slim edition there is an abundance of bridges, a whole cast of characters called Antonio, a healthy dose of Vivaldi and chamber music, numerous battered copies of Joyce’s novels, glimpses of Ireland and a few cameo appearances by Captain James Cook. With central themes of love, loss and time—and the slow sinking of a city beneath the pressure of the ever-encroaching sea—change is at the heart of this collection. [Read more…]

The Timeline is Elusive

Leave a Comment

Jordan Hamel

Whai by Nicole Titihuia Hawkins (We Are Babies Press, 2021), 84pp, $25; Tōku Pāpā by Ruby Solly (Te Herenga Waka Press, 2021), 80pp, $24.99; AUP New Poets 8 by Lily Holloway, Tru Paraha and Modi Deng, ed. Anna Jackson (Auckland University Press, 2021), 120pp, $29.99

Nicole Titihuia Hawkins’ debut collection Whai is not only the winner of the 2022 Jessie Mackay Prize for a best first book of poetry at this year’s Ockham awards but also the first offering from new indie publisher, We Are Babies Press. It is not difficult to see why they chose Whai as their gateway into the world. It is a multidimensional collection that was clearly years in the making. It demonstrates a poet who has used time and space to build her world on the page through poetry—a world filled with whānau, friends, warmth, absurdity, sharp edges, uncertainty, things that can’t be forgotten, things that can; all the things that have made this poet who she is today. [Read more…]

Liminal States

Leave a Comment

Iona Winter

Kurangaituku by Whiti Hereaka (Huia, 2021), 350pp, $35

Whiti Hereaka (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa, Tūhourangi, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Tumatawera, Tainui, Pākehā) holds an MA in Creative Writing from the IIML. A screenwriter, novelist, playwright, barrister and solicitor, she has been shortlisted and won awards for both her scriptwriting and her three novels: The Graphologist’s Apprentice (2010), Bugs (2013) and Legacy (2018). And now we have Kurangaituku, shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction in 2022. E hika, this wahine is consistent! In addition, I think it’s fair to say (and widely publicised) that Hereaka is also a whizz at creating captivating bird-woman attire for book launches. [Read more…]