Zahid Gamieldien

Sado by Mikaela Nyman (Victoria University Press, 2020), 304pp., $30

When I saw the title of this novel, my mind conjured expectations of de Sade and Pasolini. But a glance at the novel’s front flap (mostly) disabused me of this expectation: sado, a dictionary extract reveals, is a Bislama word meaning ‘shadow’, ‘reflection’, or ‘humiliation, dishonour’. That turns out to be an apposite title for Mikaela Nyman’s novel, which is set in both the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Pam and the umbra of colonialism, male violence, kastom (custom) and notions of belonging.  [Read more…]

Nicholas Reid

2000ft Above Worry Level by Eamonn Marra (Victoria University Press, 2020), 192 pp., $30

Eamonn Marra’s 2000ft Above Worry Level begins with a punch in the face. ‘I used to spend a lot of time on the sad part of the internet,’ says the unnamed narrator in his first sentence, and rapidly proves the point by showing what a saddo he is. The first segment of 2000ft Above Worry Level is about ‘cam sex’. In the narrator’s case, this means hooking up with a woman online and then masturbating in front of his laptop as she removes her clothes or otherwise visually stimulates him. Apparently this is the most meaningful sort of connection he can make with another human being. [Read more…]

Craig Cliff

Drongo by Ian Richards (Atuanui Press, 2019), 384 pp., $38

It’s 1977. Andy Ingle has finished at Palmerston North Boys’ High School and wants to be a writer. With his trusty portable typewriter, Half-Arse, and his girlfriend Chloe, Andy travels to the outskirts of Masterton to visit a school friend, Phillip, who’s living with his dad. After a failed attempt to lose his virginity, Andy absconds with a bankteller, Penny, who’s heading to Wellington. After another near-miss at losing his virginity (‘my sex life was turning out to be a lot more complicated than I’d planned’), Andy ghosts Penny and takes the ferry south by himself. The pattern holds for the rest of the novel: Andy latches onto someone, enters their world, stumbles at a sexual hurdle and then lights out for the next territory.  [Read more…]

Carolyn McCurdie

The Ash, the Well and the Bluebell by Sandra Arnold (Mākaro Press, 2019), 332 pp., $35

Canterbury writer Sandra Arnold is an accomplished contributor to the literary life of Aotearoa New Zealand. Her published work includes flash fiction, short stories, memoir and novels. She was co-founder, with David Howard, of the literary magazine takahē. The Ash, the Well and the Bluebell is her third novel.

The prologue opens the story with a jolt that for New Zealand readers will feel immediate and recent. Lily is enjoying precious moments with her much-loved daughter, Charlie, before Charlie leaves for a new job in Australia. They’re in a café in the centre of Christchurch on 22 February 2011. The date at the head of the chapter warns us. The earthquake leaves Lily in hospital, mind reeling and unable to grasp the fact of Charlie’s death. Among the jumble of nightmare and memory are images of her childhood in the village of Eshwell Bridge in the north-east of England. Chapter One takes us there, to 1955, when Lily is a child. [Read more…]

Brannavan Gnanalingam

Shakti by Rajorshi Chakraborti (Penguin Random House NZ, 2019), 20, 336pp, $36

A common critique of superhero narratives is their inherent fascist tendencies. Superheroes exist in dysfunctional societies, and their powers necessarily exist outside of the law. Obviously, this is because the law in their world is corrupt and those with power can’t be trusted. The superheroes’ vigilantism becomes a way of restoring some sort of moral equilibrium. In many superhero narratives, the consequence of this vigilantism is largely skirted over: writer and reader generally assume, to borrow a line from Dylan, that ‘to live outside the law, you must be honest’. [Read more…]