THE BONE PEOPLE: Week 1, Prologue and Part I

[Melissa_W Moderator]

Please use this thread for discussion of the Prologue and Part I of The Bone People.  Please clearly mark a SPOILER WARNING if your post references sections later in the book.

[Fozzie]

Thankfully, the style of the prologue was not reflective of the writing style used in the rest of the book!  I didn't understand the prologue at all!

[Fozzie]

Lots of questions are raised --- Who is Kerewin?  Where did she get her money?  Who is the child?  What is the relationship between Joe and the child?  What is the relationship between Joe and the community?  between Kerewin and the community?  between the child and the community?  What is the child’s past?  How can the child be with Joe, an alcoholic and a child abuser?

I love it when books include foreign words and phrases integrated right into the text.   I was glad to have the translation pages at the back of the book.  However, I found that once a phrase was translated, if it was used again later in the book, there was not a translation listed for the later page(s).  I found myself having to scan all the translations, which was cumbersome.

Talk about entering another world!  The isolated environment that Kerewin has set up for herself seems like it belongs to another era, not just another country.  She seems so detached from the feelings of the child, as indicated by her inner dialogue, yet is kind and patient.  The whole situation is odd.

I do like the structure that the author created in which she indents and inserts the inner thoughts of the characters right in the middle of things.  It really worked well for me.

[chadadanielleKR]

So do I.

I suppose, it is done on purpose. The prologue sounds very mysterious and in the first chapter there are at least 2 characters who come out more clearly.  So far the book sounds to me rather biographic and the notes I read on the wikipedia page are leading me to the same conclusion regarding the main character (her only published novel so far).

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Fozzie wrote:

Thankfully, the style of the prologue was not reflective of the writing style used in the rest of the book!  I didn't understand the prologue at all!

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[Peppermill]

It took me awhile to get started on this thing, but now that I am "into it" (Chapter 5), I am intrigued and feel as if I am reading a mystery. All the questions Laura listed seem so relevant. Thanks for telling me there are translations at the end! I had not noticed them yet.

[Fozzie]

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chadadanielleKR wrote:

So far the book sounds to me rather biographic and the notes I read on the wikipedia page are leading me to the same conclusion regarding the main character (her only published novel so far).

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I couldn't help but wonder if parts of the novel were autobiographical and if so, which parts.  I have a feeling that the author is writing about the culture of New Zealand, which is unfamiliar to us, and because of that unfamiliarity, we are too quick to assume that the characters in the book represent either that author or the typical New Zealander.  

I knew a woman from New Zealand when I lived in England.  She was European and seemed nothing like any of the people in the book, which makes sense.

[Peppermill]

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Fozzie wrote:

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I couldn't help but wonder if parts of the novel were autobiographical and if so, which parts.  I have a feeling that the author is writing about the culture of New Zealand, which is unfamiliar to us, and because of that unfamiliarity, we are too quick to assume that the characters in the book represent either that author or the typical New Zealan

I knew a woman from New Zealand when I lived in England.  She was European and seemed nothing like any of the people in the book, which makes sense.

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I see no reason to consider this book to represent a "typical New Zealander."  I do hope, however, it gives some insights about the land and its people, much as I might expect from an author like Leslie Silko in Ceremony  , who I certainly would not turn to for a balanced view of New Mexico.

At one level, I am enjoying the book, at others, I am finding it troubling.  Such an exploration of how dysfunction and striving for human love can co-exist.  Don't know off-hand what other reads with which I would compare it.

I did learn this week of a book that is supposedly epic relative to Australia, but it is difficult to obtain and apparently not a dynamic read, at least in long sections:  The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney by Henry Handel Richardson.   (It doesn't seem to be available via B&N, even used copies seem to ship from Europe.)

"Henry Handel Richardson's place in Australian literature is important and secure. The Fortunes is an archetypal novel of the country, written about the great upsurge of nineteenth-century Western capitalism fuelled by the gold discoveries. With relentless objectivity it surveys all the main issues which were to define the direction of white Australian society from the 1850s onwards, within the domestic framework of a marriage. Powerfully symbolic in a realistic mode it is, as an English critic said in 1973, 'one of the great inexorable books of the world'."

[Peppermill]

Review:

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/881769591.html?dids=881769591:881769591&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:...

New Zealand Books (oespecially Maori?):

http://www.huia.co.nz/?sn=8&st=1

Keri Holmes (you may have to select her name among the authors and search):

http://www.huia.co.nz/shop

[Peppermill]

You may want to wait on this one if you haven't finished reading -- it has some statements about the story to come.

http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4445/Hulme-Keri.html

[Fozzie]

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Peppermill wrote:

You may want to wait on this one if you haven't finished reading -- it has some statements about the story to come.

http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4445/Hulme-Keri.html

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This provided some great insights into the book, but please we aware that it is filled with SPOILERS!  (I have fnished the book.)

[Fozzie]

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Peppermill wrote:

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At one level, I am enjoying the book, at others, I am finding it troubling.  Such an exploration of how dysfunction and striving for human love can co-exist.  Don't know off-hand what other reads with which I would compare it.

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I found the book to be very troubling.  The violence it contains is hard to bear (I didn't read this book in bed at night).  However, the story is based on the nature of the characters and events in their lives, so we must bear them in order to understand the book as a whole.   

[Peppermill]

I have found it hard to figure out what to post that might contribute to a discussion, but I am glad to be reading this.  I am about 3/4 of the way through -- I believe I have one major section left. 

I have been trying to read too many things concurrently recently and it hasn't been working very well.  Still, I don't know quite what to do with this one.

The mixture of poetry with prose has fascinated me, and it did not surprise me to learn that most of the author's subsequent work has been poetry.

As we said earlier, it hasn't felt particularly like insight into Maori people, but rather more insight into one particular very dysfunctional three-some, each of whom in some way or another is rather winsome and appealing as a person.

[Melissa_W Moderator]

Agreed, Pepper.  I'm finding this a hard book to read (even for me) but the writing is very good.  We have to start South Riding this week, but I'm going to leave The Bone People threads up for those who are still working on it.

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Peppermill wrote:

I have found it hard to figure out what to post that might contribute to a discussion, but I am glad to be reading this.  I am about 3/4 of the way through -- I believe I have one major section left. 

I have been trying to read too many things concurrently recently and it hasn't been working very well.  Still, I don't know quite what to do with this one.

The mixture of poetry with prose has fascinated me, and it did not surprise me to learn that most of the author's subsequent work has been poetry.

As we said earlier, it hasn't felt particularly like insight into Maori people, but rather more insight into one particular very dysfunctional three-some, each of whom in some way or another is rather winsome and appealing as a person.

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[Fozzie]

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Peppermill wrote:

I have found it hard to figure out what to post that might contribute to a discussion, but I am glad to be reading this.  

Pepper, I feel the same way.  I am going to try to come up with some overall thoughts and post them in the whole book section this week. 

[Fozzie]

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Melissa_W wrote:

Agreed, Pepper.  I'm finding this a hard book to read (even for me) but the writing is very good.  We have to start South Riding this week, but I'm going to leave The Bone People threads up for those who are still working on it.

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Melissa, I hope you mean Half of a Yellow Sun, not South Riding.  I am halfway through HOAYS.  

[Melissa_W Moderator]

 Crapz.  I started reading August's book. 

Yes, July's book is

Half of a Yellow Sun - good thing Laura mentioned that before I started putting up posts!

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Fozzie wrote:

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Melissa_W wrote:

Agreed, Pepper.  I'm finding this a hard book to read (even for me) but the writing is very good.  We have to start South Riding this week, but I'm going to leave The Bone People threads up for those who are still working on it.

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Melissa, I hope you mean Half of a Yellow Sun, not South Riding.  I am halfway through HOAYS.  

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[Peppermill]

Guess I better take HoaYS along on vacation and see if I can make a dent in it.  I have only had a friend's copy for years. 

Along with

The Shadow of the Wind  by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Lucia Graves (Translator) 

(I am told this was discussed on B&N with the author when it was first released.  Anyone have a suggestion on how to figure out if the discussion is still around?)

[Melissa_W Moderator]

I think the "search" box still looks in the archived groups.  I can't remember if it had it's own board or if it was part of "Fiction".

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Peppermill wrote:

Guess I better take HoaYS along on vacation and see if I can make a dent in it.  I have only had a friend's copy for years. 

Along with

The Shadow of the Wind  by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Lucia Graves (Translator) 

(I am told this was discussed on B&N with the author when it was first released.  Anyone have a suggestion on how to figure out if the discussion is still around?)

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[Fozzie]

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Melissa_W wrote:

I think the "search" box still looks in the archived groups.  I can't remember if it had it's own board or if it was part of "Fiction".

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Peppermill wrote:

Guess I better take HoaYS along on vacation and see if I can make a dent in it.  I have only had a friend's copy for years. 

Along with

The Shadow of the Wind  by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Lucia Graves (Translator) 

(I am told this was discussed on B&N with the author when it was first released.  Anyone have a suggestion on how to figure out if the discussion is still around?)

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I think it was long before the current format.  It was one of two to four books discussed in a given month.  I doubt it is archived.  I have a Word document with questions to the author and his answers that I can share.  Send me a PM.

[chadadanielleKR]

So do I.

I still have part IV left to read and I have been trying to read several books at the same time. I was also busy with the children and the end of their school year (parties, celebrations and school events).

I really found the book difficult to read because of the prevailing violence. The main characters are inflicting violence on themselves: living on their own, drinking, smoking far to much  and to each other : first of all Joe  beats Simon but all of them never really trust the other one for good and they never get along well for long.

After each main part,  I kept asking myself, how worse can it get?. What is written on page 148 is rather horrifying when Kerewin discovers how badly Simon has been beaten. I admit that the next pages give some sort of explanations but certainly no excuses....

Conclusion: this book is very painful to read but I have been keeping on on reading it because I'd really like to know where the author wants to lead us. So far, it's getting worse and worse....

One interesting point though are Kerewin's sexuality: i.e. none and personality which happen to be similar to the ones of Keri Hulme according to Wikipedia

"She identifies as an aromantic asexual and is an atheist.[5]" This is why I said earlier that this book contained some autobiographical elements....