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susanlawson's review against another edition
2.0
I was so disappointed when the narrative of the story switched from that of Jack Mackenzie, a Scottish minister newly arrived in New Zealand in 1909, to that of his descendents, Olive, William and Jay, living miserable existences in London of the eighties, supposedly under some curse, the effect of a stolen shruken head that Jack had taken from the home of his Maori mistress while in NZ. I really struggled with the story after that and so many of the sub-plots were left unexplained and unresolved.
krisz's review against another edition
1.0
FINALLY I finished this SHIT. I don't even try and call it a book, although it looks like one - it has pages and there are words written on the pages which form sentences.
But then that's all.
I don't even know what this is about. It isn't a story, it is a description of a few days of some people's lives who happen to be related somehow. This writing should have stayed in a drawer, marked as "playing with plots and characters".
It is definitely annoying that there is no end, all is left hanging. There's this old NZ-based family: we get from the beginning that the minister will sleep with the Maori girl, and yes, probably there will be a child, so why leave this to the last page? There's the protagonist, Olive, who you cannot like at all, but pity (a little). Nothing really happens to her, and in the end of the book I think she goes to kill herself - but we don't really know her thoughts, we only know that she used to be a spoilt child, then she had a shop which brought enough money, and somehow she was unlucky in love though as her persona is described she must look quite stunning. Then there's her brother, the retired William who falls in love with a friend of Olive's and makes her a baby (at what age? teachers go retired at age 70 where I live). There's Terry, an ex-love of Olive, I don't know why he's got this chapter or two in the book. And Jay, coming from NZ, who, we soon realise, is a cousin three-four-five (?) times removed from Olive, but he has bad luck and ends up in a kind of crude mental hospital. This hospital is investigated by a priest of some kind who is killed because of it and abuse in the place goes on, supposedly, and we cannot give a chance to Jay to survive.
The thesaurus-rich description drove me wild. Pages and pages of description of birds in a tree and what they remind Olive of was simply a nightmare. Things kept reminding the characters to other things - I don't know how this is called in general medicine (something like side-chained thinking) but one can get totally cured by taking certain prescribed pills!
How could this book get any prizes? How could this get printed? What is the value of such shit? I read other reviews and they state similar opinions, only some readers do not seem to mind that there's no story behind the lines.
AVOID THIS BOOK LIKE PLAGUE.
But then that's all.
I don't even know what this is about. It isn't a story, it is a description of a few days of some people's lives who happen to be related somehow. This writing should have stayed in a drawer, marked as "playing with plots and characters".
It is definitely annoying that there is no end, all is left hanging. There's this old NZ-based family: we get from the beginning that the minister will sleep with the Maori girl, and yes, probably there will be a child, so why leave this to the last page? There's the protagonist, Olive, who you cannot like at all, but pity (a little). Nothing really happens to her, and in the end of the book I think she goes to kill herself - but we don't really know her thoughts, we only know that she used to be a spoilt child, then she had a shop which brought enough money, and somehow she was unlucky in love though as her persona is described she must look quite stunning. Then there's her brother, the retired William who falls in love with a friend of Olive's and makes her a baby (at what age? teachers go retired at age 70 where I live). There's Terry, an ex-love of Olive, I don't know why he's got this chapter or two in the book. And Jay, coming from NZ, who, we soon realise, is a cousin three-four-five (?) times removed from Olive, but he has bad luck and ends up in a kind of crude mental hospital. This hospital is investigated by a priest of some kind who is killed because of it and abuse in the place goes on, supposedly, and we cannot give a chance to Jay to survive.
The thesaurus-rich description drove me wild. Pages and pages of description of birds in a tree and what they remind Olive of was simply a nightmare. Things kept reminding the characters to other things - I don't know how this is called in general medicine (something like side-chained thinking) but one can get totally cured by taking certain prescribed pills!
How could this book get any prizes? How could this get printed? What is the value of such shit? I read other reviews and they state similar opinions, only some readers do not seem to mind that there's no story behind the lines.
AVOID THIS BOOK LIKE PLAGUE.
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