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joaniesickler's review against another edition
4.0
Intense. Magical. From 1986. A snapshot of a Maori relationship with an independent mastery woman who is amazing.
eliz_hop_1973's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
mitskacir's review against another edition
5.0
This is a challenging book in that the reader is lead to accept actions that they would normally condemn point blank. For me, Hulme did an excellent job of crafting very complicated, flawed, but likable people who are somehow still sympathetic despite egregious failures. It's a book where you would hope you would act differently in real life*, but for the sake of literature and exploring themes of culture, religion, forgiveness, found family, destiny, and trauma the choices the characters make are compelling and nuanced. I understand why people have a hard time accepting the end of the book, and I have some complaints about its execution (it felt a bit rushed), but books that are multidimensional and make me question myself are ones that are going to stick with me for a lot longer than ones that are morally unambiguous. I loved the dreamlike nature of the writing and the strong, unique voices for each of the three main characters made the frequent changes in narrator easy to follow. I loved Simon especially, and felt a lot of pain for Kerewin and Joe and the trauma they had endured and were perpetuating. I wish the book was longer, I wish we could see a truly happy ending play out with healing and breaking the cycle of abuse, but again the book challenges you by leaving you only with your own faith (or lack thereof) that the characters are at peace. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
*But also these characters felt so real, like real people that exist and you could meet. And all the time, children are abused, bystanders stand by, and we love people who hurt us - so would we really be so different from Kerewin?
*But also these characters felt so real, like real people that exist and you could meet. And all the time, children are abused, bystanders stand by, and we love people who hurt us - so would we really be so different from Kerewin?
kathydavie's review against another edition
4.0
A sad story about a dysfunctional group of people in New Zealand.
It won a Booker Prize and a Pegasus Prize for Literature. I can understand this, although why obtuse and confused always seems to accompany such winners continually raises questions in my mind.
My Take
There are two things I loved about this story: the incorporation of Maori culture and the general idea of the storyline. I hated the cruel side of Joe. That everyone just kept brushing it under the rug, although I had a hard time believing that it was Joe until Hulme hit me over the head with it! I definitely disliked half of Hulme's style.
I know. How can a person dislike part of another's style? I can't think of any other way to describe it. For a seven-year-old, Simon's thought speech is amazingly adult which made it very confusing to know who was speaking/thinking. When I read a story, I want to understand the characters, their reasons for how they ended where they do/did and why they act as they do. Instead, in The Bone People, I felt as though I were underwater with the currents tumbling me every which way through the waves, never allowing me to gain a sense of up. And it's why I could not give it a "5".
It takes forever before we get to learn what makes even a tiny part of Simon tick. And it is very much a child's perspective on how to create a traditional family. And makes me cry even more for this child. Hulme does pull you in, make you care for these three people. Pretty amazing when you consider how deep the negatives go on all three! Then there's that one particular resolution at the end. And it ends with the discovery. That's it. We never learn any more about their background, who Simon's people are, where they came from.
This was a village of people with all the closeness that implies, and yet it was also a series of distant relationships. For all its depth, Hulme skimmed the surface, providing just enough detail to pull me into her story and want to know more about its characters. And until the end, I was not interested in reading any more of this story. Now. Now, I want more.
I don't understand why that side story got tacked on for Joe at the end. I kept thinking that maybe it was his grandfather or great-grand, but I later suspected he wasn't. But, then again...and I still wouldn't understand why Hulme tucked it in as it didn't seem to have any purpose other than to provide more information about Maori culture.
It's a terrifying story in some ways. Again, my rant about parents needing to be licensed. And yet, as the system learns, there's more to any story.
The Story
It's a break-in at her tower that brings Kerewin into Simon and Joe's lives. An encounter she can decide if it's good or bad...but mostly both.
It may be enough to bring all three of them to life.
The Characters
Kerewin Holmes has won the lottery and lost her family. No, I have no idea in what order this occurred. She's also lost her ability to paint. And I have no idea why. She does have the most amazing house she built, though and a very back-to-the-earth self-subsisting lifestyle. A very lonely one.
Simon is who he is on the outside; Clare is his name on the inside; and, Haimona/Himi is Joe's pet name for him. This is a complex little boy who is hurting in so many ways. A boy who is loved deeply and brutally beaten at the same time.
Joe Gillayley of the Ngati Kahungunu has taken on the care of a toddler whose caregivers were lost in a shipwreck. He recently lost his wife and young son, and Simon is now his new family. But one whom he views in a wide-ranging swing of emotions. It'll just break your heart...
Marama and Wherahiko (Joe's uncle) Tainui. Their kids include Luce with whom, it seems, Joe had a short affair; Ben is the oldest and works the farm; Piri works for Ben on the farm (I think Polly Ackers is Piri's live-in girlfriend). Piri is separated from his wife Lynn who took most of the kids; Timote is still with his dad.
Price is the barman at the Duke in the village. Dr. Elizabeth Lachlan is the only medico Simon allows near. Binny Daniels is the village pederast, who influences the penultimate end. But why it leads to the tower's destruction...I dunno. There is just so much that I don't know…
Tiaki Mira, the kaumatua, is the old man at the end, waiting for the broken man, the digger, and the stranger. Dr. Sinclair Fayden is the only one who understands what Simon wants. And, strangely enough, needs.
The Cover
The cover is gorgeous. All black and white with a Maori graphic. I interpret the central character as having an opinion about Joe.
I think the title refers to events at the end of the book and Maori myths about The Bone People.
It won a Booker Prize and a Pegasus Prize for Literature. I can understand this, although why obtuse and confused always seems to accompany such winners continually raises questions in my mind.
My Take
There are two things I loved about this story: the incorporation of Maori culture and the general idea of the storyline. I hated the cruel side of Joe. That everyone just kept brushing it under the rug, although I had a hard time believing that it was Joe until Hulme hit me over the head with it! I definitely disliked half of Hulme's style.
I know. How can a person dislike part of another's style? I can't think of any other way to describe it. For a seven-year-old, Simon's thought speech is amazingly adult which made it very confusing to know who was speaking/thinking. When I read a story, I want to understand the characters, their reasons for how they ended where they do/did and why they act as they do. Instead, in The Bone People, I felt as though I were underwater with the currents tumbling me every which way through the waves, never allowing me to gain a sense of up. And it's why I could not give it a "5".
It takes forever before we get to learn what makes even a tiny part of Simon tick. And it is very much a child's perspective on how to create a traditional family. And makes me cry even more for this child. Hulme does pull you in, make you care for these three people. Pretty amazing when you consider how deep the negatives go on all three! Then there's that one particular resolution at the end. And it ends with the discovery. That's it. We never learn any more about their background, who Simon's people are, where they came from.
This was a village of people with all the closeness that implies, and yet it was also a series of distant relationships. For all its depth, Hulme skimmed the surface, providing just enough detail to pull me into her story and want to know more about its characters. And until the end, I was not interested in reading any more of this story. Now. Now, I want more.
I don't understand why that side story got tacked on for Joe at the end. I kept thinking that maybe it was his grandfather or great-grand, but I later suspected he wasn't. But, then again...and I still wouldn't understand why Hulme tucked it in as it didn't seem to have any purpose other than to provide more information about Maori culture.
It's a terrifying story in some ways. Again, my rant about parents needing to be licensed. And yet, as the system learns, there's more to any story.
The Story
It's a break-in at her tower that brings Kerewin into Simon and Joe's lives. An encounter she can decide if it's good or bad...but mostly both.
It may be enough to bring all three of them to life.
The Characters
Kerewin Holmes has won the lottery and lost her family. No, I have no idea in what order this occurred. She's also lost her ability to paint. And I have no idea why. She does have the most amazing house she built, though and a very back-to-the-earth self-subsisting lifestyle. A very lonely one.
Simon is who he is on the outside; Clare is his name on the inside; and, Haimona/Himi is Joe's pet name for him. This is a complex little boy who is hurting in so many ways. A boy who is loved deeply and brutally beaten at the same time.
Joe Gillayley of the Ngati Kahungunu has taken on the care of a toddler whose caregivers were lost in a shipwreck. He recently lost his wife and young son, and Simon is now his new family. But one whom he views in a wide-ranging swing of emotions. It'll just break your heart...
Marama and Wherahiko (Joe's uncle) Tainui. Their kids include Luce with whom, it seems, Joe had a short affair; Ben is the oldest and works the farm; Piri works for Ben on the farm (I think Polly Ackers is Piri's live-in girlfriend). Piri is separated from his wife Lynn who took most of the kids; Timote is still with his dad.
Price is the barman at the Duke in the village. Dr. Elizabeth Lachlan is the only medico Simon allows near. Binny Daniels is the village pederast, who influences the penultimate end. But why it leads to the tower's destruction...I dunno. There is just so much that I don't know…
Tiaki Mira, the kaumatua, is the old man at the end, waiting for the broken man, the digger, and the stranger. Dr. Sinclair Fayden is the only one who understands what Simon wants. And, strangely enough, needs.
The Cover
The cover is gorgeous. All black and white with a Maori graphic. I interpret the central character as having an opinion about Joe.
I think the title refers to events at the end of the book and Maori myths about The Bone People.
alicehhhd's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
kdawn999's review against another edition
3.0
This book has successes and failures. Successes: I loved the unconventional language, the Māori snippets, and the inexplicable love the 3 main characters develop for one another in their strange triad. I liked the weirdness of the character the author clearly modeled after herself and the otherworldly tower she lives in.
Failures: This is a book centering on child abuse, and it doesn’t deliver a sufficient redemption arc at the end. Though there is some depth in the psychological torture for the adult characters at the novel’s climax, that darkness is lifted too quickly in the resolution. I wish the author had pushed the harder questions here and shown there are some consequences you can’t come back from.
Failures: This is a book centering on child abuse, and it doesn’t deliver a sufficient redemption arc at the end. Though there is some depth in the psychological torture for the adult characters at the novel’s climax, that darkness is lifted too quickly in the resolution. I wish the author had pushed the harder questions here and shown there are some consequences you can’t come back from.
usnebojemesa's review against another edition
2.0
Well.... I truly do not know how this book has such a high rating - it is beautifully written and has really beautiful parts at moments but the domestic violence is really a huge minus for me. I do not even know how to put it into words. I really put me off reading it and finishing it. Like using that as a plot device... The words of my professor comes into my mind "it is just a book and they are just book characters" but I truly visualize so much and everything resonates with me too much.
I would have given it two stars just because of the 'unnecessary' violence but the book is really amazing and intricate and it just whisks you away into this different realm.
I would have given it two stars just because of the 'unnecessary' violence but the book is really amazing and intricate and it just whisks you away into this different realm.
lena842's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
emmalemonnz's review against another edition
5.0
Literary, profound, painful, and poetically creeping into every part of my soul.
cami19's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0