Rating: 
Summary: absolutely brilliant and tragic....beautifully written!!
Review: thankyou....i read this book years ago, and would pull over to the side of the road en route to work to get in a page or more....wonderful! beautifully written novel.....a book whose passion jumps out and invites you in.....i've since read it again, outloud, and found myself in tears....anticipating the tenacity of family bonds and love....a must read!....for the patient and strong hearted...would enjoy more books by Ms. Hulme.....(could not get through her poetry...whew!)
Rating:
Summary: Traveling in NZ while reading this book is a great experienc
Review: Keri-We read The Bone People during a trip around NZ, and it added anew interesting dimension to the way we, as tourists, got acquainted with this country.Greatly impressed by the way you describe the minds and feelings of the characters and their deep connection with the landscaps, we followed this wonderful book to Omaru Okarito. Visiting this places through the eyes of Kerewin and Joe is a facinating experience! Unfortunatly, the sign on your door and your neighbour's advise prevented us from visiting you.
Rating:
Summary: Reading it while visiting NZ-A great experience!
Review: KERI-We read The Bone People during a trip around NZ, and it added a new interesting dimension to the way, we as tourists, got aquainted with the country. Greatly impressed by the way you describes the minds and feelings of the characters, we followed this wonderful book to Omaru and Okarito. Visiting the places after reading The Bone People is really a facinating experience.Unfortunatly, the sign on your door and your neighbour's advise prevented us from paying you a visit. Greatly recomended, especialy to visitors who are iterested in the people of NZ.
Rating:
Summary: Speechless!
Review: To Keri Hulme: I don't think that I have ever been so caught up in a book like I have with the Bone People. Your characters came alive for me and are still alive in my head, even in my dreams. You have a gift--I hope that you'll continue to share it with us! To Prospective Readers: Although my above summary statement of "speechless" contradicts my present words, it is an accurate description of my reaction when someone, on the spot, asks me what I though of this book. I can never quite figure out where to start. But since I am writing now, I have a moment to organize my thoughts...Keri Hulme's style is distinct, though I found that I fell into it very easily. It is as though the pattern of words on the page matches what is going on in the book. The characters became companions for me. I knew them because they were written so well and because I can see parts of myself in them; familiarity. This novel is raw. It is human. It shows our capacity to love, to live and to be flawed. We are complex as are Kerewin, Joe and Sim. I never re-read books, but I don't doubt that I will come back to the Bone People. I already miss it.
Rating:
Summary: What More Can I Say?
Review: I hate to add just one more voice to the chorus of praise here (I almost wish I could rate the book a 5 just to add variety to all the 10's and the few 1's here), but this book is fascinating. It's like a long, strange dream captured on paper, full of semi-darkness, strange characters and settings, and twisted stories that all make sense in the context of the book's world. A stone tower by the sea where a solitary woman lives, a mysterious mute child washed out of the sea, a brutal yet loving adoptive father--all meet to create a story that blends dark and light, bitter and sweetness, a sense of fairy tale mixed with ugly, brutal reality. An interesting read that you won't soon (if ever) forget!
Rating:
Summary: One of my absolute favorites
Review: Keri -- I read this book for the first time ten or twelve years ago while in college. I knew I was hooked when I read your words in the prologue regarding the way words LOOK -- and I agree, "grey" is so much more elegant than "gray"! I've read this book many times in the last 10 years and get something different out of it each time. I especially liked your use of Maori with no translation -- again, it was so pretty on the page, even if I didn't understand the literal meaning of the words. I'm eager to read your next book -- when is it due?
Rating: 
Summary: Glowing mushrooms et al
Review: E hoa ma (even the anonymous readers who rated the novel at -1 or whatever): that was a buzz surpassing the morning caffeine, to get up and read 7 sheets of readers' comments (one of the family found them & printed them out last night). Many thanks - especially to people who persisted with the thing: I have advised rellies who had difficulty to start at Chapter 2... ckudirka: aue! I'm not sure there are fungi that glow as they grow. There's a Mycena sp. round here (South Westland, NZ) that becomes luminous as it decays, but I regret to say that Kerewin's staircase toadstools were fantasy. Happy -or at least, satisfying - reading, all-
Rating:
Summary: spellbinding
Review: To Keri Hulme. You perfectionist! It does not surprise me that you denigrate your book -and with it us readers for wasting time on it. It reminds me so much of Kerewin's personality. But I love her still and see my own thorny traits in her. I read it in 1988, my third year in the US, when my English (I am of Italian mother language) was very limited. I stuck to the book like glue. I read and reread the sentences that I did not understand until I got their meaning, or until I would absorb its music like through osmosis. I blamed my poor English (Yes, I'm a perfectionist too!) for not understanding right away and went up and down the pages to see if I had missed a clue when a character would speak in riddles. I loved the process, the slow unveiling of elements, its tiny details you had to deduct or put together to have something like a whole picture. I spent long hours at night reading it and looked forward to get back with its characters when I was away. I threw the book at the wall once when its violence seamed overwhelming. No other book has ever had that impact on me. It was a labor of love to read The Bone People. That is why I am deeply bond to it. Your creature is out of your hands now and has a life of its own and keeps on giving other people very strong and conflicting emotions. But I thank you for writing it, it may not be perfect but it was a great voyage reading it. I thank you all you comment writers for putting into words many of my inexpressed thoughts. You are welcome to contact me if you wish. Ciao.
Rating: 
Summary: Kerewin=us
Review: I read this for a graduate course a few years ago, and I still have strong feelings for it. Kerewin is one of the most memorable literary characters I've read. Her circular abode above the rest of the world--initially captivating; later proving more of a prison than a haven--isn't fortress enough to keep Simon and Joe from infiltrating paradise (or hell, however you might see the tower). I see the novel as (aside from the descriptions of abuse, pain, and healing) an explanation of the way life seeps in through any imaginable wall or barrier we might try to build against it and forces us--the Kerewin in all of us--to wrestle with the things we might want to build a circular tower to hide from. Kerewin's (and our) tragic flaw is that she needs to experience the pain of and subsequent acceptance of the things she hides from--relations, love, and giving--to remain human. Joe and Simon are her vehicles.
Rating:
Summary: Do not give up
Review: In response to the reader from Australia: As someone who has read both this book and Paula (Allende) I must say comparing the two is like apples and oranges. One is fiction (implicitly), and one is not, to point out the obvious. I loved both books, but do not make the mistake of judging one against the other. I think it's important to remember that there are few people on this earth who can be classified as complete monsters (if any) and to say that the characters in this book are "redeemed" by anything at all might be wrongheaded. I can't speak for Ms. Hulme -- I can't say what she was thinking when she developed the characters -- but I know that the overwhelming message for me was that it is possible for a human to be driven in many more ways than one, all at the same time. The book does not advocate alcholism nor child abuse; instead it places both "dysfunctions" in the context of real human life, which is where they originated anyway. Questions to ask yourself as you read the book:
What is beautiful? Can the beautiful ever really be separate from the ugly? How does one recognize (and therefore value) peace if one never experiences chaos? Can you hate something you never loved, and after hating it for a while, can you love it again? And most importantly, where can I get some of those glowing mushrooms to plant on MY stairs?
|
