Rating: 
Summary: The Bone People
Review: Thought provoking work on the strength of women, the ravages of alcohol and child abuse and the strength of family. Set in New Zeland.
Rating: 
Summary: Maori magic realism
Review: Set in New Zealand, the book concerns three characters: a 1/8th Maori woman who is independently wealthy from having won the lottery and is content to stay in a tower that she has constructed and disavow contact with the townfolk; a Maori man with a bit of a drinking problem, but a lot of family in the area; and a young mute boy, who has been adopted by the man and who adopts the woman. It's a love triangle, yes, but this is one case of very tough love (to say too much more would give it away). There are secrets and lies herein. I liked this book a lot, but I'm not ecstatic about it. I think this may be because the revelations here are not new to me (although I would not characterize them as "old hat"). I've seen some of these surprise techniques used already in books like Iain M. Banks' The Wasp Factory and Jonathan Carroll's From the Teeth of Angels. However, for me to compare this book to those two indicates some of its appeal for me. I also thought it was overlong, taking a bit too much of a leisurely pace in its unfolding of events. The strange formatting wherein some of the character's thoughts are expressed through indented paragraphs is inconsistent, and annoyed my sense of construction. Finally, I think I also would have been aided by some knowledge of Maori culture and New Zealand fauna before reading this book. In its constant use of animals and language that I was unfamiliar with, it resembled a genre work, and I was able to move through this without difficulty, but I think I would have had a more worthwhile experience had I been able to subsume more of the unknown.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: A true piece of artwork. On the edition I have one of the comments from reviewers calles Hulme a poet, I couldn't agree more.
The short pieces of Maori languge through the book confused me at first but I do feel that they add something very personal to the feeling of the book (they are translated at the back of the book, although you don't really need to fully understand them).
After the fith reading of 'The Bone People' I can easily say this is my favorite book.
Don't get this book out of the library - you really have to buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Left empty and confused
Review: Blech! It's as though Keri Hulme transcribed a hazily remembered dream/nightmare. So much was utterly foreign and the author was no help at all, so concerned with melding prose and poetry (I found flipping back and forth for translations maddening, as well). In the end I just guessed at what was going on and had to conclude that the story lines were meant to be unclear because no amount of re-reading helped.
The characters were not much better, mainly because they were such mysteries. An author's job is to illuminate and Keri Hulme used a guttering birthday candle for this midnight-dark book.
Rating:
Summary: A masterful must read!
Review: The Bone People is, quite simply, the most powerful, moving, stunning book I have ever read. The characters are well drawn. I wanted to hate Joe, but he was in so much pain that I couldn't, really. I never excused what he did - and Hulme did not ask the reader to do that. She challenges the reader to look at our society as a whole; to see what we do to people and how we as communities play a role in creating some of the violent, terrible situations that result in children being abused. I know that some people found that the mysticism in the latter section of the novel took away from the book. I disagree. I found that it fit in well with the story and helped flesh out some of the messages the author was trying to get across. Some of the imagery in this novel is absolutely breathtaking. I have never been so utterly moved and transfixed by a novel as I have by this one. It challenged my perceptions and it made me a different person when I was finished it. The book is quite long, and it can be slow in a few spots. I found that I had to read it twice. I admit I did hate Joe the first time I read the novel; I really only began to understand him the second time I read the book. This is a complex, multi-layered work that speaks to a wide range of issues: child abuse, spirituality, community, and culture. I highly recommend this novel to everyone. You may not like it or agree with it, but you will be impacted by it. It still haunts me today.
Rating:
Summary: The Bone People
Review: Kerein, Joe and Simon are the stars of The Bone People. The Maori tradition and way of life in New Zealand is slowpaced. As an individual it is difficult to assume this lifestyle by Kerein. She lives in a dream world of "what could be." She doesn't allow herself to feel love. Joe and Simon jumpstart her life in forming a family triangle of love and pain, including abuse. The Maoiri way of life is close knit. Yet the love for life beats against the wind in hopes of finding something tangible and real. The beauty of this island is reflected in Hulme's description. The elements also star in this book, the wind, rain and ocean. Hulme's still small voice intercedes throughout the book constantly engaging in what could be. The beauty in word and form engulf the reader. I did not like the ending,it appears all three have died. I did enjoy how Kerein was renewed from her illness to paint and become a person once again.
Rating:
Summary: This book is like an old friend
Review: This is the kind of book for one who likes to read.I have read it 4 times over the past 10 years and I get new things out of it each time I read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful and Harrowing
Review: Three is the magic number of Keri Hulme's book The Bone People. Three people, Kerewin Holmes an artist who lives by the sea in an enchanted tower which she built, Joe a Maori man who lives in a house of pain of his own creation and Simon the lost child who searching for a home, band together to form a strange family. These three become involved with each other in a dance of death and destruction and a battle for redemption of the human spirit. They make up the family of man or the bone people, brittle ungiving beings who are attempting to fight the isolation of their souls and find fulfillment in involving themselves with each other. These three are represented by a woman Keri the artist, a man Joe the lost warrior and the child, Simon the hope for the future. Can they join together and heal each other or will they work to cause each other's destruction. That is the question of the Bone People. Keri Hulme's has a gift with words. Her stream of consciousness writing is beautiful and compelling. Despite the beauty of her words, the story is harrowing and heart breaking. We so often hurt those who we love most. The assault on young Simon is a violence both verbal and brutally physical. Are the young resilient in nature or are they brittle and easily broken? Is the child truly the savior of the man? These are questions which Hulme's seems to ask. Throughout the book the theme of family is recurrent. What comprises a family and what obligations do family members have to each other. The family is a bright promise kept , a joining of human lives and spirits. The members of the bone people are drawn to their own isolation. They have found diverse methods of self destruction and use them skillfully. The reader journeys through the book simultaneously loving and hating the members of this strange family. I cannot help but recommend this book, but with the precaution that it is quite difficult reading, both in plot and style.
Rating:
Summary: Quite amazing.
Review: I bought this book while visiting New Zealand on the recommendation of a friend who had never actually read any of Hulme's work. Keri Hulme possesses a unique, almost addictive writing style. It took a few pages for me to get into her rhythm, but once she had me in her spell I simply could not put the book down. An exquisite blend of prehistoric myth and modern angst.
Rating:
Summary: The Bone People
Review: A uniquely told and emotionally engaging story about a man, a woman, and a child, all with very different voices and perspectives, that is narrated, in turn, in each of the three voices. While at first the changing first person narration can be challenging, as can the interspersed Maori dialect, in time both techniques are powerful in bringing the three characters and their stories to the reader. At times very dark (and sometimes violent), and at times truly beautiful, this is an amazing work of writing.
| 
