Recently, as I was 'borrowing' my weekly stash of fashion/design/digital art magazines, a librarian told me that if you don't read good literature - & often, you're two times more likely to freckle & your toenails fall off. With summer just a hop & a skip away & a burgeoning love of open-toe platform sandals, frankly, it was a risk I couldn't take. So, two weeks ago I reconsidered my enduring love-affair with all things picture bookish and decided to reaquaint myself with a list of books I always meant to read but just never got around to.
Top on my list were a couple of highly acclaimed NZ novels. Witi Ihimaera's The Whale Rider & Patricia Grace's Potiki. I know, I know - how exceedingly unpatriotic of me to not have read either of these books, but after spying Penguin's latest re-released novels in all their self-same glory I decided that some things are just meant to be. When it comes to stuff I generally need things to match or at least not sit at queer right angles to one another. Too much conflict in my interior makes my ed urt & so the thought of collecting a sizable stack of these mitchy-matchy good things was positively inspiring. Sadly, many books (no matter how loved) have been judged by their covers when deciding whether to keep or confine to outer visual limits. Neurotic I know, but if a book can't form an orderly line of color conforming spines then the offending books are banished to boxes, and boxes I have!
I can happily say both The Whale Rider & Potiki safely reside in the quaint halls of essential contemporary Pacific literature. They provide a nice concise read & are fluent in mythical imagery that beautifully juxtaposes with stark post-colonial NZ culture. I enjoyed, & what's more - neither of these books are going anywhere.
