This started out a book review, but it's also a bit of a personal essay, and it's not all pretty. And this is really long, consider yourselves warned :)I thought about doing the 30 day book challenge, but there's always this one question in those kinds of things that make me pause. This time it was "A book that reminds you of home". And this book (and the devastatingly good movie made from it) are always the first thing that springs to mind.Ironically the movie came up in a class this week (Cultural Studies class), and everyone turned to me as if to say "It's really overdramatised right?" And I had to tell them no, it's not. So I got stuck writing a paper on it, go me. And I can't, I just can't be academic and objective, because it hurts like a sonuvabitch. So I'm writing it out, in hopes that when I've spilled my soul out here, I won't have any left and I can write that damn paper.If you don't know it, go watch this (movie trailer, under 2 minutes): Once Were Warriors TrailerNow I'm not writing this to make anyone feel bad, just that all of us didn't grow up happy, or feeling loved, and home for me is a four letter word. I left when I was 15, not entirely voluntarily, but not entirely unhappily to be out of it either. I haven't spoken to most of my family in 15 years, and now that my grandparents are gone, I don't really have any reason to ever speak to any of them again.So let's see, why does it remind me of home? Native minority poor, encouraged to urbanise and integrate into white society, but lacking the culture or skills to understand how to do so. Check. Institutionalised poverty. Check. Kids sitting in the car in the pub carpark with a bag of chips and a coke, if they're lucky, while mum and dad are in the pub drinking. Check. Preteen kids cleaning the house of broken beer bottles before school the next morning, after getting no sleep because the party spilled over to the house after the pub closed. Check. Kids sleeping under bridges, huffing superglue, because nobody gives a damn or takes them home, and oh well they're brown kids anyway. Check. Violence as a part of daily life - problems are solved with fists. Check. A complete disconnect from the kids own culture, because the above mentioned urbanization. Check. For background, Maori make up about 15% of the population of NZ, and are economically doing pretty well right now. But this book is set before that happened, before the resurgence in culture and language and self-sovereignty. Back when we were being encouraged to integrate and assimilate and self-hate and ... lots of other things ending in ate. The title alludes to the fact that once upon a time, Maori were warriors, strong, independent, self-sufficient and proud. But isolated in cities, doing unskilled labour, and drinking away their wages, urban Maori in the 70's and 80's had very little to be proud of. (The book is actually set in the 50's, but it's pretty timeless. The movie is set in the 80's).The plot? Well, we have Beth Heke, who grew up in a quite different environment, in one of the few Maori settlements that retained it's integrity and connection to the culture - but gave it up for a city boy, Jake. And Jake the Muss (short for muscles) is handsome and charming, and he took her away to the city and they had fine children, but he's a mean mean drunk, and with no hope and nothing really to look forward to, he drinks a lot. And to escape the pain, so does Beth.The kids are more or less dragging themselves up, and not doing a spectacular job of it: The eldest, Nig, is 18 and joins a gang, just seeking to belong somewhere because he sure doesn't belong at home, and the next oldest is continuously being caught at petty crime, 12 year old Grace is struggling to still see the beauty of the world, with her battered notebook of stories and drawings, many based on Maori legends, and stuck with being a mother figure to the youngest ones. Two things happen that catalyse things for this damaged family: The story opens with the second oldest son arrested once too many times, and taken away to the foster care, in the hands of an old warrior who still remembers what that means. Now even Beth can't continue to pretend that her family isn't broken. Especially when the reason she can't be there to defend him and ask for him to allowed to come home, is because she can barely stand from the beating she got the night before.And she tries, she really tries to fix it, but some things just can't be fixed. And so she falls back into the same patterns, the drinking and living with violence, until it all comes to a head in a tragedy that was more or less inevitable. Because some people can survive horrible things happening to them, and some can't, especially when they are young and alone and sensitive.And I'll tell you now, there is a happy ending, but not in the "and everyone lived their wildest dreams forever after" sense, but more in a "rage, rage against the dying of the light" sense. Beth finds strength and reconnects with her true self, and her family and her culture, and finally does fix things, but it's too late for at least one of the children, and it's far far too late for Jake, who is just too damaged to save. But Beth finally stops going gentle into anyone's night and takes her life and her children's into her own hands, and you get a sense that maybe the light isn't dying after all, it's just the dark before a dawn.Thing is, I could have been Beth Heke. My mother pretty much was. And I could have been Grace, except I was luckier than her. And when people say "oh you're from New Zealand, it's so beautiful there, how could you ever leave", I want to hand them a copy of this book and say "this is why". Except I don't, because they saw Lord of the Rings and all that spectacular scenery and all the happy brown people in the tourist ads, and they just don't want to hear it. And yes, I know things have changed, and a lot, but there's things you can't forgive, and places that even thinking about going to are painful, so I smile and nod and say "yes, it's very beautiful". I mean look at this picture: I used to live here, for the last couple of years before I left NZ, my old house is just off the left of the picture. People see these pictures and just think "ahh, heavenly" and there's so much more to it than that.TaurikuraIf you read this far, you're probably thinking you don't want to read this book, but really, it's good. There's a reason it's a NZ classic. But it's bleak, and violent and angry, and well. Maybe you should get the movie. It's not a fun read, and I doubt anyone who ever read it said they loved it the way you can love something that makes you happy. But if you think NZ is all sunshine and hobbits, this will give you a very different view. Warning though, there is some serious violence including (really don't click this if you are sensitive): (view spoiler)[an underage rape, and a suicide (hide spoiler)]
Do I think this is a good book? Yes.Is it a pleasant read?No, not really.Well, the topic is not pleasant in it self and I guess the story could take place anywhere in the world in a difficult environment. It is set in a poor Maori "slum" where people struggle with everyday life. The book follows a Maori family living in a desperate neighbourhood and several things happen that make some family members fall even deeper into a black hole while others start to wake up and look for better ways. The beautiful thing about it is, that they find it in their ancient culture and history.So in some way this book makes you happy and hopeful, in others it makes you sad and desperate, so somehow it tears you apart.Since it apparently has some autobiographical parts in it too, it also tells the not nice reality though so I think it is definitely worth not only the reading but also the not so pleasant feelings you have to live through while reading.The book is written in that "slang language" style which made it a bit exhausting to read (for me) but which at the same time I found very fitting to the story and content.I cannot really say I LIKED the book but I am glad I read it and would surely recommend it.
Do You like book Once Were Warriors (1995)?
While this is certainly a powerful and revealing novel, I feel there's a danger of reinforcing negative stereotypes, especially since there's a sense that blame is being laid squarely on the Maori people themselves. There isn't much examination of structural inequalities and influences, and the message is one of self-help. I was fascinated by the links Duff makes between traditional Maori values and notions of warrior-hood and the way Jake views masculinity and his own self-worth, and I appreciate the fact that Jake was given a personality, a history, hopes, fears and insecurities, rather than just being painted as a monster who beats his wife and neglects his kids. However, I feel that something was missing between Beth confronting Jake about Grace's note, and Beth deciding to go out onto the streets and change things. While previously we were able to read Beth's every thought process and emotion, it seems as though at some point all of that was ignored; so things like Beth's emotional state, the difficulties she might've faced in trying to pull herself away from an abusive relationship with a man she loved, and what brought her to her decision to bring the Maori chief to Pine Block weren't really addressed as much as I would've hoped. An important book, but not to be taken as the be-all and end-all, but rather a novel based on the author's personal experiences and point of view.
—Sarah
I'll be frank and say, I didn't read every word. It was a difficult read and not just because of the plot but also stylistically.As a rather sheltered person, the topics raised in this novel were things I found incredibly hard to stomach but it is something that some people do face in New Zealand and so, it must be acknowledged.The plot of the story was interesting and I did find myself flipping through the pages, wanting to know what was to become of a dreadful situation. However, I did not particularly enjoy reading this book. It's not that it's a terribly written novel, it's not at all--I just think it's incredibly raw and thus, incredibly hard for people to read.Hence the skimming.Overall, I'm glad I did read this "New Zealand classic" but I don't think I could have read it in its entirety or read it again.
—Mandy
It's taken me a long time to pluck up the courage to read this book and I will never watch the film. It is a strong yet simple story of a very disfunctional family. The characters leap off the page and into the news stories around us, so much so that it could be real and Duff has opened the doorway into another world for me. The prose style of writing takes a bit of getting used to, but so does the word of Two Pines and the Heke family.I wanted to rage and cry about the choices they made when they didn't realise they were making a choice, about the mindset that makes their life 'normal' and especially for the children. A book that can do that is a good book indeed. I'd recommend this book to Y12/13 students and adults as a glimpse of the harsh side of life. It isn't a Piccault or a Lee Child, Duff's characters are in a far bigger, deeper hole. Other books I will read after this will skim over life.
—Linley
