Hulme's work is difficult—both because of her prose style and because of her subject matter. I admired the first quite a lot, but found it difficult to reconcile myself with many aspects of the latter, particularly as the book wore on. The first part of the book was so resolutely realistic that I found the later quasi-magical realistic elements to be a little jarring. I also found myself... well, almost repulsed by the ending. Hulme, I think, wants the reader to have found enough sympathy for Joe to sustain the book's optimistic ending. After the graphic and sustained depiction of child abuse, however, that was impossible for me.

The language is certainly beautiful, and as a story of cultural renewal in a post-colonial landscape, it's intensely powerful. I do not regret having read The Bone People, and there is a lot to take away from it. I just don't know if I will be able to come back to it. ( )

I am having a hard time digesting this book. I was glad I read it after reading a memoir/history of New Zealand so that I understood a bit more of the wonderful folklore and Maori myth woven into this story. I still can't decide, however, if I can accept that a parent who deals repeated, disfiguring, violent abuse can be understood, forgiven, and given a second redeeming chance. Am I being realistic or uncharitable? Am I seeing things only from the point of view of a white, European-descended Pakeha? I found the story beautiful, yet disturbing. Although the ending made sense in the context of the book, outside the author's magical spell, I don't know that I can accept it. ( )

I found the wandering style hard to grasp, and the subject matter, and abused boy, hard to stomache. Couldn't finish it. ( )

Won the Booker Prize. Just magic.

It's one of my favorites; i read it every couple of years and end up muttering very odd swear words for a week or so after.

One of my old favourites. I especially like the scene where the female hero of the story kicks the man's butt in a fight. ( )

The Bone People is like the West Coast: Harsh, isolated (lonely?), different, but ultimately indescribably beautiful.
As you may be able to tell, I love both. Simi, Kerewin, Joe: So real, so flawed, all so painfully beautiful. The writing is different, yes, but so right, as I decided a couple of words in and was already immersed. It hurts so much, but it's so good, too.

And when I finished I started again.

Can I fit eh somewhere in this review? ( )

Having lived in New Zealand for a short period of my life I have since been fascinated by the Maori, the indiginous population of New Zealand. They have an intriguing culture of Hakas, elaborate wood-carving, mythology, and tattooing in their beautiful Island continent.
With that in mind it was with excitement that I picked up this book from my University bookstore. What I found within was much more then I expected. While I was looking for a cultural expose, I found that besides that I was enjoying a fascinating tale that is human in nature: one of strength and weakness, the conflict and resolution between people, the different stages of age and development and the conflict between generations, family dynamics and economic strata. The characters are round, developed and fascinating and the landscape they live in within the story is crowded with symbolism and allegory. This isn't a book you read, this is a book you experience... at least that was what I found, and now that it is through I find I really miss living in Hulme's environment. ( )

I first read this book for a college lit class, and I've read it again a couple of time since. Hulme does such a great job with the characters that you really begin to identify with them and that's part of the reason why this story will stick with you. ( )

I've read this book a number of times, I return to it every few years. The first reading nearly destroyed me, because the content is so emotionally disturbing. Child abuse is never a good time, though the other presiding themes of isolation and the human capacity for love and forgiveness redeem it from the realm of senseless violence. At a certain point in the first reading I was so absorbed in the psyche of the characters that I found myself completely invested, and could not have walked away if I'd tried. It is the mark of a great book to be so wholly effected by it....good or bad, but never indifferent. I have to admit that I have never liked the ending, but the journey to that point is one you can't soon forget. This book will not be for everyone. ( )

A classic of contemporary fiction, not quite like anything I've read before. Hulme skillfully weaves together the emotional and actual lives of three genuinely unique characters. There is poetry and song, folktale and myth. The often harsh realities of life are rendered in unflinching, heartbreaking detail. Ultimately, this is a novel of redemption and of family, both the one you are born into and the one you choose. Not any easy read by any means, but almost impossible to put down once you've started and well worth the effort. ( )

een klassieker

"A family can be the bane of one's existence. A family can also be most of the meaning of one's existence. I don't know whether my family is bane or meaning, but they have surely gone away and left a large hole in my heart." (p. 242)

Keri Hulme's Booker prize-winning novel is about the healing power of relationships and family bonds. Kerewin is an artist and recluse, unmarried and estranged from her family. Joe is a widowed laborer with a violent temper. Simon, Joe's foster son, lost his parents in a boating accident. Simon's specific identity is unknown, he cannot speak, and he has suffered severe emotional trauma. These three very lonely people come together when Simon breaks into Kerewin's house. Slowly, tentatively, Joe and Simon reach out to Kerewin. Slowly, tentatively, she accepts their attentions. After a long holiday at a seaside camp they are as close to a family as any of them have ever experienced. However, the dark side of each character looms large, and when the inevitable happens each character is shaken to their very core and must choose when and how to begin the healing process.

Hulme's writing style is unorthodox, yet I found this book difficult to put down. I was completely committed to the characters, despite their often significant flaws. The insights into Maori culture were interesting. Although I was a bit uncertain how the ending came together the way it did, I very much enjoyed the journey. ( )

not for the faint-of-heart. child abuse and other violence. ( )

The Bone People is a difficult book about identity, love, and belonging. Hume tells the story of three tough-as-nails characters: Kerewin, an isolated artist who can no longer paint; Joe, a Maori workman struggling to raise his adopted son alone; and Simon, the mute little boy Joe found washed up on the seashore.

The style is difficult because the point of view switches around among the three main characters without warning; Hulme uses Joycean made-up words as well as Maori words; and it is hard to tell when the adults are speaking their own words or thinking out loud what they think the mute little Simon is trying to communicate.

The story is difficult because of the child abuse at the center of the plot. The ambivalence with which Hulme treats the topic makes the story incredibly interesting, but absolutely distressing.

The characters are difficult because none of them are likable. Simon is sympathetic, for sure. But even he has his moments of maliciousness, although these are less convincing than Hulme may have intended.

Joe, on the other hand, does not deserve the sympathy Hulme seems to want the reader to give him. Yes, he gets his comeuppance in the end, but it does not seem sufficient punishment. His role is key to the story because he is the hinge between Simon and Kerewin, but the ultimate resolution seems a little unrealistic, given the prior conflict.

Kerwin is particularly prickly and seething with anger. She is quick to lash out verbally, and if angry enough or drunk enough, physically. She has cut herself off from her family and her community, preferring to live in an isolated tower by the ocean. She has even isolated herself from her own sex, considering herself to be a third gender – a “neuter.” But Kerwin’s story makes the book worth reading. She is one of the most complex and intriguing characters in contemporary literature. ( )

There are three main figures in The Bone People. Kerewin, a reclusive New Zealand artist estranged from her family and her art. Joe, a Maori laborer with a terrible drinking problem. And Simon, a small, strangely mute child. Joe found Simon on the beach after a shipwreck and became his foster father. But he can't control Simon's wild, erratic behavior. The two strike up a strange friendship with the aloof Kerewin. All three of them are terribly dysfunctional people, seeking healing and trying to find a sense of family together. When I first read the book, I assumed Simon was autistic. But it turns out that something entirely different and terrible is going on...

The book is written in a stream of consciousness fashion, alternating between present and past tense. The words swing from vivid, poetic descriptions to the crude, rough talk between people and exotic-sounding Maori phrases (glossary included ). The style is so unique I think it is a book you will either love or hate. It is really a strange, beautiful, sad and amazing book. Not only does it address grief, love, isolation, violence and redemption; it also deals with the conflict and meeting of Maori and European cultures. One of my very favorite books.

Original review on Dog Ear Diary ( )

Keri Hulme made her reputation on this book, and of course she won the Booker Prize in 1985 – the first, and still only, New Zealander to do so. The themes of child abuse in a dysfunctional family are stunning in this setting, particularly as the main perpetrator is so sympathetically drawn. Compared to the other New Zealand classic on abuse, Once Were Warriors, this is a much more three-dimensional portrait of violence and redemption. I forgive Hulme for being slow with the follow-up novel: this is so fantastic, you wouldn’t want to rush the next one. ( )

One of the best written books ever published. Can't recommend it highly enough!
Vivid, cutting, colorful, painful, simply alive. This book sticks with me years and years after I first grappled with it. ( )

3401. The Bone People A Novel, by Keri Hulme (read Feb 4, 2001) This won the 1985 Booker Prize, so I read it. I have now read 18 of the Booker prizewinners, leaving 16 unread. This book is laid in New Zealand, and I don't think I have ever read any book so laid before. It is somewhat pretentious, uses 4-letter words unnecessarily, and was often uninteresting. There are a lot of Maori words, and only after I finished the book did I come upon the Maori glossary--which is at the end of the book! There is much more I object to about the book, and I'd not recommend this book as great. ( )

I didn't think I was going to like this book at first, and I didn't love it, but it definitely kept me reading and I did care about the characters.

Kerewin is an artist who lives in a Tower by the sea. She likes living by herself and even likes the isolation. She is estranged from her family.

Joe is a factory worker with an adopted son who is always getting into trouble. Joe has a bit of a drinking problem and doesn't keep good tabs on his son. The boy ends up at Kerewin's place, and the three end up becoming friends, if not a quasi family unit. Secrets, lies, and violence lie beneath the surface, though, and threaten to tear them all apart.

The story takes place in New Zealand with Joe and Kerewin being part Maori. Some of the myths, culture, and history of the Maori are also part of the book.

This is a different kind of book that is written in almost a "stream of consciousness" style. I thought this was a bit distracting at first, but then I got used to it and even enjoyed it. I also don't like it when authors use the present tense rather than the past tense. This aspect bothered me for about 3/4 of the book, but then I didn't notice it anymore.

For instance (p. 34) "She picks up the curious pendant one last time, to fondle and admire before she goes downstairs," rather than "She picked up the curious pendant one last time and fondled and admired it before she went downstairs." I guess it's a preference issue. ( )

deeply moveing story of a womans involvment with an abused child well written and once read never forgotton ( )

An unusual story of people in New Zealand, which won the Prize for Maori Literature in 1984. The story tells of the lives of Kerewin, a single woman living alone in her “castle” in the back country, and Joe Gillayley and his mute son Simon (Sim). Simon’s origin is mysterious, and the story centers on the relationship among the three, the mixture of love and violence between the father and son and the difficult time that all three had expressing their love for one another. ( )

http://www.bogrummet.dk/ind.asp?VisAn... ( )

A silverhaired, mute, abused orphan, a laborer heavy with sustained loss, and a brilliant introspective recluse discover, after enormous struggle through injury and illness, what it means to lose and then regain a family. An interesting story but somewhat difficult to read with flashbacks and oddities. Not for everyone. ( )

Wonderfully atmospheric writing makes the book come alive. ( )

This is a very difficult review for me to write. This book was recommended to me by a new LibraryThing friend.

The language is simply beautiful - even/especially the Maori words that I do not understand. Hulme's words create color drenched pictures and music that is haunting and incredibly sad. (Fitting music for the background of this book.)

The reason that this is a difficult review to write is that because Hulme is so successful at putting us inside the (3) main characters...but those are places I do not want to be. I sympathize with these incredibly damaged people - but I cannot empathize with them. The amount of violence - especially against a small child - leaves me heartsick and almost unwilling to read on.

Because of that level of violence - I was unable to trust Hulme when the story came to a conclusion. I simply no longer believed that the characters would act as they did.

This book provides a window to a world far from my own...one very foreign and very disturbing. ( )