Patricia Grace

Patricia Grace takes you on a journey with Rua in Dogside Story. Rua is a 24 year old, one legged, Maori man living in a Maori only community. Rua has ostracised himself from the community by living in a remote “falling-down” house, ostensibly to give himself a “physical life”, to become self sufficient after his accident where he lost his leg. Despite this, he is heavily involved in community life and is the community’s main source of fish – he has a deep connection with the show more ocean and loves nothing better than to fish or collect crayfish from among the rocks.

In Dogside Story Rua comes to terms with a secret he has been carrying for years. During Rua's journey, Patricia Grace depicts a fascinating portrayal of modern day Maori culture – how the culture deals with modern laws which overshadow and conflict with Maori ancient laws, the importance of family, how the community works together, the connection with the sea and the importance of music. I loved this book from the first word to the last - it is beautifully written and has a very unique way of looking at the world. show less

This novel tells us of Hemi and Roimata and their children, members of a coastal Māori village in New Zealand. Though the book is filled with many tales, it forms a single story in three parts: introducing us to the family; showing their return toward traditional life following hardships, economic and otherwise, in the white world; finally telling of the conflict between this community and the developers, "Dollarmen", who wanted their land in order to build a resort.

For me, the value of show more this book lay in the fact that the surface story—the conflict between the indigenous people and those who would exploit them—didn't really form the theme of the book. Recounting that type of conflict has been done before, and often. Instead, I realized that this story was about connectedness in all its forms, about a world view that I found distinctly different and fascinating. Using the traditional carvings of ancestors that decorate the communal assembly hall as a thread that weaves through from the first pages to the last, Ms. Grace touched upon the villagers' feelings of connectedness with their ancestors; with their past history, both good and bad; with each other; with chance strangers who graced them with a visit; and with their land and dwellings.

The result was an interesting shift in perspective. Though the author's voice was politically clear in her beliefs, the result wasn't so much a negative definition, a rejection of the West, rather it was a positive affirmation of themselves—"we are what we have always been" rather than "we are not like you."

It was beautifully done. When the book was over, I felt I had obtained a real glimpse into another culture, and a little of the calm of the story had rubbed off. show less

An exceptionally beautiful and tender collection of short stories touching on Māori traditions and values in modern family and community settings.

I appreciated the efficiency of the storytelling; its efficacy in tackling themes of sacrifice, culture, displacement, respect, racism, whilst also allowing its characters to live buoyant and love-filled Māori lives; and the way Māori words were so naturally incorporated into the prose with no explanation. A great introduction to Māori-NZ show more literature. show less

This is a wonderful novel - at times I felt as if it was all true and that Patricia Grace was documenting something from her own family experience. The author writes with an authority about te ao maaori but also of the New Zealand pakeha world. Ironically the two worlds are brought together by a Japanese man Chappy who was the husband of the chief narrator Oriwia.

Patricia Grace has the ability to write about Aotearoa/New Zealand authentically but also to reach out to the wider world of the show more Pacific which she does by including the relationship between Aki (the other key narrator) and his Hawaiian wife Ela bringing the notion of Hawaiki into the novel - the ancestral homeland of the Maori people. Her earlier book 'Ned and Katina' which documents the relationship between a Maori soldier who fought in WWII and his Cretan wife, also shows that reaching out.

One of the themes of the novel is 'lost and found' - Chappy found as a stowaway on a ship and later re-found after the war. And then the loss and disappearance of the child Moonface and returned soldier Noddy. By the end of the novel only Noddy's remains had been found. They are dealt with in a Maori way - maybe not as unique as we think. We are left to think about the possibility of the existence of the patu paiarehe or forest fairies and that they may have taken Moonface.

In contrast to the accurate descriptions of New Zealand small-town life and particularly of the tearoom with its cakes and biscuits, the novel inserts the idea of the Japanese garden created by Chappy. Its difference from the rest of life, could be read as Chappy re-asserting his difference within his adopted whanau, just as the grandson Daniel is different in his life-experience. Is Grace pointing to the inevitable marriage of cultures and races in the world of the 21st century? show less