Nigel Cox (1951–2006)

I came to New Zealand way back when it was a much simpler, much easier, place to be, and coming from the other side of the world, it was full of wonder: glaciers, geysers, earthquakes, and more.

And then I drove on the Desert Road and felt the mystery that resides in that one spot of New Zealand where you can feel the dreams peeling away and you come to the very essential part of yourself. It is neither a friendly nor hostile place so much as an alien place and I believe it is the very heart show more of the country.

This is the second time I've read this book, many years apart. I can't remember what I wrote before as I am not that guy I was then.

Where to start .... well, it's not your usual Kiwi, unease, unresolved, unfinished piece of work, No siree, this has a beginning, a middle and and end, a mighty fine end too.

Not for the fainthearted, or the cynics, this book will give you nothing until open up to it. It is not a novel, it is an odyssey, a boy's journey to manhood, not leaving the past behind so much as coming back to it from the other side, resolving old issues that not only wont go away but are in fact what he is made of.

In that Kiwi way of nothing being spoken of directly, except in this book it is shown, not spoken, from a place beyond the tyranny of words. Part dreamscape, part landcsape, part escape.

Set in a mythical New Zealand which is just like this one but different. The boy grows up on a cattle ranch (of the cowboy type) just along the Desert Road, you'll find coyotes, wolves, chuck wagons, Mexicans, all tucked away in this mythical landscape where songs connect the very things that matter, Roy Orbison is very much in existence in these parts.

I loved every page, I shed a few tears for the sheer beauty of the poetry that make up the bulk of the writing, I had a huge smile on my face as the words unfolded inside me like flowers pushing up from below. I could go on......

But here's 2 bits:

"When I was 18 I came into my anger."

"The Desert Road. There are places on that road where it bends back on itself, and dives, and goes down to where something closer to the raw heart of the planet is exposed." show less

This is the first novel I have read from this NZ author. The reader is immediately drawn in by the opening paragraph.
'When I was eighteen I came into my anger. It had been buried deep, along with my gun belt, my spurs and my coiled whip. Now, equipped with a long handled shovel I climbed the mountainside, dug, and there it was, as red-eyed as a gila monster. It got its teeth into me . I was shaken as the anger flooded through me; I knew that there was no turning back. I buckled the gun to my show more hips and stood with my face to the gritty wind.'
From amazon: 'When Chester Farlowe’s father is killed, Chester is forced to leave the vast cattle ranches of New Zealand’s central volcanic plateau for the badlands of urban Auckland. Henry Stroud, proprietor of the I Fry takeaway wagon, takes him under his wing and rechristens him “Mr. Dog.” Still full of anger six years later, Chester sets out to plot revenge on his father’s killer and finds that he must contend with Boss Lennox, the Sultation Kid, and the seductive and inscrutable Miss Peet before he gets to the showdown. This mythical story reconfigures the New Zealand experience with an absorbing coming-of-age tale.'
Indeed I agree that this was an absorbing tale. The writing has pace. The recounting of his escape to Auckland following his father's death was gripping. The tale is peppered with eccentric characters and is far from predictable. I admit to being discomfited by the 'reconfiguring' of the New Zealand landscape i.e. the Central Plateau is like some place in Mexico with cactuses and rattlers, however it is after all fiction.
I found this a satisfying read. (7.5) show less