The bone people – the 30th anniversary of winning the Booker Prize
Keri Hulme’s masterpiece the
bone people became the Auckland
Writer’s Festival’s inaugural Great Kiwi Classic last year. The novel took
17 years to write and was rejected by every publisher in Australasia until the
feminist collective SPIRAL brought it out in 1984 with a cover illustration by
the author. The following year the bone
people won the Booker Prize
from a shortlist that included work by Peter Carey, Doris Lessing and Iris
Murdoch.
1.jpg)
Judge Marina Warner said, “Alongside the many gleamingly
designed offerings from the major publishing houses, [the bone people] had the distinction of being published by a
women's cooperative in New Zealand, who, when the book won the prize against
very high odds, came up in full island dress to collect it, chanting a Maori
praise song.”
Marian Evans collected the
prize on Keri’s behalf along with Irihapeti Ramsden and Miriama Evans. She said,
“It was a strange night. No-one knew what to
make of Miriama's and Irihapeti's karanga (we were described as 'keening harpies'
later, in one newspaper)… And it was surprising and weird to hold the
leather-bound copy of the bone
people they gave us, but wonderful later to pack it into a kete for
Keri.”
.jpg)
the bone people has since sold 3 million copies. The
New York Times book review said: “Set
on the harsh South Island beaches of New Zealand, bound in Māori
myth and entwined with
Christian symbols, Miss Hulme’s provocative novel summons power with words, as
a conjuror’s spell.”
The Otago Daily Times reviewer, D. N. Ballantyne, said, “the bone people is a masterpiece.
Nothing like it has appeared in New Zealand before… to convey such a vision of
life in a story, from Inferno to Paradiso as it were, requires a
narrative gift of a high order.”
The book focuses on three characters who form an uneasy
triangle: Kerewin, an artist living alone beside the sea; Simon, a mute urchin
who suddenly appears in her life; and Joe, the stepfather who eventually claims
him.
Keri
Hulme was born in Christchurch in 1947. She told Contemporary Women Poets that her family came “from diverse people:
Kai Tahu, Kati Mamoe (South Island Māori iwi); Orkney Islanders; Lancashire
folk; Faroese and/or Norwegian migrants.”
After leaving school she worked as a tobacco picker in
Motueka where, aged 18, she had her first dream about a mute, long-haired,
grinning child with strange green eyes - further dreams, notes and drawings gradually
formed the basis of the bone people. To
support her writing during these years she worked in a fish and chip shop, in
Woolworths, and as a postie, journalist, and woollen-mill winder.
She has won several other awards for her writing including
the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Award for the short story Hooks and Feelers (1975); as well as publishing several short story
and poetry collections.
Keri Hulme made her last public appearance at the Auckland
Writer’s Festival in 2014 - the same year a second New Zealand writer won the
Booker Prize – Eleanor Catton for The
Luminaries.
If you’d like a closer look at the cover illustration on the
cover of the SPIRAL edition come into the central library as there is currently
a display featuring it in the Central Auckland Research Centre and Auckland Libraries
also have 3 copies of this
edition that you can read in the library.
Author: Leanne, Central
Auckland Research Centre
Great post, Leanne, I learned a lot!
ReplyDeletethanks Karen - I was just sending this post to a friend this morning, and saw your comment.... quite some time after it was posted, I'm afriad. Sorry for the delay in responding, thanks so much for your comment.
DeleteExcellent post - so much new-to-me info about one of my favourite novels - thanks!
ReplyDeleteRae! Just saw your comment - thank you. Wonderful when a fabulous novel like this gets recognised. But what a windy route to success.
Delete