Paremata

Autobiographical Novellas #2

by Elizabeth Knox

Paperback

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

Elizabeth Knox was born in Wellington‚ New Zealand‚ and is the author of eleven novels and three novella and a book of essays.

Reviews

[L.J. Ritchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautifully observed novella, but prose and perspective issues sometimes get in the way. I struggled with the eye-of-god perspective, which sometimes flits between the thoughts of several characters in the space of a single page. This made the book feel more frantic and muddled than suited the story. I was repeatedly pulled out of the narrative by the use of imagery which I could not believe would occur to the character whose perspective was inhabited at the time. That said, the novella is full of perfect moments which ring with truth. The evolution of the game the children play, and the musings on the agreed rules on which imaginative play depends, tie the whole story together. These are the reasons to read it.