The Beautiful Afternoon

by Airini Beautrais

In The Beautiful Afternoon, award-winning poet and short-story writer Airini Beautrais plumbs history, literature, Star Wars, sea hags, beauty products, tarot, swimwear, environmentalism and pole dancing to deliver a virtuoso inquiry into how we become, and change, who we are.Beautrais surveys the many influences on her life, from Lord Byron and Dante to Dolly magazine and 90s R&B, with intense curiosity and a fierce intelligence. Whether saving the planet in her Quaker childhood and activist youth, surviving the lonely years of early motherhood, or confronting the fears and freedoms of midlife – in which she writes about the body becoming a poem and human touch beginning to feel safe again – Beautrais' lucid examination of experience reveals that the personal is inescapably political.Throughout these wide-ranging essays her vigilant critique of entrenched patriarchal control turns anger to resistance, as a woman finds a way out of its grip, back to herself and the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays

244 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Derek Macleod · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant and astute NZ writer. I am won over time and time again by the insights and the raw honesty, the self-exposure of a life so poignantly offered for public exposure and scrutiny. Beautrais wears her heart on her sleeve but draws from all of her life experiences a humility and strength.

Beyond the more deeply personal exposés, as with her previous collection of essays, ‘Bug Week’, she draws from her eclectic store of memories and scientific influences an intelligent and minutely detailed examination and narrative that captivates and holds fast the reader through out the collection.
‘ The Beautiful Afternoon’ is a fine offering to the literary world, something that deserves, for me more than one reading.

[Tama]

‘Life of leisure’
reminds me of romesh talking about the historical white author writing while others labour behind closed doors for the author’s comfort. It does sound an insane set up when put simply.

‘Kylo Ren dies at the end.’
A single mother feeling conventional romance is lost. That’s painful. This idea of narratives taking root in our brains is terrifying. If only I thought my life should be like Luke Skywalker’s? Isaac that how you become demented? What are the stories the evil are trying to follow? What are the [fictional] successes they’re trying to live up to? I’ve been hoping I’m leading the beginnings of the life of a filmmaker. I’ve been following the story of the successful writers and directors in my head for years now and I’m still at the bottom of the storyline.

Voicing tribulations and fears of women in this way is useful. I wish it would do something other than make others feel seen. I think it's a better way of relating to another person than watching 'Bridget Jones' but that movie never goes as deep. (I only compare them for Jones' recent relevance for her new movie which is drawing hundreds of sympathetic people from Beautrais' demographic.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully written collection.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful rambling, vulnerable, intimate, and yet, academic and eloquent, collection of essays. I loved it the more and more I read.

[Celeritas2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touching, personal, relevant and educational.

[Danielle Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this was a slice of joy and pain, to escape into someone else’s life. Personal essays are a favourite of mine.