Some Other Country: New Zealand's Best Short Stories

by Bill Manhire

The country to be found in these pages is not the place depicted in glossy picture books or economic profiles. But it is a real place, composed of that blend of accuracy and vision which only the imagination, committed to language and experience, can supply. It is the New Zealand of Janet Frame and Katherine Mansfield, of Dan Davin and Frank Sargeson, of Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace.
Some other Country is a collection of stories selected from the body of New Zealand writing that began with the work of the young expatriate writer, Katherine Mansfield. This updated edition begins in 1922 and ends with a story published in 1990. It includes recent work by Vincent O'Sullivan, Owen Marshall and Keri Hulme and stories by newer writers such as Barbara Anderson and John Cranna, alongside well-known stories by Joy Cowley, C.K. Stead and James Courage. It represents the editor's choice of simply 'the best we could find'.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Bill Manhire was born in Invercargill in 1946. He was his country's inaugural Poet Laureate and has won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry four times. He holds a personal chair at the Victoria University of Wellington, where he directs the celebrated creative writing programme and the International Institute of Modern Letters. His volume of short fiction, South Pacific, was published by Carcanet in 1994.

Reviews

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed most stories but there was a few I didn’t get or found boring. Overall I thought it was a good collection of short stories that explored many different aspects of life and I’m glad I read it. And I realised that since it took me so long to read and I often would read one story at a time and then think about if for a bit rather then stop in the middle, I have attached different memories and feelings and places to each short story so it was cool to relive as I put together the list below.
The short stories I particularly enjoyed:
- The Totara Tree by Roderick Finlayson
- The Hole that Jack Dug by Frank Sargeson
- All Part of the Game by A. P. Gaskell
- A Game of Cards by Witi Ihimaera
- Hooks and Feelers by Keri Holme
- Visitors by John Cranna (still don’t 100% get this one but liked the vibes aha)
- A story about Skinny Louie by Fiona Farrell
- Let’s Go Shopping! By Forbes Williams
- Not Her Real Name by Emily Perkins

Fav quote: “and that is at once the greatest paradox and the most annoying this in the world - a thought is nothing but it cannot be destroyed” - An Angel Entertains Theatricals by Anne Kennedy

[Amarelys · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating a collection of stories, especially from different authors, is a bit tricky, because it doesn't really do justice to each writer's style and universe. In the case of this book however, I was overall disappointed. There were maybe a couple of stories that I enjoyed, one that I truly liked and will remember, but the rest eluded me completely.
I bought this book at a used book shop on Cuba Street, Wellington, on my very last day in New Zealand, and I saved it as a souvenir. I finally cracked it open in a bit of a nostalgia fit, as this trip was almost 3 years ago, and I was hoping to be transported back, but it didn't really happen; that is what I meant when I said I was disappointed. But even so, I think most of the stories were not my style, I had a hard time entering the universe and connecting with the characters or just plain understanding if anything of interest was happening to them...
I'll stick to my memories and my pictures to reminisce.

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was about time my weird hyper fixation about New Zealand took a more literary turn. Not all of this works, but that’s always the way with short story collections. But the best of it - Marshall, Duggan, Mansfield and Frame for me, but even the stories I wasn’t as keen on had interesting things to say - are wonderful. As good an introduction as you’re going to get I reckon

[Kate K. F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at a library booksale, it caught my eye because I lived in New Zealand for a couple of years. This is one of those anthologies that feels more like a survey as it starts around the beginning of the 20th century all the way to the present with all the major New Zealand authors. All of the stories are set in New Zealand but only a few of them truly jumped out for me. This is a good book to dip into especially if you know New Zealand as its fascinating to see the perceptions of places change over time and the use of language. I think if I were taking a course on New Zealand writers, this would be a good addition, but on its own, its a mixed bag. One nice part of this anthology is the sheer number of stories in it, everyone's bound to find something to enjoy.

[Karo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Leider haben mich nur drei der Kurzgeschichten berührt; mit den restlichen konnte ich nicht viel anfangen. Die Übersetzungen waren zum Teil leider auch recht holprig.

[Strong Extraordinary Dreams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought these were, generally, beautiful. Usually short stories are a mixed bag, but this is a distilled, purified collection.

There are many (many) collections of New Zealand short stories: this must be one of the best.

[Kathryn Beek]

A wonderful introduction to different eras and voices.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kurzgeschichtensammlungen können wie Probierpackungen wirken, die Appetit auf die Originalpackung machen. Mit seinem Klassiker, der unter dem Titel Some Other Country: New Zealand's Best Short Stories auf der südlichen Seite der Erdkugel erstmals 1984 erschien, ist das dem Herausgeber und mehrfach ausgezeichneten Autor Bill Manhire gelungen. Er versammelt Kurzgeschichten aus über 50 Jahren von weltweit bekannten Autoren wie Keri Hulme (*1947, Unter dem Tagmond) und Witi Ihimaera (*1944) bis zur jüngsten aufgenommenen Autorin Eleanor Catton (*1985, Die Anatomie des Erwachens). Weitere Autoren/innen sind Pip Adam (*1970), William Brandt (*1961), Craig Cliff (*1983), Joy Cowley (*1936), Tim Corballis (1971), Fiona Farrell (*1947), Maurice Gee (*1931), Tina Makereti (*1973), Owen Marshall (*1941), Kirsten McDougall (*1974), Vincent O' Sullivan (*1937), C.K. Stead (*1932), Anna Taylor (*1982), Alice Tawhai und Damien Wilkins (*1963). Einige der Autoren sind keine gebürtigen Neuseeländer, sondern Einwanderer, einige sind Maori, ein großer Teil von ihnen hat bisher nur Kurzprosa veröffentlicht. Erklärt wird die hohe Anzahl der Autoren von Kurzprosa damit, dass viele Autoren neben einem Brotberuf schreiben und weil Kurse in Kreativem Schreiben in Neuseeland wachsenden Zulauf hätten.

Die thematische Klammer, die diese Sammlung zusammenhält, ist die hier nicht enthaltene Geschichte von Dan Davis "The Quiet One", in der es um die Sehnsucht nach dem idealen Ich geht, laut einer der Übersetzerinnen, S. Bontjes van Beek, bezeichnend für jüngere neuseeländische Texte. Schnappschussartig zeigen uns die Autoren Alltagsszenen, in denen es um das Familienleben, Erinnerungen, Trauer, Ängste und Rollenbilder geht. In "Kopien" vermittelt Craig Cliff einen direkten Blick auf das Vater-Sohn-Verhältnis und die Bedeutung von Bildern; der Icherzähler "liest" das Tattoo seines Vaters, ehe er Buchstaben lesen kann. In meiner Lieblingsgeschichte "Zwei Gezeiten" geht es um Aberglauben, Erwartungen an die weibliche Rolle und Beziehungsknatsch. Die Handlung findet an Bord eines Schiffes statt und gefällt mir aufgrund der geheimnisvollen Atmosphäre und des üppigen maritimen Wortschatzes. "Der Kuss" führt uns zurück in den militärischen Einsatz in Ottimor; er erzählt von einem Soldaten, der die Kriegsbilder seiner Alpträume nicht mehr von der Gegenwart unterscheiden kann. "Eine Geschichte über Skinny Louie" zeigt aus mehreren Blickwinkeln den Tag des Jahres 1954, als Elizabeth II. Neuseeland besuchte. Weitere Stories stellen die Maori, Krankheit, Alter und Schuld in den Mittelpukt.

Ein biografischer und bibliografischer Anhang informiert über die Autoren.

[Rob Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really good short stories in here: Finlayson, Gaskell, Duggan, Ihimaera...some less good.