Essential New Zealand short stories

by Owen Marshall, Katherine Mansfield, Emily Perkins

Book by

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

468 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Owen Marshall has written, or edited, over twenty-five books. He has held fellowships at the Universities of Canterbury and Otago, and in Menton, France. In 2000, he received the Officer of the Order of New Zealand Merit (ONZM), and in the same year his novel Harlequin Rex won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction. Marshall is an adjunct professor at the University of Canterbury, which awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in 2002. He was awarded the Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2012 for services to literature, and in 2013 received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction.

Reviews

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this book from a friend because I'd visited New Zealand and was curious. Of the 50 shorts in the book there were a few really good ones, like "The silk" or "airmen" and a couple of others but most were not that good, in my opinion. Most just left me wondering if the story was even worth reading, like what was the point. For those good stories, I'm glad I read it but wouldn't really recommend it.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I dipped in and out of this over the last month. The stories were presented chronologically (1922 to 2008), from familiar New Zealand writers and others I didn't know at all. It's an impressive collection.

I love the structure of a well made short story, the way that a vignette can give insights into a character and hints of a much broader life. I especially like the way the last sentence can really be ‘a punch line’. Among my favourites were Katherine Mansfield's The Doll's House (a brilliant evocation of an era of class consciousness), Old Tolley (a character sketch) by E S Grenfell and Carl Nixon's My Father Running with a Dead Boy (about how the memories of others challenge what we know of our parents).

If you share my enthusiasm for this genre this is definitely one to look for.

[Hillbrooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful to get insight into the voices of writers in the South Pacific.

[tamara wimsett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book over several months. The stories are arranged in chronological order from 1922 to 2008, and all are from well known New Zealand authors including Patricia Grace, Witi Ihimaera and Maurice Gee. I loved how to stories changed over time with each passing decade and reflected the societal views alongside the history of the year they are set in. Some stories were more average and felt less important, but there are many gems and many stories made me reflect. The final story was probably my favourite, Copies by Craig Cliff, which felt so deeply sad and beautiful, touching on mental health and the loss of a father. An excellent short story collection overall.