Pomare

Autobiographical Novellas #1

by Elizabeth Knox

Genres: Fiction

70 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

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

[Zachary Ngow · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me until page 11 or so to get into this (my fault for reading the second book in a series); once I did I quite enjoyed it. This book is about childhood in 1960s Wellington, and it depicts childhood very well, with so much activity going on in these children's lives. I quite liked the adult characters too, particularly Frank. Will read the others in this trilogy if I see them at the library.

[L.J. Ritchie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pomare feels slighter than Paremata, and not just because it is shorter. It is a smoother read than the first novella - the perspective shifts are less frequent, the imagery less raw - but it loses some of its character in the process. With no single strand of the story providing the framework to hold it all together, it feels less complete. It is a series of loosely related scenes more than a unified whole. Like the first book, it is something you read for the perfect moments scattered throughout - images, scenes, metaphors that have sticking power. And fortunately, there are still enough of these to make the brief read worthwhile.