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Talking About O'Dwyer
In his new bachelor flat, too close to comfort to his former family home, Mike Newall, Oxford don and Wittgenstein scholar seeks to rebuild his life, but feels increasingly weighed down by the past.
When Donovan O'Dwyer, his colleague and fellow expatriate New Zealander dies, Newall attends the funeral. Afterwards, Newall reveals to his old friend Bertie Winterstoke the secret that O'Dwyer carried with him to his grave. During the battle for Crete in the Second World War, a soldier in New Zealand's Maori battalion died in harrowing circumstances. Believing his commanding officer, O'Dwyer, was responsible for the death, the soldier's family placed a makutu, a Maori curse, on him.
Winterstoke demands to be told all, and in the days that follow Newall obliges. But Newall's life and O'Dwyer's are curiously interconnected and Newall finds that he must interweave O'Dwyer's tale with his own - his childhood in New Zealand, his self imposed exile in Oxford, his marriage and divorce, the pilgrimage recently made to Croatia and the promise of a new beginning that this may hold. Gradually, through a series of entwined stories, beautifully told, reflecting on decades of war and of peace, on memory and its failures, and on language and its limitations, Mike Newall comes to see a way of laying the ghosts of O'Dwyer's - and his own - past to rest.
When Donovan O'Dwyer, his colleague and fellow expatriate New Zealander dies, Newall attends the funeral. Afterwards, Newall reveals to his old friend Bertie Winterstoke the secret that O'Dwyer carried with him to his grave. During the battle for Crete in the Second World War, a soldier in New Zealand's Maori battalion died in harrowing circumstances. Believing his commanding officer, O'Dwyer, was responsible for the death, the soldier's family placed a makutu, a Maori curse, on him.
Winterstoke demands to be told all, and in the days that follow Newall obliges. But Newall's life and O'Dwyer's are curiously interconnected and Newall finds that he must interweave O'Dwyer's tale with his own - his childhood in New Zealand, his self imposed exile in Oxford, his marriage and divorce, the pilgrimage recently made to Croatia and the promise of a new beginning that this may hold. Gradually, through a series of entwined stories, beautifully told, reflecting on decades of war and of peace, on memory and its failures, and on language and its limitations, Mike Newall comes to see a way of laying the ghosts of O'Dwyer's - and his own - past to rest.
- GenresFiction
245 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
1 person is currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
C.K. Stead
68 books22 followersChristian Karlson Stead is a New Zealand writer whose works include novels, poetry, short stories, and literary criticism.
One of Karl Stead's novels, Smith's Dream, provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill; this became the first New Zealand film released in the United States.
Mansfield: A Novel was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and received commendation in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region.
C. K. Stead was born in Auckland. For much of his career he was Professor of English at the University of Auckland, retiring in 1986 to write full-time. He received a CBE in 1985 and was admitted into the highest honour New Zealand can bestow, the Order of New Zealand in 2007.
One of Karl Stead's novels, Smith's Dream, provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill; this became the first New Zealand film released in the United States.
Mansfield: A Novel was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and received commendation in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region.
C. K. Stead was born in Auckland. For much of his career he was Professor of English at the University of Auckland, retiring in 1986 to write full-time. He received a CBE in 1985 and was admitted into the highest honour New Zealand can bestow, the Order of New Zealand in 2007.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 21, 2015
C. K. Stead is pretty much amazing writer. I bought this book, in Croatian translated; 'Makutu', five months ago, and it was placed on that never-ending pile beside my bed. And every morning when I wake up, when I obviously have nothing else to think about, I think about, when that pile of books will be read and placed on the shelves. Which is my assignment for this year, but I’m easily distracted and I buy more books than I read, and I’m boring my local librarian to death with my nonsense – you know, just in case I bankrupt, please, please buy this and this and this and this one as well. Plus, Meandar publishing house, which sells C.K Stead's books, is not an easy cookie - all of their books are pretty much heavy, and during my last book fare I've gone little bit nuts.
So, now I said, Easter time, I need to read something: lets start with Stead - and he ended up being beautiful. Like properly beautiful writer. The next best thing is, I was so surprised with him. And with the topic of this book. No, maybe, I was more surprised with his narration and how he puts those words in his sentences.
Stead is connecting his stories and characters in a rare elegant order. This is really a book with a pulse. He doesn’t get you confused because there is a lot to absorb in 'Talking about O’Dwyer', but he gets you feel appreciated because you’ve discovered his work.
And now I think he’s one of THE BEST contemporary writers today, and I can’t believe how underrated and unappreciated this man is.
So, now I said, Easter time, I need to read something: lets start with Stead - and he ended up being beautiful. Like properly beautiful writer. The next best thing is, I was so surprised with him. And with the topic of this book. No, maybe, I was more surprised with his narration and how he puts those words in his sentences.
Stead is connecting his stories and characters in a rare elegant order. This is really a book with a pulse. He doesn’t get you confused because there is a lot to absorb in 'Talking about O’Dwyer', but he gets you feel appreciated because you’ve discovered his work.
And now I think he’s one of THE BEST contemporary writers today, and I can’t believe how underrated and unappreciated this man is.
July 27, 2017
I struggled with this book up until about page 80 or so, had it not been this months book club choice I think I may well have given it up there and then. However I plodded on and soon the story had pulled me in. I'm so glad I persevered because by the end I actually really enjoyed it. I think it would make a great movie.
March 31, 2019
I chose this book because is had connections with Crete where my father was during the war. I enjoyed the relationships between different cultures but also how CK Stead revealed the truth about the death of one of the Maori Battalion at the end.
November 6, 2022
A native of Dalmatia, I'm somewhat biased in favor of this novel about Dalmatian immigrants in New Zealand. A most impressive journey though space and time, touching on Maori culture, Wittgenstein, the Mediterranean theater of WW2 and English academia.
November 14, 2020
Str. 166- ... si mi povedal zadnji stavek iz Wittgensteinove knjige.""O čemer ne moremo govoriti, o tem moramo molčati." (Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man Schweigen.)
December 9, 2015
New Zealand writers are under-acknowledged in Australia and Stead is the author of at least ten novels, none of which I have read so it is a joy to find myself in the hands of a master story teller. What a great film this novel would make. By coincidence, following my reading of TheArchipelago of Souls by Gregory Day, I am once again in World War II Crete, this time with NZ rather than Australian soldiers entangled in that military disaster.
However, Stead begins in Oxford, long post war where O'Dwyer, a professor has died and the masters pass the port and reminisce. Mike Newall, a fellow Nzer but twenty years younger and a friend of O'Dwyer, begins the talking with Bertie Wintersotke an 80 year old who was the sole survivor of a British naval ship that was sunk in the same battle in 1941. Despite the fact that Stead uses that old Conrad method of narration, the characters quickly become people I care about as the venues move from the Oxford college to the pubs and houses nearby before returning to NZ and Crete. These other places are necessary because O'Dwyer's wife tells Mike at the funeral that he has been requested to carry out a dying man's last wish and this takes him back to New Zealand and on to Crete.
Mike had met O'Dwyer only once in NZ when Mike was a boy and with his Maori mate Frano soon after the war's end when Captain O'Dwyer visited the Maori family of Frano's father Joe, one of his men who died on Crete. To the boys' shock, the encounter ends in drunken anger and an aunty is heard and then seen naked, walking along the beach all night chanting a curse on the officer who leaves in the morning forgetting to returns Joe's notebook in which he had written his war stories. Unknown to the boys then, O'Dwyer had killed Joe and the gradual revelation of how and why constitutes the central mystery of the novel which moves smoothly between countries and time.
One of the intriguing complications is that Joe married a Croatian, Ljuba Selenich whose Dalmatian family established the early wine vineyards in the slopes north of Auckland, now swallowed up by the suburbs. Mike is friends with Marica and Frano and in the present time of the novel, as a disillusioned, newly divorced Wittgenstein philosopher, his search for the meanings in O'Dwyer's request, not only takes him to the new war zone in Croatia but back to New Zealand despite old Winterstoke's warning that nothing good comes from going back.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story that is both eventful and thoughtful and which includes the self deprecating humour of the older character and the skilful balance of Mike's philosophical search for meaning in those things that people cannot manage to talk about. Along with these searches are parallel stories of love and mateship across age groups, a historic recreation of the Crete campaign and descriptions of Croatia and New Zealand that remind me that I want to re-visit.
However, Stead begins in Oxford, long post war where O'Dwyer, a professor has died and the masters pass the port and reminisce. Mike Newall, a fellow Nzer but twenty years younger and a friend of O'Dwyer, begins the talking with Bertie Wintersotke an 80 year old who was the sole survivor of a British naval ship that was sunk in the same battle in 1941. Despite the fact that Stead uses that old Conrad method of narration, the characters quickly become people I care about as the venues move from the Oxford college to the pubs and houses nearby before returning to NZ and Crete. These other places are necessary because O'Dwyer's wife tells Mike at the funeral that he has been requested to carry out a dying man's last wish and this takes him back to New Zealand and on to Crete.
Mike had met O'Dwyer only once in NZ when Mike was a boy and with his Maori mate Frano soon after the war's end when Captain O'Dwyer visited the Maori family of Frano's father Joe, one of his men who died on Crete. To the boys' shock, the encounter ends in drunken anger and an aunty is heard and then seen naked, walking along the beach all night chanting a curse on the officer who leaves in the morning forgetting to returns Joe's notebook in which he had written his war stories. Unknown to the boys then, O'Dwyer had killed Joe and the gradual revelation of how and why constitutes the central mystery of the novel which moves smoothly between countries and time.
One of the intriguing complications is that Joe married a Croatian, Ljuba Selenich whose Dalmatian family established the early wine vineyards in the slopes north of Auckland, now swallowed up by the suburbs. Mike is friends with Marica and Frano and in the present time of the novel, as a disillusioned, newly divorced Wittgenstein philosopher, his search for the meanings in O'Dwyer's request, not only takes him to the new war zone in Croatia but back to New Zealand despite old Winterstoke's warning that nothing good comes from going back.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story that is both eventful and thoughtful and which includes the self deprecating humour of the older character and the skilful balance of Mike's philosophical search for meaning in those things that people cannot manage to talk about. Along with these searches are parallel stories of love and mateship across age groups, a historic recreation of the Crete campaign and descriptions of Croatia and New Zealand that remind me that I want to re-visit.
January 31, 2016
Mike Newall, neozelandés, filósofo y profesor en Oxford, divorciado, se enfrenta a la muerte de su colega y compatriota Donovan O'Dwyer. Resulta ser la ocasión perfecta para confidenciarle a su amigo Bertie Winterstoke el gran secreto de O'Dwyer. Sin embargo, para ello se verá enfrentado a un repaso sobre su propia vida.
Creo que es la primera vez que leo a un escritor neozelandés, y la experiencia ha resultado muy enriquecedora porque más allá de la temática universal (que vemos a través de las reflexiones que el protagonista va haciendo sobre el sentido de la vida), también permite conocer sobre la cultura maorí y la participación de su batallón en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, así como la conformación de la sociedad neozelandesa. El final es lo único que no me termina de convencer, pero ha sido una lectura muy grata.
Creo que es la primera vez que leo a un escritor neozelandés, y la experiencia ha resultado muy enriquecedora porque más allá de la temática universal (que vemos a través de las reflexiones que el protagonista va haciendo sobre el sentido de la vida), también permite conocer sobre la cultura maorí y la participación de su batallón en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, así como la conformación de la sociedad neozelandesa. El final es lo único que no me termina de convencer, pero ha sido una lectura muy grata.
October 16, 2011
This was a very interesting read. It takes place in Oxford, as a transplanted New Zealander tells a friend of his connection with a recently-deceased colleague. The story of his childhood in New Zealand, and of his friendship with his Maori pal, Frono, is full of fun, danger and local color. The story eventually ends up at the gravesite of Frono's father in Crete, also described lovingly and with incredible detail, both during WWII and present-day. A good book.
December 11, 2007
interesting Maori customs
July 24, 2014
Better than I thought it would be.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews