The Bone People – Keri Hulme

This got me thinking once again about whether there is a specifically female form of writing from which I will be eternally estranged. My friend Belinda adores stuff like this and Helen Garner (which I don’t), and I know many women that can’t stand more “male” writers like Martin Amis and Ian McEwan. On the other hand I like such self-consciously feminist authors as Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood. Hmm...I think I’ll have to work out some more coherent thinking on this and come back to it.

The central narrative about a female artist, a Christ-like orphan and the boy’s adoptive father is interesting enough but stylistically I found many of the flourishes distracting and irritating. Absurdly long, too.

My first New Zealand novel, I think, which is strange.