Keri Hulme (1947–2021)
Author of The Bone People
About the Author
Keri Hulme had been writing for several years, little known outside New Zealand feminist and Maori literary circles. Then, during the mid-1980s, she gained international attention for her novel The Bone People. In 1984 she received the Mobil Pegasus Award for Maori Writers and the New Zealand Book show more of the Year Award for fiction, and, in the following year, the distinguished Booker-McConnel Prize, Britain's highest literary honor. Hulme, who was born in Christchurch, is of Maori descent on her mother's side; her father was an Englishman from Lancashire. Studying for a law degree but not completing it, she worked at various jobs before settling down to write full time. The Bone People (1984) remains Hulme's major work. Almost impossible to describe in a coherent way, the novel is a sprawling and puzzling story about a relationship between a strange child, a powerful woman named Kerewin who reluctantly takes him in, and the child's father, who treats him brutally. According to the critic Margery Fee, the implausible yet metaphoric and sophisticated structure of the text sets out "to rework the old stories that govern the way New Zealanders---both Maori (indigenous New Zealanders) and Pakeha (New Zealanders of European origin)---think about their country." Hulme has also published two books of short stories about Maori life, Lost Possessions (1985) and Te Kaihau: The Windeater (1986); the short fiction, too, incorporates the intentionally chaotic and often bombastic style that dominates The Bone People. She has written two volumes of free verse as well, The Silences Between (Moeraki Conversations) (1982) and Strands (1992). Hulme has received extensive attention from international critics who see her, as Margery Fee says, in the forefront of the "postcolonial discursive formation evolving worldwide"---that is, writers who have set out to reinvent the history of imperialism. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
(yid) VIAF:61567391
(mao) VIAF:PND:119049848
Works by Keri Hulme
Associated Works
Goodbye to Romance: Stories by New Zealand and Australian Women Writers, 1930-1988 (1989) — Contributor — 10 copies
Monsters in the Garden : An Anthology of Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy (2021) — Contributor — 9 copies
In Deadly Earnest: A Collection of Fiction by New Zealand Women 1870s–1980s (1989) — Contributor — 7 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Hulme, Kerry (born)
- Birthdate
- 1947-03-09
- Date of death
- 2021-12-27
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- New Zealand
- Birthplace
- Christchurch, New Zealand
- Place of death
- Waimate, New Zealand
- Cause of death
- dementia
- Places of residence
- Motueka, New Zealand
Ōkārito, New Zealand
Moeraki, New Zealand - Education
- University of Canterbury
- Occupations
- novelist
tobacco picker
poet
short-story writer
writer-in-residence (University of Otago, 1978)
writer-in-residence (Canterbury University, 1985) - Organizations
- Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand (patron)
University of Otago
Canterbury University - Awards and honors
- Robert Burns Fellowship (1977)
Booker Prize (1985)
Members
Reviews
Maori artist broods in her tower. A family becomes marooned in a storm. The artist has an on/off relationship with a drinking "boy-o" and the mute, abused child.[return]Heart wrenching. Much better than my brief summary.
The Bone People is a challenging book to read due to it's eclectic writing style. It breaks a lot of conventions and utilizes a variety of ways to let us see into the characters—though it's not always quite clear which character, or what is really happening, and certainly not why. The book probably needs re-reading a few times to truly be appreciated/analyzed.
At the core of it, however, is the strange relationship between a hermit painter who lives in her self-built tower, a very clever though mute child, and the child's foster father who can be very affectionate, but also very violent. The book has a few parts that are a bit tedious, but also quite a lot that are moving, shocking and suspenseful. It's certainly unlike anything I've ever read before.… (more)
At the core of it, however, is the strange relationship between a hermit painter who lives in her self-built tower, a very clever though mute child, and the child's foster father who can be very affectionate, but also very violent. The book has a few parts that are a bit tedious, but also quite a lot that are moving, shocking and suspenseful. It's certainly unlike anything I've ever read before.… (more)
Well. I loved it. I hated it. I had to take some time away for a bit. 100% glad i did it in a book club.
Lists
A Novel Cure (1)
Big Jubilee List (1)
Booker Prize (1)
Five star books (1)
Allie's Wishlist (1)
Unmarried women (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 13
- Also by
- 13
- Members
- 4,088
- Popularity
- #6,155
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 115
- ISBNs
- 67
- Languages
- 7
- Favorited
- 10
I put a random date as already read several times. About time to reread I guess. And no, I won’t give any more details - just read it !