Fragments of experience

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 10

Fragments of experience

Waiariki. By Patricia Grace. Longman Paul. 91 pp. N.Z. prices: cased, $4.50; paperback, $2.95. One of the reasons why New Zealand writers produce so many short stories iqay be that most of them are part-time writers who have to sandwich writing in between other activities. Many of the stories in this collection are brief, slight pieces, which give the impression they were written in the mornings while the children were off at school or in the evenings after a day’s work. Only one or two of the longer pieces bear evidence of sustained literary effort. The themes or subjects of the stories in “Waiariki” are the familiar, almost hackneyed, themes and subjects of New Zealand short stories. The shadow of Katherine Mansfield lies heavily over them, especially in the stories “Valley” and “Holiday.” The author’s hope that her work will show readers “aspects of a way of life that is essentially Maori,” seems rather vain. These stories are so typical, in their subject matter of those written by pakeha writers for a number of years. They are recognisably concerned with the New Zealand way of life, but only in one or two cases more than vaguely concerned with the

Maori way of life as something distinct. Many of the stories reflect strongly the author’s experiences as a teacher in rural schools in the North Island. This is especially true of the long, fourpart story, “Valley” which provides the book with what weight it has. Others do begin to reflect the writer’s later, urban experience. “Waiariki” has also been publicised a series begun “for the specific purposes of encouraging new writing from the indigenous people of the Pacific area.” The implication is that this work might not, in the normal run, be published because of its literary merit by regular publishers. If the series is used to publish writing under this cloud, it may defeat its own best purposes and encourage a patronising, “very-good-considering-who-wrote it” attitude. “Waiariki” has also been publisised as the first work to be published by a Maori woman writer. It does not need this special pleading. Although the choice of subjects is mostly conventional, the stories more than justify their publication. Patricia Grace is a competent writer, who has the ability to detach fragments of genuine experience suitable for the short story form.