Evocative forest song

Press, 29 September 1979, Page 17

Evocative forest song

A Song in the Forest. By Peter Hooper. John Mclndoe, 1979. 218 pp. $12.95.

(Reviewed by Naylor Hillary)

Peter Hooper, a poet, who lives near Greymouth, has written an unassuming little tale that turns out to be one of the most original pieces of New Zealand fiction to appear for years. In modest compass, it is a foundation myth, a fusion, not quite Maori, not quite Christian, set in a future, primitive New Zealand — a Dark Age — generations after a great disaster. At the same time it is a moving account of growing up, of youthful friendships, and of one young man’s discovery of his personal weaknesses and strengths. On top of all, it is a brave little adventure story, a miniature Odyssey, in a world of wonders. A sheep or an acorn conjures as much mystery as the ruin of a motorway or a cathedral to a lad whose people known only the wet Westland bush and a diet of eels, weka, and deer. Two vouths. Tama and Rua, cross the Alps, cross the plains, discover cows and sheep, rabbits and pigs, and finally the flounders of the estuary at what has once been Sumner. They can describe and interpret their discoveries only in terms of their own simple world where metals, even the wheel, have been forgotten. Peter Hooper succeeds in, keeping his characters

splendidly human while leading his readers to view the world, the geography, the plants and animals of New Zealand, through the eyes of Tama, and to puzzle with him over the relics of the past as well as over the meaning of his own tribe’s legends and religion. The New Zealand countryside, especially in the South Island, has always seemed to this reviewer to lack a past, to have no sense of an olden time, with remote peoples and deeds. Remote New Zealand was the preserve of birds, not of man, or even pf mammals. By turning to the future, Peter Hooper makes from us now a past for others on which disturbing dreams can be built. With a sure touch he restrains his material, restrains any desire to preach. In masterly understatement he hints of old events and a new world to .come for Tama’s tribe. A scratch of smoke on Mt Herbert might mean another tribe of survivors; the white stag might be a supernatural sign, even a uniquely New Zealand form of reincarnation. Peter Hooper credits his readers with imagination and with the capacity to dream. Those are rare qualities in New Zealand fiction. Coupled with a realism so strong that the smell of the wet bush seems to ooze from the pages, “A Song in the Forest” adds up to a major achievement in New Zealand fiction.