Saturday, May 16, 2009

The 10 PM Question: do read this book.

If you love story read this book. If you love a story which has in its arms myth, fairytale, legend, iconic picture book, adult and childhood classics, read this book. If you have a family member who is different from the people in other families you know, read this book. If you love a book which pulses with the chaos of family life - of life in fact - but at every turn reminds you of the wonder there, read this book. If your family harbours a secret, read this book. If people in your family harbour deep-seated worries, read this book. If you like a book which asks the big questions but doesn't try to give answers, read this book. If you want to read a book that buzzes with the possibilities of language, read this book. If you love birds, read this book. If you loved the movie: What's Eating Gilbert Grape? read this book. If you want to read one of our best authors at the peak of her game, read this book. If you want to remember what it is to be 12 again, read this book. If you are 12, read this book. If you want to know what it's like to be 12 in NZ in the time of spaceman candies [no longer spaceman cigarettes] and ipods, read this book. If you want a large dose of de Goldi [insight, wisdom, compassion, humour, intelligence, skill], read this book. If you want to read a book that is already a modern classic, read this book. If you want to meet Frankie Parsons and Gigs and Sydney and Ma and Uncle George and Gordana and Louie and Ray Davies and the Aunties and the Fat Controller and Mr A and Cassino. Oh do, do, do, do, do, do, do read this book.

Stop Press. The Commonwealth Writers Prize was announced tonight at the Auckland Writers and Readers Festival. Best Book - Christos Tsiolkas The Slap and Best First Book -Mohammad Hanif A Case of Exploding Mangoes.

8 comments:

Rod Duncan said...

You give me little wriggle-room with this recommendation! I tick too many of those boxes to ignore it.


:-)

Tania Roxborogh said...

Totally, totally agree. This is the review I wrote for the Otago Daily Times:
Put Longacre Press and Kate De Goldie together and you are guaranteed a winning formula. Except, this novel is no way formulaic. Everything de Goldie writes is amazing: her stories; her words; her quirkiness make for delicious reading (and jealous guarding of bought copies of her books!).
If you love Keri Hume, Margaret Mahy and Margaret Atwood (three of my favourite authors), then you will love this novel. It has a 12 year old narrator but I don’t think a 12 year old will appreciate it as much as an adult (though, a good reader of that age will enjoy it and should come back to it again and again).
It is packed full of things we can go “ah yes, just like my house” and others where we go “no way!” It has a family I want as my own: every member of this extended family resonates and I am completely in love with those Aunties. Oh, and Uncle George. And The Fat Controller. Mr A is the teacher I wanna be. Cassino is the ultimate bus driver.
I’m sorry, I’m all over the place and so, too, is the telling of this story but it is appropriate to the overall “painful business of fronting up to the unpalatable: the ultimate 10 p.m. question…”
Trust me: get this book for yourself; your best friend; as a gift; a prize; any excuse to buy a book.

Mary McCallum said...

Rod, not sure 10 PM Question has made it to the UK yet but if not you can order it from NZ Books Abroad - the link is at the bottom of my blog's right hand column. I'd love to know how it travels...

And thanks for your review, Tania! 10 PM Question is a book people fall in love with isn't it? From its remarkable cover to its wonderfully-wrought interior, it is something to treasure. I have it on the table now and keep looking at it...

Fifi Colston said...

I have books I pick up and browse in my overly full life and rarely get the time to sit and read all the way through, but The 10pm Question found its way through all that other busy shit and I read it from cover to cover, loving it and not wanting it to end. Shes a clever clogs is Kate. A very lovely and admirable clever clogs. Its got to take the YA award doesn't it?

Mary McCallum said...

Thanks Fi - Yes I'd say it was a dead cert for the YA Award, what about the Montana Book Awards? Can it compete there as well do you think? Anecdotally and looking at the reading stats, it seems to have been read and loved by more adults than young adults....

Tania Roxborogh said...

as to awards - it's a tricky one. This book goes beyond categorizing (much like Dream Quake). Almost all of the others are pretty flippin' spectacular reads for teenagers. Not sure if kids will be able to reap what we reap but hopefully they will re-read it later and have a-ha moments. Challenge - what other books did you read as a kid and loved and then re-read as an adult and went ‘oh, that’s what that meant’? For me, Gulliver’s Travels and Robinson Crusoe and Call of the Wild.

Mary McCallum said...

Hi Tania - books read while young which I later understood: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice [and Persuasion], Wind in the Willows, King Lear [and all of Shakespeare in fact - loved the sounds of the glorious words, the passion, the fury, the tragedy but didn't really get it - the tragedy of age and of ungrateful children for one thing...], Eliot's poems, Matthew Arnold's poems, lots of poems in fact....

Blondini Gang said...

It's a great story. I have it in my read-again pile.