Rating: 4/5, good
I feel like I got rused into reading this book.
I thought it was going to have a nonbinary character because somebody mentioned it in an article about ve/ver/vis pronouns.
Unfortunately: that character doesn’t show up until the very end, it’s a very small part, the main character doesn’t actually use those pronouns for that character (she just has the passing thought that she could use them), and the character being spoken about is a mythical being whose gender is unknown. The main character sort of/doesn’t really identify as a woman, though, so there’s some nonbinary representation there.
I’m actually not sure where ve/ver/vis pronouns originate… I said in my review of Diaspora by Greg Egan that Keri Hulme invented them, but I saw on another encyclopedia site that they were first used by Varda One (pseudonym of Varda Murrell) in a 1970s zine called Everywoman.
I tried to use ve/ver/vis but it was too difficult for people to use. People have an easier time with “they/them/theirs”, so I’ll probably stick with those pronouns. The only thing some people may not be aware of is that they/them singular pronouns still go with plural verbs: it’s not “they was there” but “they were there.”
Anyway, this was an interesting read despite being tangential to my original interest in picking it up.
It was really hard to get into at first. The beginning is very abstract and poetic. It’s a little hard to tell what’s happening. It starts with a flash of the future, then a glance at the past, then rolls on with the present. I think Keri Hulme is trying to echo one of the book’s motifs, the Maori concept of koru, a spiral which symbolizes “returning to the point of origin”. You don’t know who the characters in the beginning are until you finish the book and start over.
The Bone People is set in New Zealand and Maori language, culture, and mythology feature heavily. Luckily, there is a glossary in the back. I wish I had noticed that before I got three-quarters of the way through (haha).
The novel is about a woman named Kerewin who meets a man named Joe and a boy named Simon. Kerewin is a painter estranged from her family who is suffering from artist’s block. Joe and Simon both have painful backstories that are revealed slowly. All three have lost their families in one way or another. Joe sometimes gets drunk and beats Simon very badly.
Simon is only six years old. He has a lot of emotional problems since Joe found him in a shipwreck as a toddler. He’s mute and uses only hand gestures and expressions to communicate. He’s highly sensitive and can see auras and other supernatural phenomena. He has a habit of stealing and tends to break things when he gets upset.
It’s heart-wrenching because even though Joe abuses Simon, they still love each other. Kerewin is torn about whether to intervene or keep her distance.
Kerewin, Joe, and Simon slowly become a found family. Joe starts to fall in love with Kerewin but (minor spoilers) Kerewin is asexual. She says:
“I spent a considerable amount of time when I was, o, adolescent, wondering why I was different, whether there were other people like me. Why, when everyone else was fascinated by their developing sexual nature, I couldn’t give a damn. I’ve never been attracted to men. Or women. Or anything else. It’s difficult to explain, and nobody has ever believed it when I have tried to explain, but while I have an apparently normal female body, I don’t have any sexual urge or appetite. I think I am a neuter.” (266)
Joe wonders if Kerewin’s energy is tied up in her painting as a tapu (sacred) thing and he promises not to push into her into a romantic or sexual relationship.
The direction of the story is bringing Kerewin, Joe, and Simon together. Kerewin is mixed Maori (indigenous New Zealander) and Pakeha (white), Joe is also mixed Maori and Pakeha (he has a Maori mom and a Pakeha dad (226)), and Simon is European.
Kerewin appears more white and Joe appears more Maori. Kerewin knows a lot about Maori culture, while Joe is more distant from Maori culture. Simon is white and represents the colonizer. This is really interesting because he’s a helpless, abused child with a habit of stealing because he has a concept of need but not property. What is Hulme saying about colonization by representing the colonizer this way?
I wish I knew that each of the characters were meant to represent their respective ancestries before I started reading because I probably missed a lot by reading through it on a more literal level.
The Bone People has some beautiful passages that gave me goosebumps, but it was also a bit hard to read at times. It reads like it was written by a poet more than a prose stylist and there are a few poems sprinkled throughout it.
This is my favorite bit of wordplay:
“She sits down on the bed edge, watching the flickering candle flame.
A writhing fire, dancing on this candle… twisting to an inward wind, then spiring up orange and smoking…
There are moths in the room. Willowisp silver of their wings, out in the shadow bounds, a shimmering irregular beat, sought seen caught out of the corner of the eye…” (273)
Hulme spends a lot of time in The Bone People describing domestic activities: cooking, cleaning, fishing, drinking, playing guitar, making art. A lot of it is solitary and Joe and Simon’s entry into Kerewin’s life opens up her world a little bit. There are some dramatic scenes, but there are also a lot of quiet ones. Towards the end there’s some Maori mythological stuff.
I might try to reread and catch more of the social commentary and Maori culture, or I might give up partway through rereading because it has some really dark scenes.
It’s tough to say if I would recommend it or not because it’s well-written but confusing. The subject matter can get really dark, but the Maori cultural aspect is really interesting. I think this is the first Maori novel I’ve read and it got me more interested in Maori culture.
I really appreciate it as a novel about a 30-something butch AFAB person without biological kids. I bet there are a lot of books out there about that demographic, but I think this is the first one I’ve read. I half-related to Kerewin Holmes. In some ways, I admired her (her skills at painting, poetry, and aikido), and in other ways, I was disappointed by her actions (particularly at one point, you’ll know if you’ve read the book). She is kind of selfish, but she also possesses great self-knowledge. She knows what she is and isn’t willing to give of herself, her time, and her possessions.
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