A Dangerous Vine

by Barbara Ewing | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0316646911 Global Overview for this book
Registered by goatgrrl of New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on 9/1/2004
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11 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Wednesday, September 1, 2004
Picked up for $4.99 today from a MonsterBookstore's bargain table and added to my TBR pile.

Journal Entry 2 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Thursday, October 14, 2004
Barbara Ewing's A Dangerous Vine (1999) is a coming-of-age story set in 1950s-era New Zealand, in the capital city of Wellington. The novel tells the story of seventeen year-old Margaret-Rose "Maggie" Bennett, a Pakeha (white) university student who opts to work part time at "the Bureau" (a predecessor of the Department of Maori Affairs, divided into offices responsible for "Adoptions", "Alienations", "Consolidations", "Housing" and "Welfare"), against the wishes of her WWII veteran father. Maggie's first job at the Bureau involves entering records of Maori land transactions into dusty, leather-bound volumes in the Land Records Room -- she's bored to tears, and wonders why her Maori friends are so obsessed with land.* However the job brings Maggie into contact with new people, and she soon becomes part of a mixed Maori/Pakeha social crowd who get together to drink beer and sing after work.

Through the lens of Maggie's experience, there's a lot to be learned in A Dangerous Vine about 20th century Maori/Pakeha social relations (a relationship marred by the overt racism of most Pakehas, not unlike relations between whites and African-Americans in the USA or First Nations and whites in Canada during the same era). When Maggie develops an interest in studying Maori, she is discouraged by friends and family members on the basis that the language is "dying". She keeps her studies a secret, but when she becomes romantically involved with Maori law student Timoti Pou, things become more complicated.

For me, this book was a real "sleeper" -- I wondered at first what I was getting into (1950s-era womanhood can be a pretty scary place to visit!), then I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended.

A Dangerous Vine was longlisted for the 2000 Orange Prize for Fiction. Those interested can read a review of the novel in the New Zealand publication NZine here.

*Following the arrival of European settlers in the early 1800s and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, the legal status of Maori land was significantly threatened. Wishing to make collectively held Maori land available for settlement by newcomers, the British Crown established the Native Land Court in 1865 (it has since been recreated as the Maori Land Court). Its purpose was to determine the land rights held by Maori under Maori custom, then transform those rights into individualised legal title by granting a Crown grant to the Maori owners. Different legal techniques (among them, seizure for non-payment of property tax, such as occurs with Timoti's Auntie Kura in A Dangerous Vine) were then employed to alienate the land from its Maori owners.

Journal Entry 3 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Thursday, October 14, 2004
If A Dangerous Vine is your first introduction to Maori history and culture, you may be interested to learn that the movement for recognition of Maori land and language rights gained considerable momentum after the 1950s (remember Ewing's "explosion"). The following web resources provide updated information about the Maori, in particular the revival of Maori language and progress in the area of treaty negotiations and land claims. (Photo at left: acclaimed Maori language teacher Hoani Waititi teaching te reo -- "the language" -- at Queen Victoria School for Maori Girls. During the 1950s and 1960s Waititi developed new techniques for teaching Maori, and was the author of Te Rangatahi, the standard teaching guide for Maori language for decades.)

Related links:

Journal Entry 4 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Thursday, October 14, 2004
INTERNATIONAL BOOKRAY

Rules of this bookray:
1. This is an international bookray -- if you join, you must be willing to ship anywhere.
2. Please journal the book when you receive it, and again when you mail it out -- that way, everyone will know the book's approximate location.
3. If you don't think you'll be able to read this book within a reasonable time of receipt, please let me know before it's mailed to you, and I'll be happy to move your name down the list.
4. Whether you have read the book or not, please do not keep it longer than six weeks. Thanks!

Participants:
1. arturogrande - Coalville, England, UK - rec'd October 25, 04; mailed November 23, 04.
2. ruthwater - Manchester, England, UK - rec'd November 30, 04; mailed January 6, 05.
3. Fellraven - Redditch, England, UK - rec'd January 7, 05; mailed January 20, 05.
4. Brujula - Belfort, France - rec'd January 21, 05; mailed March 23, 05.
5. AceofHearts - Mississauga, Ontario, Canada - rec'd April 8, 05; mailed May 29, 05.
6. Megi53 - Danville, Virginia, USA - rec'd June 6, 05; mailed July 5, 05.
7. Sherlockfan - Wellington, New Zealand - rec'd August 10, 05; mailed October 2, 05.
8. gwilk - Christchurch, New Zealand - rec'd October 5, 05; sent November 15, 05.
9. boreal - Dunedin, New Zealand - rec'd November 16, 05 - bookray completed!

Journal Entry 5 by goatgrrl from New Westminster, British Columbia Canada on Sunday, October 17, 2004
I'll be mailing A Dangerous Vine to arturogrande in Leicestershire, England on Monday, October 18th. Happy Hallowe'en and a blessed Samhain from New Westminster, British Columbia! (Addendum: book didn't get mailed until Wednesday the 21st.)

Journal Entry 6 by arturogrande from Coalville, Leicestershire United Kingdom on Monday, October 25, 2004
Arrived this morning - thanks, goatgrrl, for yet another fabulous bookring.

Journal Entry 7 by arturogrande from Coalville, Leicestershire United Kingdom on Tuesday, November 23, 2004
I thought it would be hard for anything to beat 'Kiss of the Fur Queen' for the title of best book I have read for a long time, but this one just took my breath away.
Barbara Ewing is that rare beast - a novelist with a social conscience who is not in the tiniest bit 'preachy'.
Her descriptions of the casual racism dished out by the Pakehas to the Maoris - even the more enlightened ones - and the unwritten social code in a young nation (at least from a white perspective) struggling to establish its own identity, are wonderfully underplayed.
We can all see that this behaviour is wrong, without being bashed over the head with it. The intertwining of the personal and the political is also very cleverly done.
You will learn a lot from this book without even realising that you are being taught. I've learned, among other things, that every vowel in the Maori language is pronounced, New Zealand is God's Own Country, and a Maori mother would cut her own hair to place in her son's coffin.
The book also underlines universal truths; politicians will cheat and lie, love is unpredictable and turangawaewae - the place to put your feet - is ultimately what matters the most.

I'm now going to try to get my hands on another copy of this book so that I can read it again.

Thanks once more, goatgrrl, for a wonderful bookring.

It's now on its way to ruthwater in Manchester.

Journal Entry 8 by ruthwater from Manchester, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Well, this looks like a treat - well reviewed by two people whose reading taste I respect. I was in NZ in 1991 so the Maori background will be a little familiar to me. Incidentally, there's a great movie called Whale Rider, a contemporary story of intergenerational conflict in a Maori community - well worth a look.

Sorry for the delay in journalling this - I've been getting to know my new laptop.

Journal Entry 9 by ruthwater from Manchester, Greater Manchester United Kingdom on Thursday, January 6, 2005
Picture - ships in Wellington harbor, 1949
See a webcam of Wellington harbor today at
http://www.wn.co.nz/cameras/cam02.htm

Definitely one of those "sleepers" that improved as it went on - the last 20 pages are a beautifully written recapitulation of all the book's main themes. It's very much told from the distance - a "coming of age" story told from a viewpoint many years after the ending, and perhaps for that reason it's particularly strong on place and atmosphere.

I've been to New Zealand and it came to life again for me as I read. The landscape and the society were captured quite brilliantly. I don't think Ewing does quite so well with character, though. It's all so filtered through the subjective lens of the heroine (very different from the narrator) and the details seemed to suffer, I found the Maori characters, in particular, difficult to differentiate until the last chapters of the book.

The aspiring novelist is always instucted to "show, don't tell". There was a bit too much telling in this book, and not enough of the little details, mannerisms and voices which bring characters to life. I could never hear any of them talking, it all felt like reported speech to me. Not quite enough depth in some places. I wondered whether Ewing was inhibited at all by the closeness of the subject matter to people she had known in her own youth.

But there's a lot in this book to admire. There still aren't all that many depictions of Maori/Pakeha relations in fiction, indeed there aren't a lot of novels about NZ period, which is after all a faraway and sparsely populated country compared to most, and it's good to come across a distinctively Kiwi sensibility in this novel. Certainly worth reading, and if I hadn't read it immediately after Andrea Levy's wonderful "Small Island" on a similar theme, I might well have rated it higher.

On its way to fallraven, now. Hope she enjoys it.

Journal Entry 10 by Fellraven from Redditch, Worcestershire United Kingdom on Friday, January 7, 2005
Arrived safely chez moi this morning. I hope to begin reading it next week.

Journal Entry 11 by Fellraven from Redditch, Worcestershire United Kingdom on Wednesday, January 19, 2005
This is one of those books which never truly gripped my attention or imagination, which may be because it followed hard on the heels of two outstanding novels - Cloud Atlas and The Tree of Man. I can understand why it was longlisted for the Orange Prize a couple of years ago, but understand, too, why it wasn't shortlisted for it.

In a sense ruthwater has said most of what I would say myself - strong on atmosphere and the cultural background, weak on both character and the telling of the story.

I too found the Maori characters merging into one another - but so did most of the Pakeha ones as well. Vine may have introduced distinctive little details, such as Paddy's ill-fitting red wig and Gallipoli Gordon's outstanding singing voice, but those details just aren't enough to create real characters. Only Maggie's mother, a repressed and guilt-ridden hysteric, really leapt off the page for me.

I too found the early chapters heavy going. The writing was clumsy and intrusive until around page 70 when it seemed to hit a new gear and improved markedly thereafter. Even so, it was the atmosphere and social history embedded within the novel which encouraged this reader stick with it.

I'll forward it to Brujula in France in the next day or so.

Journal Entry 12 by Brujula from Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais France on Friday, January 21, 2005
The book flew into my mailbox today!
That was a fast trip!
It arrived along with another fat book, so I'll do my best to read it within 6 weeks, but I'm afraid it might take me just a little over that...
Thank you goatgrrl, and Fellraven!

Journal Entry 13 by Brujula from Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais France on Thursday, March 17, 2005
I started reading this book a little over a week ago, but I'm having a little trouble getting into the story (but I had quite a few hectic days, chick litt would have been a better read!). As it is nicely written I'm going to try a little harder to get into it, before I send it on.
Sorry it's taking me so long!

Journal Entry 14 by Brujula from Valenciennes, Nord-Pas-de-Calais France on Wednesday, March 23, 2005
I had a little trouble lreading this story, but I liked it very much, in spite of all the sadness...
Poor Maggie, always left behind, always different, not loved as much as she should be...

Mailing the book today!

Thank you again goatgrrl, and sorry I kept this book so long!

Journal Entry 15 by wingAceofHeartswing from Mississauga, Ontario Canada on Friday, April 8, 2005
rec'd today. Thanks for the goodies

Journal Entry 16 by wingAceofHeartswing from Mississauga, Ontario Canada on Sunday, May 29, 2005
So sorry for keeping this overlong. I mailed this today and will look for another copy to read as my TBR pile just was too big

Journal Entry 17 by Megi53 from Danville, Virginia USA on Monday, June 6, 2005
Arrived in the mail today. It looks just wonderful! Can't wait to get started on it in a day or so.

It came with an extra-nice postcard for me from AceofHearts and a spellbinding notecard from -- well, somebody in the UK; ruthwater, most likely -- that I'll pass along.

Journal Entry 18 by Megi53 from Danville, Virginia USA on Sunday, July 3, 2005
I had a good time reading this book. It was lush and passionate. Maggie (I love her Maori name, "Makareti") came to life for me. It was very amusing the way she always wanted to bite something!

On a more serious note, it was touching the way she tentatively considered choosing education over marriage and motherhood at 18 years old.

The descriptions of land, sea, bodies and clothing was all very sensuous. One of my favorite passages was when Maggie's full skirt swished by a blind student.

Spoiler: With the constant references to Maggie's and Elizabeth's wild hair, inherited from a distant grandmother, I expected them to be revealed as having Maori blood. As a mystery fan, I must be looking too hard at foreshadowing!

I never got in touch with kdhfrank after multiple PMs and ISO posts, so I have PMed Sherlockfan for his/her address.


Journal Entry 19 by Megi53 from Danville, Virginia USA on Tuesday, July 5, 2005
Mailing to Sherlockfan in Wellington today.

(a side note: I was reading the fluffy Christian chicklit book, *Sisterchicks Down Under!* at the same time as this book, and I couldn't resist using a quote from that book in a card for the New Zealand bookcrossers): "If you ask what is the most important thing in the world, the answer is the people, the people, the people."

Journal Entry 20 by Sherlockfan from Upper Hutt, Wellington Province New Zealand on Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Sorry to say it has taken a while to register as I've been overseas and only arrived back Monday 8th August. Found 6 books waiting for me with the kind friend who was checking our Post Office mail box during our absence.
Can't promise when I'll read it but I'll try not to hold it up too long - really looking forward to this one. I enjoy Barbara Ewing's writing, and not least because her aunt was a friend of my mother's so it feels very close to me.

Journal Entry 21 by Sherlockfan from Upper Hutt, Wellington Province New Zealand on Tuesday, September 27, 2005
I have so enjoyed this book not least because Barbara Ewing is such a good writer and her expressions, characterisation and choice of words is so good.
It is horrifying in some ways to see what a short distance we have come in NZ to recognize Maori tanga but also exiting to see how far we have come in some ways. Many of the comments and attitudes expressed in here in the '50s are still prevalent.
But how exciting to see the virtual implosion on our political scene of the Maori Party. It will be interesting to watch developments once the makeup of our Government is settled.
I'll PM gwilk to seek her address and will post a.s.a.p Sorry for the hold up because of my absence.

Journal Entry 22 by Sherlockfan from Upper Hutt, Wellington Province New Zealand on Sunday, October 2, 2005
RELEASE NOTE

On its way to Gwilk. Great book, great writer.

Safe travel.

Journal Entry 23 by gwilk from Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand on Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Arrived in a wonderful little parcel from sherlockfan.

Journal Entry 24 by gwilk from Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand on Sunday, November 13, 2005
I enjoyed this book and it felt internally consistent, in that it made me feel 'things could have been this way'. My wife ("gwilk's squeeze") could sing all the songs mentioned in the story. The only thing that makes me hesitate is the question: where things this way? For example, in the story the main character learns Maori in an evening class in one year to the point where she has a conversation in Maori without realising it. Well, I may not be the most hardworking person on the planet but that has never happened to me. After five years of (very part time) study I can have a halting conversation with someone who is patient. And translating pepeha and whakatauki (tribal sayings) is an art form in itself. So, was a Prime Minister of NZ ever as corrupt as portrayed in this book? Hmmm, I dunno, but the essense of the story is true and involving.

The picture is me reading the book on holiday in the Gold Coast, Australia.

Journal Entry 25 by gwilk from Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand on Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Posted to boreal today.

Journal Entry 26 by boreal from Dunedin, Otago New Zealand on Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Arrived yesterday, thanks for posting it Gwilk. Actually I went to get it to do this journal entry and found it on my husbands reading pile, he has either mistaken it for his current read The Kite Runner which has a similar coloured cover or he intends to read it himself.
I will try and get it read fairly soon.

Journal Entry 27 by boreal from Dunedin, Otago New Zealand on Sunday, January 1, 2006
I have finally managed to get this one read (being last on a bookray has its advantages) I finished it when I was visiting family in Central Otago for Christmas.
There isn't much I can add to what everyone else has said about this book. It was a good read and it is interesting to see how far we have come as a country since the 1950's. Loved the Maori sayings,I regret to say that my knowledge of Maori language is fairly limited, so the way they were incorporated into the book was a great way of learning some new words.
In all a rewarding book to read -thanks Goatgrrl! What shall I do with it now? I will send you a PM but if you don't have plans for it I could release it at the upcoming NZ Bookcrossing convention.

Journal Entry 28 by Otakuu from Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand on Friday, February 17, 2006
Thoughtfully put in my Goodie Bag for me by Boreal. A new Zealand writer that I admired as an actress so it will be interesting to see what I think of her as a writer.

Journal Entry 29 by Otakuu from Christchurch, Canterbury New Zealand on Saturday, September 20, 2008
I finally got around to reading this book after 2 years and 3 house moves. It worked its way to the top of MtTBR. After reading it I wondered why I waited so long.

I feel like I knew some of those characters, in fact, while reading the book I was ascribing the names of certain RL civil servants to the characters. Like Gwilk, I find it hard to visualise any of the PM's of my lifetime as being so venal but perhaps that is my small town innocence speaking. Unlike hime though, I could visualise someone with a good ear and a passion for language being encouraged by a good teacher finding themselves suddenly with a degree of fluency.

All in all, an enjoyable story for me given my background and life.

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