The Bone People

Read from Friday, March 25th to Sunday, April 3rd.

The Bone People, by Keri Hulme.  This was a very interesting and different book.  Written in New Zealand in 1984, it won international prizes and recently has been re-released here in America.   Filled with Maori phrases and sentences, as well as an unorthodox paragraph style, it was difficult to read at times, and I read it much slower than other books.  However, once things got rolling, it became a very moving and intense book.

The basic plot outline is as follows:  Kerewin Holmes is a reclusive artist who recently won a lottery and built a tower for herself on the beach in New Zealand.  She is estranged from her family and has never connected well with others.  One stormy night, a little boy appears in her window.  His name is Simon, 7 years old but he is a mute.  She reluctantly lets him stay for the night, and in the morning his father Joe picks him up.  This sparks an unusual friendship.  Joe is a widower, and Simon is a boy who washed up on the beach a few years ago with no memory of his former life.  Joe takes care of him, but Simon is very strange.  He claims to see auras, and he steals, skips school, and does what he likes.  He can get violent, and it is eventually revealed that Joe gets violent back.  Whenever he gets drunk, Simon gets beaten senseless.  Kerewin is hesitant about getting involved, but they all spend lots of time together, and she feels protective toward Simon.  She likes Joe and they are seen as a couple in town.  They go on vacation for a few weeks to a beach house.  Joe misses his wife and wants a new one, and Simon sees her as a mother. 

However, as things are seemingly going well, disaster strikes.  Simon gets expelled from school and then sees a mortal accident.  He tries to talk to Kerewin, but she is angry because he stole stuff from her.  Simon freaks out and smashes her prize guitar.  He is kicked out and goes and smashes all the windows on Main Street.  Kerewin and Joe are furious, and Kerewin gives her consent for a beating.  Joe savagely beats Simon, but Simon had hidden a small shard of glass, and stabs Joe.  Simon is knocked into a coma.

Subsequently, the police get involved, Simon is in a coma, Joe is in jail for child abuse, and Kerewin discovers a tumor in her stomach.  She dismantles the tower and leaves town, intending to refuse medicine and die on her own.  The novel enters a second phase with long chapters describing each character's journey.  Joe spends a few months in jail and when he's released he wanders in the jungle.  He jumps into a ravine, possibly trying suicide.  He breaks his arm, but an old Maori saves him and takes him back to his hut and heals him.  The Maori claims he protects the soul of the country, which is a shimmering object underwater in a small pond.  He says that Joe is now the protector, and he is going to die now, which he promptly does that day.  Joe lives as a hermit in the woods, until one day an earthquake strikes and the pond is destroyed.  He finds a glowing magical stone and takes it with him.  Seeing that his job is done, Joe knows what he has to do, and sets off back home. 

Simon spends many months in the hospital, but he makes a miraculous recovery.  He has hearing loss, and has to use aids, but eventually he is back to normal.  However, he cannot go home, and he has trouble understanding that.  Joe is obviously an unfit father, but Simon loves him tremendously, and Kerewin as well.  Simon is sent by the state to a religious school, but he rebels constantly.  He runs away often, and eventually he makes it all the way home, only to find the house he lived in had been sold, and Kerewin's tower destroyed.  After the court case, Kerewin increasingly felt the growth in her stomach.  She refused to be diagnosed and treatment, except painkillers.  She was devastated by allowing herself to grow close to people and then being hurt, and also the loss of her artistic ability.  She roamed around the countryside, and found a small cabin in a field, where she intended to die.  She almost did, but a mysterious woman appeared and gave her a concoction, and one morning she woke up and found the tumor gone.  She had another chance at life and resolved not to waste it.  She went back home and eventually adopted Simon so he could stay with her.  In the epilogue, Joe and Simon and Kerewin are reunited at a party in her new tower, but it is not clear what their relationship is, but nevertheless it is a happy ending, considering the pain and solitude each had to go through.

It was very moving and emotionally exhausting at times.  I originally thought Joe had beaten Simon to death, because it is left unclear for many pages, and I was very shocked at first, but relieved when he was alive.  The individual journeys are sad, especially for Simon, who just missed home and the people he loved.  It is eventually revealed that he was the son of an Irish heroin smuggler, whose boat crashed in a storm. 

It was difficult to read, and I had to constantly flip to the back for the Maori translations.  Also, Kerewin has an interesting way of speaking.  She uses many nonsensical, gibberish alliterations and plays on words.  The point of view shifts constantly, and there are plenty of thoughts that I had trouble identifying who the thinker was.  However, the overall effect was something like a long, epic poem.  It is beautifully told and very original.  I also liked the ability to explore life on New Zealand, a place I know little about.  The differences between the cultural origins of the Maori and the Europeans form the background of the conflict.  The Bone People refers to our ancestors, the people of the bone, who created the world.  Four and a half out of five stars.