Customer Reviews

Baby No-Eyes (Talanoa)

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Baby No-Eyes is a novel beautiful in both language and content. Patricia Grace weaves this complex yet very comprehensible novel through the use of four narrators, each of whom serves as a different lens for understanding the events which take place. Although I do not wish to over-simplify the book by saying it is a story of the Maori struggle in a Pakeha-run environment, this is certainly one of the most important themes.

The main piece of plot, as far as action goes, involves the legal battle over an area of sacred land between a group of Maoris and the Council--a government group attempting to uphold and profit from outdated land "negotiations" between the Maori people and the British. Grace deals with this topic firmly, yet does so in a manner which does her surname justice. She manages to point out the absolute absurdity and unfairness within the bureaucracy without falling into large-scale hatred of all things Pakeha.

Aside from the David verse Goliath type theme, the idea of family is an incredibly important issue in the novel. Grace challenges some normal conventions of the immediate family, and opens up new avenues of thought for understanding what family can mean.

In Baby No-Eyes Grace has created an intricately woven, powerful piece. It offers an insightful and informative viewing point into certain aspects of Maori culture, and is also simply a well-crafted and engaging piece of fiction.

This novel is a very enjoyable read but as an added bonus it also enables your eyes to be opened more about the maori culture through the lovable characters. It takes you into what they as a people hold dear and why, and as a sub-plot there is an attempt to get a piece of swampland returned to a particular tribe and this involves an occupation of a park not too dissimilar to the Wanganui occupation of recent New Zealand history. Especially if you are a New Zealander of european descent this book is valuable because it makes you see the issues from a different perspective then your own and I found that aspect nearly as interesting as the actual story. Overall I found the charm of this story is the ability to take a horrible act of insensitivity and turn it into one of the most original characters ever told.

Dame Patricia Grace has to be one of the most gifted living writers. The fascination of this novel for me is that it's written from the perspective of a six year old boy. Grace captures perfectly the psychological make up and voice of this age group. Her main character experiences what western society would describe as an auditory hallucination. He hears the voice - and takes direction - from a twin sister who died at birth and whose eyes were illegally taken for scientific research. Because she has no eyes, she tells him, it's his job to view the world and interpret it for her. Grace uses the brother's unquestioning world view to draw non-Maori readers into what is a cultural reality (the ability to communicate with departed family members) in many Maori communities.

Children have an amazing capacity to move effortlessly between separate realities (for example believing and not believing in Santa Claus). In BABY NO EYES, our perspective moves back and forth - between the sense that the sister's voice serves an important need, as her brother's inseperable companion - and the sense that it's a kind of curse based on a grievous wrong committed against the family.

Not only is the book a joy to read, but it provides unique insight into an indigenous culture that in New Zealand (unlike most European colonies) remains relatively intact in the far north and on the east coast of the North Island.

By Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall, author of THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY ACT: MEMOIR OF AN AMERICAN REFUGEE

I was travelling overseas when a friend gave this to me to read on trains and downtime - I couldnt put it down and read and re-read it continuously. Im a HUGE fan of Patricia Grace and find myself wanting to crawl inside her books and become a part of the characters world. What away she has with worlds - thank you Patricia!

Buy this book. You will enter this story and truly be absorbed. Patricia Grace is one of the most important writers in contemporary literature and this novel is one of the most necessary texts that I've come across in a long time.

This is one of those books that you want to re-read after finishing it. I love it.