Grace: Potiki (Talanoa) [Paperback]

Patricia Grace (Author)

Book Description

Series: Talanoa | Publication Date: March 1995

Winner of the 1987 New Zealand Fiction Award

This compelling novel will resonate for people everywhere who find their livelihood threatened by "Dollarmen" -- property speculators advocating golf courses, high rises, shopping malls, and tourist attractions. In Potiki, one community's response to attacks on their ancestral values and symbols provides moving affirmation of the relationship between land and the people who live on it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Switching between first person and third person, this loose narrative of developers trying to build a resort on Maori land revolves around the family of Roimata Kararaina and her husband, Hemi Tamihana. Although land development is the central theme, Grace, the New Zealand author of several novels and short-story collections, is at her best portraying the lives of her characters, from their daily tasks (eel-fishing and cooking) to the stories they tell?both real hard-luck stories and ancestral myths. While the writing here is often elegant in its simplicity (the first-person sections in particular are beguilingly direct?"I have loved Hemi since I was five," Roimata announces by way of introduction) and the information about Maori life intriguing, the plot thread is often buried. Individual segments stand out because of Grace's able descriptions, but liberal use of Maori words such as papakainga and tangi with no explanation (a glossary might have helped) add to the confusion. When the conflict with "the dollarman" (their nickname for a Mr. Dolman, who comes to try to convince them to accept a project that includes not only a nightclub and golf course, but also "trained whales and seals etcetera") heats up, it moves matters along, but those sharp-edged segments can be disorienting in tandem with all the magical storytelling. This uneasy mix never jells completely, and the saga of native people suffering at the hands of an imperialist oppressor is not especially fresh.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Patricia Grace is the author of five novels, four short story collections and several children's books. Born in Wellington in 1937, Patricia Grace lives in Plimmerton on the ancestral land of Ngati Toa, Ngati Raukawa and Te Ati Awa in close proximity to her home maræ at Hongoeka Bay. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press (March 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824817060
• ISBN-13: 978-0824817060
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #363,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maori families deal with ancient belief and modern intrusion, February 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Grace: Potiki (Talanoa) (Paperback)

By luck, I got this book from my local library on recommendation of a friend. After reading it I still felt the emotions of these Maori people who maintain their ancient traditions and beliefs in a thoroughly modern world. The impact of old/new carvings, the constant sound and smell of the sea conflicting with modern bulldozers and "Dollarmen" trying to outwit the villagers, is only part of the story. You feel you can enter the minds of the family members who tell the story, mostly in English, but some in beautiful Maori poetry. You may not know what the words mean, but try reciting them out loud and you sense the deep meaning of them.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A hymn of praise to celebrate Maori values and victory!, November 2, 2000

By 

Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Grace: Potiki (Talanoa) (Paperback)

I can't recall when I've ever felt so strongly the musical rhythm of an author's style, or the extent to which it changes to suit the tempo of the action and themes. In the first third of this wonderful book by a very talented writer, conversations between the simple Mary and Granny Tamihana, the guardian of Maori traditions, echo and sound like chants; between Roimata and Hemi, a happily married couple, they resemble duets with complimentary themes. The scene in which Mary gives birth is a grand, complex chorus with the several family members singing over, around, and above each other as they fight for the narrative line. Toko's story of his big fish is a soaring aria which ventures into a mystical realm, for Toko is a seer. And all this music seems totally appropriate to the lives of these Maori characters living in harmony with the land and their ancestors.

The middle third of the book changes, as Hemi, the father of the family, abruptly introduces the harsh notes of reality which occur when "the works" closes down, and he and his friends find themselves unemployed. In mournful tones he comments on the loss of tradition, language, and connection to the land which are coming about as education is imposed on their children by outside authorities, and people such as himself accept outside jobs. Their very existence as a group is also threatened by developers who want to buy their land to put up hotels, build seaside parks where visitors can play with the dolphins and whales, and commercialize the lifestyle these Maori have enjoyed all their lives.

In the final third of the book, as the Maoris fight for their land, the staccato, simple language is like the harsh beat of a war drum, and the songs disappear from the language, not returning until the rebuilding of the sacred house and the funeral of a key character bring about harmony and poetry once again.

It is hard to imagine that Patricia Grace did not deliberately tailor her prose style to her subject matter, yet this seems so completely natural--so totally without artifice--that one wonders if this harmony of words and subject might be the ultimate, triumphant example of the unity of story and life which she so vividly celebrates in this memorable and touching novel. Mary Whipple

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indigenous Voices, June 21, 2007

By 

AJ "Island Bookworm" (Honolulu, Hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grace: Potiki (Talanoa) (Paperback)

Like another reviewer from Hawai'i, I also read this book in a Pacific Island literature class. What could have easily become a story about white man's exploitation of the Maori people and the environment (and I'm okay with that kind of story too), was instead turned into a glimpse inside the Polynesian mind and set of values. The sections most unsettling to us Caucasians -- those on the mystical aspects of the wood carvings -- relate much about the way the Polynesian views the past, as being in front of them, something to learn from. And we learn that what we regard as "ancestor worship" is really a matter of valuing those who have cared for the land and passed it on to us, along with the knowledge of how to live on it. We're also shown the value of stories: This book is told as a collection of the stories of many persons, each of whom has a unique perspective, something a little different to tell. Some stories are pragmatic, some we would term "mystical," but they too contain a valid warning.
This book probably did more than any ever -- fiction or non-fiction, and I'm a voracious reader -- to help me understand Polynesian values, which are basically the same values as those of indigenous peoples all over the world -- care for the land, respect the ancestors, listen to others' stories. Our planet desperately needs indigenous values!