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31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
not exactly what I was looking for, but....., February 5, 2000
This review is from: Parker & Hulme: A Lesbian View (Paperback)
Like a lot of these other reviewers I bought this book because I saw the movie "Heavenly Creatures" and at the end I found myself wanting to know "what happened next?". When I searched through Amazon this is the only book that turned up, and while I wasn't interested in the case from a purely lesbian point of view I thought it might at least answer some of my questions about the murder, the subsequent trial and imprisonment of the two girls and what happened to them after their release. On these points the book was very helpful.(However,Parker and Hulme themselves were not interviewed for this book, nor were the full diaries of Pauline Parker researched.) I was, however, a little dubious about the "lesbian view". The authors' goal is to once and for all disassociate lesbianism from criminality and/or mental illness which I think is applaudable. Public opinion about homosexuality is bad enough here in the '00s, I can't imagine how narrow it must have been in the '50s when the murder took place. But as I was reading I discovered that not only did the authors take offense at the villification of lesbians, but at the criminal image in which Parker and Hulme were viewed.Gay or not gay, I'm not sure how else to think of two girls who lure one of their mothers into the woods and beat her to death with a brick except as criminal. One part that actually made me laugh out loud was when the authors were criticizing the way the newspapers misrepresented the facts of the murder in order to distort peoples' opinions about the girls. The paper claimed that Mrs. Parker had been struck more than 40 times with the brick. The authors are quick to defend Parker and Hulme by pointing out that "the coroner's report had clearly stated that (her) body showed 'forty-five discernible injuries' with perhaps one blow causing several injuries." Be serious!I don't see what difference it makes if they hit her 40 times or 14 times, they clearly beat her repeatedly and without mercy until they were certain she was dead! I really felt the whole way through that the authors wanted not only to defend lesbianism, but to defend the girls in the process, and some of their arguments really grasp at straws in my opinion. There was a lot of emphasis placed on imperfect home lives and narrow limits placed on people by society. Parents and society surely played their roles in shaping these two girls, just as they shape all our lives, but the argument just doesn't wash as an excuse for senseless brutality. As lesbians who grew up in about the same time and place as Parker and Hulme, the authors must have had great sympathy for the girls. They all must have experienced similar feelings of rejection and/or shame due to the fact that they were made to feel "different" or "bad". I think this made it impossible for the authors to present a clear, unbiasd argument about the murder and the aftermath.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating!, January 10, 1999
This review is from: Parker & Hulme: A Lesbian View (Paperback)
I'm a huge fan of the film "Heavenly Creatures," which is of course how I got interested in the Parker & Hulme case, and this book was recommended to me by some fellow HC fans. It's pretty much the only comprehensive study devoted to the case out there, and I find it quite well-written as well as very thorough and utterly fascinating. A must-read if you enjoyed HC, especially because it covers the trial and all that happened *after* the murder, unlike the film, and is chock full of detailed facts and accounts, as well as analysis and cultural context. Overall a wonderful book, I'd recommend it to anyone and especially those who, like me, became intrigued by this story after seeing HC.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Setting But Not Character, November 8, 2001
This review is from: Parker & Hulme: A Lesbian View (Paperback)
It would be unfair to expect this book to react to Peter Jackson's film "Heavenly Creatures," inasmuch as it was written before the film was made. As a companion piece to the film, however, it fleshes out the New Zealand of the 1950's and gives the murder a societal context. Unfortunately I found it difficult to be engaged by the book's distance from its subjects; Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme seem rather remote from the author's concerns, and the focus falls rather on the case's impact on contemporary and later lesbian politics and individuals. While I have no particular quarrel with the authors' politics, the title would suggest a closer examination of the girls themselves. In particular I question the authors' decision not to attempt to contact the grown-up Parker and Hulme for some comment. All in all, although this book places the events in context, it fails to illuminate the girls themselves.
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