Books
The 50 best New Zealand books
by Steve Braunias
Right then. In an age where best-of lists are relentless and immediately open to assorted howls of outrage, the Listener dares to rank the best 50 books ever published in New Zealand.
They have been selected from nominations cast by a panel of 20 literary types around the country – novelists, academics, historians, biographers, poets, publishers, editors and critics. They were simply asked to choose the best books – based on merit, not on sales or prizes, sentimentality or a sense of obligation – written by New Zealand authors.
That was always going to be subjective, a matter of opinion. But there was an obvious agreement among the 20 panellists about the very best books. In that sense, the results are not especially surprising: as Chris Else wrote, “With Mansfield and Curnow, Frame is the only New Zealand writer who has any real claim to greatness.” And so four books by Janet Frame are in the top 10 – the nominations, it’s worth pointing out, were made before Frame’s death in January. No sentimentality: only recognition of the greatness of her work.
Very few votes separated Frame from Katherine Mansfield. Good. Familiarity with Mansfield’s name has bred a kind of contempt, or at least wariness, but her short stories remain – and ought to remain – a superb achievement.
It used to be a literary myth that New Zealand writing was most successful in the short-story genre. Well, bring back the myth: the list includes short-story collections by Frame, Mansfield, Frank Sargeson, Maurice Duggan, Owen Marshall and Witi Ihimaera. But there were also numerous votes for books of poetry, by James K Baxter, Denis Glover, Allen Curnow and R A K Mason. (Why was – oh, her again – Frame overlooked?) As for the Great New Zealand Novelist: yes, Frame again, but only a few votes separated her from the best New Zealand fiction writer alive today. Cheers, Mr Gee.
A note on the criteria asked of the panel: there would be no collecteds, no selecteds. It was felt that a writer ought to be represented by single works, and not their greatest-hits collections; it also explains why Frame’s three-volume autobiography, and Gee’s Plumb trilogy, was broken up in the list. Similarly, anthologies of writing were … discouraged, but rules are made to be broken, and there were simply too many votes for Curnow’s Penguin Anthology of New Zealand Verse for that particular landmark publication to be ignored.
There were what might be considered surprises – the high ranking of Herbert Guthrie-Smith’s 1921 classic, Tutira: The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station, and the marked fondness among the panel for Shonagh Koea’s novel Sing to Me, Dreamer, and the short story book O’Leary’s Orchard, by Maurice Duggan. And although the entire canon of New Zealand literature was considered, there was room for modern books – Lloyd Jones’s novel The Book of Fame, Tawa by Elizabeth Knox, and, most recently, Michael King’s Penguin History of New Zealand, published in December, and which even at this moment is running out of bookstores. The magnificence of New Zealand historical writing was also partly reflected by room in the list for King’s Te Puea, and works by Sinclair, Beaglehole and Belich.
There were two pictorial publications – Timeless Land, and The South Island of New Zealand from the Road. (Three, if you include J T Salmon’s The Trees of New Zealand.) There were odd birds. It was difficult to know what to do with Owen Marshall, Maurice Shadbolt and Vincent O’Sullivan – all three attracted numerous votes, but for varying titles. Although each of those writers had one book favoured above others by the panel, it could easily be argued that they should have been represented in the list by other books as well.
There were what might be considered quite a few surprising omissions – no Katherine Mansfield: A Biography by Anthony Alpers, no The God Boy by Ian Cross (despite its recent benediction by Penguin as only the second New Zealand book to be republished as a “classic”), and no room, either, in the top 50 – although some votes went their way – for well-known authors including Sylvia Ashton-Warner, Lauris Edmond, A R D Fairburn, Barry Crump, Dan Davin, Noel Hilliard, Nicky Hager, Brian Boyd, Lynley Hood, Albert Wendt, Ian Wedde and Bill Manhire.
Another 100 or so books by New Zealand writers picked up one vote. Apologies, then, are perhaps due to the Listener books editor’s own inclusion of The Tehran Contract at number 50. (It honestly is a really great read.) Still, you oughtn’t be too po-faced about these things (oh, by the way: no one voted for themselves), or try to get away with stating categorically that the list which follows is the absolute truth regarding the history of excellence of New Zealand writing. Readers are welcome to argue the toss, express howls of outrage, etc.
But, the panel has spoken, and the votes have been counted; here, then, is the best guide right now to the top 50 New Zealand books.
1. OWLS DO CRY, Janet Frame (1957).
“With Mansfield and Curnow, Frame is the only New Zealand writer who has any real claim to greatness. This is as intriguing a book now as it was when it first appeared – a special kind of freshness.” – Chris Else
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