Dead famous literary rock star

Here is an excerpt from another great review:
 

Gorse is Not People is a delightful wander through Frame’s writing, and what startlingly good writing it is, too. Lucid, warm, humorous and  rich in empathy, the stories in this collection show exactly why Frame is akin to a dead famous literary rock star, adored by such live famous literary rock stars as Hilary Mantel and Jonathan Franzen.

Much of Frame’s genius lies in that she was brave enough to write simply. She distilled everything down to its very essence. Frame’s ideas, her absolute understanding of what she was writing about and what was important within a story meant that she didn’t have to lay it on with a trowel or attempt to be clever or literary. Although Frame uses language in unusual and beautiful ways, a legacy of her formidable talent as a poet, these linguistic flourishes are utterly natural, and never feel contrived.

The stories in Gorse is Not People certainly show Frame’s range and mastery of the genre. Most have a timeless quality about them, although some do capture the era in New Zealand when Frame was a child.
 

However even these stories have this international quality about them, and are reminiscent of the short fiction  of Carson McCullers and Truman Capote, though dare I say, Frame is better and has as keen a take on the southern Gothic as her American counterparts.

Her subject matter is people. Just ordinary people, young, old, damaged, wise and bewildered, all trying to make sense of their world.

There’s a lot of love in this collection.

Perhaps not grand love, but definitely ordinary love. The best kind.

These are stories to be read slowly and savoured by young and old.

 

~  Sunday Herald 11 November 2012

(Reviewed by award-winning novelist Kelly Ana Morey)

Bloom is available as an e-book on Kobo