Saturday, January 21, 2012

Make sure you read the small print


Janet Frame In Her Own Words
 Reviewed by John McCrystal, from Wellington
NZ Herald Saturday 10 December 2011

Excerpts:

"This book is a delight, because Frame herself is a delight"

"Janet Frame has been largely depicted as a recluse, an idea which this latest book dismantles"

"The volume is quite beautiful - small, printed on gorgeous stock in hard covers with a dust jacket featuring photographs depicting the young Frame in various moods, from stern and contemplative to whimsical and even clownish. But you have to question the decision to render the text in so piddly a font size."

"Highlights of the material presented here include her book reviews, a 1968 report on her tenure of the Burns Fellowship from Landfall, a 1987 draft report on her tenure as the inaugural Frank Sargeson Fellow, the spectacle of the diffident Frame dealing with the intrusions of interviewers, her valedictory notes to Sargeson and Brasch, and her reminiscences on the thrill of discovery when first she handled a copy of the stories by the Brothers Grimm."

Note: Most NZ Herald book reviews are accessible in an online archive but for some unknown reason this particular review has not been made available to the public.

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