Blue Wolf Reviews

Tag: mansfield

  • Late

    Late

    Late: always late for everything. She was known for it and even now in her reclusive retirement this pattern still holds. Somewhat lonely but not alone ‘Zelda Zonk’ once a silver screen icon now lives in a very modern apartment overlooking Sydney, two cats for company.

    Daniel comes into her life around the time an old typewriter and book arrive, which prompts the beginning of a friendship, changes to both their lives and intimate, intriguing discussions of times past and present.

    During the 1970’s and 1980’s the sandstone clifftops around Sydney were known as the haunts for gay men, many of whom were murdered there, their bodies thrown over the Cliffs. Daniel is known to visit this area.

    Daniels’ story is gentle, emotional and compliments the older woman’s; both discover they are orphan’s both have led very different lives, which is so many ways makes them the same but vastly different. Both never quite fitting, never quite reaching the much sought pinnacle of perfection.

    As the story unfolds, there is the tantalising prospect that perhaps the actress is an all-time favourite and that perhaps she never died, just simply relocated, the entire episode of suicided manufactured in true Hollywood style.

    A little confusing to begin with Late is a story that takes time to begin to resonate, to allow the mind to slip back into a time when Hollywood Screen icons were marketed as the characters they portrayed on the screen, frequently misrepresented, their real persona carefully removed from public viewing.

    Once this time slip occurs and it will, Late begins to fall into place. Quotes used lavishly join the pieces together, the tempting though that maybe you know who’s story it is, holds firm until the last page.

  • Katherine Mansfield – The Early Years

    Katherine Mansfield – The Early Years

    When the patron of the Katherine Mansfield Society compliments an author for her meticulous research, you know the biography of Miss Mansfield will be reliable and detailed. Indeed, Gerri Kimber has covered every aspect of Katherine’s early years with great incite understanding. 

    The references at the back show this clearly. Not only was Katherine an exceptional author, but also a musician of some renown. She led a full life, although the early years were rather difficult, and Gerri has shown how these formative years helped to develop Katherine into the wonderful author we read today.

     The author gives us a thorough background into Katherine’s ancestors, and how they came to the wealth and social standing that allowed them to travel and finally finish up in New Zealand. This is where Katherine spent most of her childhood years. She was a plain and chubby child who developed, in spite of her mother, who was frail, and rather acerbic with her children. After a long absence abroad, her mother greeted Katherine at the port by saying “Still fat I see”.  At school, Katherine wrote some short stories, and already showed a great insight into language and description.

     In her later years, Katherine was sent to Queen’s College in London, to further her studies. This was a most unusual educational establishment, as it gave the students a great deal of freedom and autonomy in their choices of subjects and studies. Katherine flourished here although she found friendships difficult to maintain. When she finished at college, Katherine returned to New Zealand to rejoin her family. She was lost and turned to her music and dreams of lovers to sustain her all the while desperately wanting to return to London.

     There are excerpts of Katherine’s prose, and similarities are drawn with the works of Oscar Wilde. Although published in the local papers, Kathrine still yearns to go to London and join the literary set. Her father is not convinced about the wisdom of this, and delays her departure, but eventually she proceeds to London, to the home of a relative, with an allowance of one hundred pounds a year, allocated by her father.

     The details and research covered by Gerri, make the character of Katherine come alive. Just reading the many snippets that are contained in this book will certainly promote an interest in Katherine Mansfield, and place her name among those great writers in history. There are many fascinating photos of Katherine’s family, and New Zealand, to add interest to her story. Hopefully the name Katherine Mansfield will take a more prominent position in our readings.