Owen Marshall
Auteur van The Lanarchs
Over de Auteur
Owen Marshall is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, poet and anthologist, who has written or edited 30 books, including the bestselling novel The Larnachs. His fiction has won numerous awards including the New Zealand Literary Fund Scholarship in Letters, fellowships at Otago and toon meer Canterbury universities, and the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship in Menton, France. In 2013 received the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction. In 2000 his novel Harlequin Rex won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction. Many of his other books have been shortlisted for major awards. He was the inaugural recipient of the Creative New Zealand Writers' Fellowship in 2003, and was the 2009/10 Antarctica New Zealand Arts Fellow. In 2006 he was invited by the French Centre National du Livre to participate in their Les Belles Etranges Festival and subsequent tour, anthology and documentary. (Publisher Provided) toon minder
Werken van Owen Marshall
Authors' choice : leading New Zealand writers select their best stories - and explain why (2001) 3 exemplaren
Tunes for Bears to Dance To: The Shaping of a New Zealand Writer (BWB Texts Book 24) (2014) 3 exemplaren
The Ace of Diamonds Gang and Other Stories 1 exemplaar
Three Poems 1 exemplaar
Gerelateerde werken
Monsters in the Garden : An Anthology of Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy (2021) — Medewerker — 7 exemplaren
Writing at the Edge of the Universe: Essays From the Creative Writing in New Zealand Conference (2004) — Medewerker — 5 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Officiële naam
- Jones, Owen Marshall
- Geboortedatum
- 1941-08-17
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- New Zealand
- Geboorteplaats
- Te Kuiti, New Zealand
- Woonplaatsen
- Timaru, New Zealand
Blenheim, New Zealand - Opleiding
- University of Canterbury (MA in English, 1964)
- Beroepen
- short-story writer
editor
writer-in-residence (Canterbury University ∙ 1981)
teacher - Organisaties
- Canterbury University
Waitaki Boys' High school - Prijzen en onderscheidingen
- Member of Order of New Zealand ( [2000])
Robert Burns Fellowship (1992)
Michael King Writer’s Fellowship (2003) - Korte biografie
- Owen Marshall is the pen name of Owen Marshall Jones.
Leden
Besprekingen
The most literary of the Ockham New Zealand 2020 short list is, in my opinion is Pearly Gates by Owen Marshall. Great cover artwork and a strong character driven story by one of my favourite New Zealand writers. He captures the essence of rural New Zealand communities and Pearly Gates definitely bears recognisable traits along with the other members of the cast. They are presented with both strengths and flaws.
Owen Marshall (b. 1941) is a well-known author in New Zealand, with a very substantial body of work and some impressive accolades from the KiwiLit community, not to mention mentions in three shortlists noted on this blog — but it was not until I came across John McCrystal's review of his new novel Pearly Gates in the New Zealand Review of Books (about which I have enthused before, see here) that I got round to chasing up one of his titles. (Which just shows you the value of an enticing review, eh?)
It's a surprisingly interesting book, given the quotidian nature of its characterisation and plot. It's very everyday, just the tale of an ordinary man in small town New Zealand and his late life crisis of conscience, but I couldn't put it down. It's a remarkable achievement to make a reader care about the ethical fate of a man whose success in life has made him complacent and a little too proud of his somewhat mundane achievements.
Aged 64, Pat 'Pearly' Gates is a real estate agent, and in his second term as mayor of the small provincial town he lives in. He is comfortably married to Helen, and they have two adult children regrettably living far away but not estranged either. Pearly is a recognisable face around town, and admired for his long ago feats playing rugby for Otago although injury forced him out before he could achieve his ambition to play for the All Blacks. He's a good 'people person', comfortable with listening to the inevitable complaints from constituents, and with a good team around him at the council, reasonably responsive to reasonable requests. He's mildly obsessive about appearances, becoming unduly irritated by a scratch on his car and passing over a best-qualified job applicant because his shoes were dirty, but not realising that he's not exactly a smart dresser himself until late in the day when out-of-towners more successful than he, return for a school reunion.
But he is a bit smug:
So it comes as a surprise when this basically decent if complacent man stumbles across political advantage and slyly uses it for his own benefit. Actually, it's more than a surprise, it's quite shocking. No one know about Pearly's role in it, not even his victim, but it preys on his mind. Along with some other stupid out-of-character things he's done...
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/09/05/pearly-gates-by-owen-marshall/… (meer)
It's a surprisingly interesting book, given the quotidian nature of its characterisation and plot. It's very everyday, just the tale of an ordinary man in small town New Zealand and his late life crisis of conscience, but I couldn't put it down. It's a remarkable achievement to make a reader care about the ethical fate of a man whose success in life has made him complacent and a little too proud of his somewhat mundane achievements.
Aged 64, Pat 'Pearly' Gates is a real estate agent, and in his second term as mayor of the small provincial town he lives in. He is comfortably married to Helen, and they have two adult children regrettably living far away but not estranged either. Pearly is a recognisable face around town, and admired for his long ago feats playing rugby for Otago although injury forced him out before he could achieve his ambition to play for the All Blacks. He's a good 'people person', comfortable with listening to the inevitable complaints from constituents, and with a good team around him at the council, reasonably responsive to reasonable requests. He's mildly obsessive about appearances, becoming unduly irritated by a scratch on his car and passing over a best-qualified job applicant because his shoes were dirty, but not realising that he's not exactly a smart dresser himself until late in the day when out-of-towners more successful than he, return for a school reunion.
But he is a bit smug:
Pearly reviewed his decision to stand for a third term. He enjoyed being mayor, although he was now fully aware of the tedious nature of many of the responsibilities and functions. And his satisfaction in the role wasn't just an expression of his sense of achievement, of entitlement. Pearly had real affection and concern for his home region. Indeed for the country as a whole. He liked to see decent intentions and decent people succeed, as he had himself, and he rarely doubted his own judgement. Pearly was his own role model. (p.10)
So it comes as a surprise when this basically decent if complacent man stumbles across political advantage and slyly uses it for his own benefit. Actually, it's more than a surprise, it's quite shocking. No one know about Pearly's role in it, not even his victim, but it preys on his mind. Along with some other stupid out-of-character things he's done...
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/09/05/pearly-gates-by-owen-marshall/… (meer)
This is shaping up to being one of the best collections of New Zealand short stories I have read and it proved to be so. A wonderful collection by many of our accomplished writers and a few that are new to me. They are arranged in chronological order, opening with Katherine Mansfield in 1922 to the most recent which include Eleanor Catton, Charlotte Grimshaw and Craig Cliff. A collection I will savour again.
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HelenBaker | Jun 15, 2019 |
HelenBaker | Jun 15, 2019 | Prijzen
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The stories evoke the South Island well - the fabulous island I grew up in.