Un moment de l'histoire simple et tragique d'une bourgade de Nouvelle Zélande. ( )

On the way home from somewhere, I noticed that our local op shop had a bookshelf out on its verandah. I picked up six books for which I still owe $3, the shop being shut then, and for the duration of the Thing. Luckily for me, one of the books was The Scarecrow. The copy is the text classics edition, one of the series inspired by Di Gribble.

New Zealanders will have to forgive me for listing this under Australia. If you want our dole money then quit complainin'. The rural setting and the appalling drinking surely could come from the Australian backblocks. But this has an assurance and a 'I'll do this how I darn well please' attitude that are pure NZ.

The assurance is not polished, it's the confidence of existing with no natural predators. That's NZ for you. Only a confident and inexperienced writer could even think of writing this book, let alone bring it into the world. The young teenager's view is honest, witty, scared, sexual, full of the bravado which shows its true colours fast enough. All this creates a really beautiful small town story and that, despite the ugliness of it. Yes, it stacks up though it's hard to understand how.

rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/the-scarecrow-by-ronald-h... ( )

On the way home from somewhere, I noticed that our local op shop had a bookshelf out on its verandah. I picked up six books for which I still owe $3, the shop being shut then, and for the duration of the Thing. Luckily for me, one of the books was The Scarecrow. The copy is the text classics edition, one of the series inspired by Di Gribble.

New Zealanders will have to forgive me for listing this under Australia. If you want our dole money then quit complainin'. The rural setting and the appalling drinking surely could come from the Australian backblocks. But this has an assurance and a 'I'll do this how I darn well please' attitude that are pure NZ.

The assurance is not polished, it's the confidence of existing with no natural predators. That's NZ for you. Only a confident and inexperienced writer could even think of writing this book, let alone bring it into the world. The young teenager's view is honest, witty, scared, sexual, full of the bravado which shows its true colours fast enough. All this creates a really beautiful small town story and that, despite the ugliness of it. Yes, it stacks up though it's hard to understand how.

rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/the-scarecrow-by-ronald-h... ( )

On the way home from somewhere, I noticed that our local op shop had a bookshelf out on its verandah. I picked up six books for which I still owe $3, the shop being shut then, and for the duration of the Thing. Luckily for me, one of the books was The Scarecrow. The copy is the text classics edition, one of the series inspired by Di Gribble.

New Zealanders will have to forgive me for listing this under Australia. If you want our dole money then quit complainin'. The rural setting and the appalling drinking surely could come from the Australian backblocks. But this has an assurance and a 'I'll do this how I darn well please' attitude that are pure NZ.

The assurance is not polished, it's the confidence of existing with no natural predators. That's NZ for you. Only a confident and inexperienced writer could even think of writing this book, let alone bring it into the world. The young teenager's view is honest, witty, scared, sexual, full of the bravado which shows its true colours fast enough. All this creates a really beautiful small town story and that, despite the ugliness of it. Yes, it stacks up though it's hard to understand how.

rest here: https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/the-scarecrow-by-ronald-h... ( )

Quite entertaining. ( )