KEY POINTS:
Kiwi writer Paula Morris left our tranquil shores for the fast-paced life of London, then New York.
After a stint in the music industry, she accepted a place at the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop, graduating with a Masters in Fine Arts. She now finds herself teaching creative writing in hurricane-battered New Orleans.
In other words, Morris has lived a life full of the raw ingredients needed to produce stunning short stories - and that is just what she has done.
The collection kicks off in New York where a young British woman falls for a swarthy Mexican banker (Like a Mexican). Unfortunately he is married, but luckily, he adds, separated. They soon start to see more of each other and with each date, her intrigue grows into something more potent.
Conversely, he begins to pull back - he is no longer separated but separating, he concedes, and then in marriage counselling, and finally, back together with his wife. Although we clearly see what is coming, like a startled deer caught in the headlights, the story loses none of its intensity as our young English rose wilts under his sultry Mexican gaze.
This story, like most in the volume, focuses on the desire of the unattainable and the subsequent bittersweet feelings of loss. Perhaps one of the most poignant tales is Testing. Here we find a graduate working in a large windowless institution grading papers for elementary students, while the novel he is trying to write languishes on his desk at home. His life is at a crossroads - his girlfriend is making future plans without him, and he sees his life as stalled.
Ironically, he remembers working hard on these very tests so he could go to a good college and have a future. Instead, he ends up marking them so these students, he surmises, can do the very same. It's a nightmare scenario any teacher can relate to. He is stuck in a rut and must make the decision to head to the big smoke and follow his dreams - the question is: will he?
Elsewhere, there are other excellent pieces. There is the story of Robert Anderson (Lonelyville) who, once a fortnight, finds himself on Fire Island with a quintet of beautiful women - one of whom he wants, but, sadly, she is not the one who wants him. As the summer wears on, and Robert's longing intensifies, he becomes more and more frayed under the sweltering sun - eventually something must give.
And then there is the illicit meeting of Jason Vale and Kelly Susskind (The Argyle), both married, who share a night of lust at the Argyle Hotel. For Jason, this is an ongoing addiction, but for Kelly it is the first time she has strayed - she wants to feel desired and for one night to be defined as something other than wife and mother.
Interestingly, it is the chase, more than the act itself, that Kelly really wants. But how will this random act change her life? This has to be one of the best short story collections written by a New Zealander in years. Morris expertly laces a smouldering sense of loss through these works as her characters stumble not only with their relationships, but with themselves. These stories are fresh, engaging, and tinged with all those raw emotions that make for excellent fiction.
Bernard Beckett has won numerous awards and accolades, both nationally and internationally, for his young adult fiction. Now, for the first time, he has tossed aside his teen-centred imagination and penned a novel for a mature audience. Unfortunately, the transition is not without its flaws: neither the stock characters that his teenage audience warm to, nor the tri-plot arrangement that plays to a younger audience's need for regular transitions, really work for a more sophisticated audience who require levels of depth in their characters and crave extended periods of unbroken escapism.
This, then, is a book structured and populated for those much younger than its themes allow. It is election day and Peter Wilson (read: Winston Peters) is about to become the Kingmaker of New Zealand politics and hold the balance of power - all of this on the back of his "immigration" policy.
Down the road at the local school, Luke Krane, a biology teacher, is struggling with the violence in his classroom: the simmering hatred and rivalry is bubbling to the surface between the Polynesian students and the Pakeha boys with their shaved heads and fascist ideals. Meanwhile, two professors at The Institute discuss their disturbing findings regarding IQ and race, all of which is captured on film by sultry documentary maker Amanda, while her Samoan boyfriend, Simon, dances the night away with Eve, his Asian "friend".
Beckett (himself a biology teacher) is interested in exploring our attitudes towards race in the ever-changing social and cultural landscape of New Zealand. All his characters are caught up in the narrative that these attitudes produce.
And while he is careful not to provide any answers, he does not shy away from presenting the views held by various segments of our society - there are messages of hate, violence, love and acceptance woven into the stories.
This, of course, is the perfect toxic environment for building towards the inevitable scene of pathos in the final tragic moments: an underlying tension is slowly achieved through a succession of robberies, a smattering of random violence, the ever present scent of infidelity, an unexpected suicide, and, finally, the Shakespearian-like murder of one of the central characters.
While Beckett is indeed a fine writer and an inventive storyteller, his foray into the world of adult literature leaves much of his potential yet to be explored. The work is far too short for three interconnecting character arcs to work successfully.
Utimately, what we end up with feels more like three loosely tied together short stories than a novel of real consequence.
Forbidden Cities: Short Stories
By Paula Morris (Penguin $28)
Acid Song
By Bernard Beckett (Longacre Press $29.99)
* Steve Scott is an Auckland reviewer.
