Fiona Kidman: The Best New Zealand Fiction 1

Reviewed by SIOBHAN HARVEY

To a large extent, the success of The Best New Zealand Fiction 1 is due to its editor, Fiona Kidman. Her role is all about choice, and she seizes the opportunity it gives her to bring together an exciting assortment of established and younger writers and their work. Collectively, the effect is a vibrant compilation of stories, one that augurs laughter and awe in equal measure.

Kidman introduces the anthology with a detailed explanation of her rationale: "As well as looking for quintessential New Zealand stories I wanted to explore the idea of stories that looked from the outside in, not just from the inside out."

Not only does this help to validate each writer's entry in this book, but it also confirms the anthology as less exclusive and uneven than such predecessors as Owen Marshall's Essential New Zealand Short Stories and less academic and studious than the likes of Bill Manhire's Beethoven's Ears.

Contributions by Peter Wells, Maurice Gee, Vincent O'Sullivan, Stephanie Johnson, Lloyd Jones and Fiona Farrell provide the collection's gravitas. Johnson's The Night I Got My Tuckie is, perhaps, the most impressive offering. Richly written, it's about a motherless child, her drunkard father and two considerate New Zealanders brought together in a bar one night. At once exceedingly dark and tender, it just edges out the fictions offered by Jones, and Gee.

The former's Dogs is a bestial tale of coupling; while Gee's Alice and Gordon masterfully evokes a disturbing sibling relationship.

But it is left to newer writers such as James George and Craig Marriner to add the energy and edge that is the collection's ultimate legacy. Both authors offer personal laments. Marriner's The Evolution is a weighty narrative about Germany's past and Europe's present told through an earthy, blokish voice. By contrast, George's stunning Walking To Laetoli lovingly explores the dysfunctions of father and son relationships. Like all of George's offerings, it's wonderful reading.

George also provides the anthology's profoundest motto. At the close of proceedings, each writer gives a precis explaining how they came to pen the contributions. George's reads thus: "I would prefer to let the story speak for itself." Essentially, these simple words form a motif that encompasses the whole book.

* Random House, $29.95