Ian Cross: The God Boy

By MARGIE THOMSON

Ian Cross' 1957 classic The God Boy has achieved rare homage from its longtime publisher, Penguin Books, which has repackaged it in a silver cover and included it in its Penguin Modern Classics series. Cross is only the second New Zealand author to be so honoured — Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party and Other Stories went silver in 2000.

The great benefit of ploys like this is that an old book can be brought, all freshened-up, to a brand new audience. Certainly, reading The God Boy nearly half a century after its original publication, one is struck by its simple power and the timelessness of its themes (marriage gone wrong, the vulnerability of children, teenage turmoil, the inability of faith to compensate for betrayal), while also encapsulating the narrow-minded tightness, the inarticulateness of small-town New Zealand at that time.

The narrator is 13-year-old Jimmy who tells us, with wonderfully revealing posturing, about the events over three days, two years previously, during which his parents' marriage ended, and his own peace of mind was shattered. It's a tragedy of loss and a horrific undermining of faith and promise that makes one shudder at the thought of a society that didn't believe in being honest with children. Worth a look, or a second one.

Penguin Classics, $27.95.