Janet Frame: Stories and Poems

Reviewed by SIOBHAN HARVEY

Certain books age better than others. Janet Frame's Stories and Poems is a posthumous release that brings together two such works, placing her award-winning first book of stories, The Lagoon and Other Stories, aside her only
published collection of poems, The Pocket Mirror.

Rediscovering the beautiful, modish prose of
stories such as Child and the autobiographical Jan Godfrey is a marvel in itself. Meanwhile the titular The Lagoon re-familiarises us with the writer's capacity to pen a narrative that could so perfectly and succinctly evoke the places and peoples of this land, while still imbuing them with a universal resonance.

Then there are stories such as The Bed-jacket and Snap-dragons, which offer shining examples of how Frame could capture the past in ways that continue to speak to us.

This said, ultimately the stories are overshadowed by the poetry. All should buy Stories and Poems if for no other reason than to have at their disposal the plethora of vibrant, resonant verse that fills its second half.

Rain On The Roof, The Dead and The Dreams: here are poems that speak with the cadence of a great poet. The only sadness is that we weren't left with more of their kind.

In death, we often appreciate our writers more. Of Frame, of course, much of our recent knowledge has been informed by Michael King's biography, Wrestling With the Angel, and by Jane Campion's film, An Angel At My Table, rather than by the author's work. Stories and Poems re-addresses this imbalance, puts us back in touch with Frame at the start of her career when she was most strident and cutting-edge, when as a poet she was a visionary and as a short story writer she was avant-garde.

VINTAGE, $29.95

* Siobhan Harvey is an Auckland writer and tutor