Short takes: Non-fiction

Reviewed by MARGIE THOMSON

Beryl Fletcher: The House at Karamu

An evocative memoir of Fletcher growing up in a working-class home in Auckland. She takes the reader through the Depression years, through the scarcity of the war years, her early marriage and move to Australia, up to 1972 when she finally divorces her bullying, unfaithful husband and returns to New Zealand with two children. The story ends just as her first short story is accepted for publication. Fletcher has a phenomenal memory and facility for storytelling and, while this book is longer than necessary, it's a compelling, detailed account of a type of domestic life that is largely gone. Having said that, some aspects, such as the trials of caring for new babies, are universal and timeless. She describes herself as a feminist writer, and so this is the story of the shaping of a world view through the society of strong women, economic adversity and hard work, and one or two ratbag men who nevertheless taught her the dangers of letting someone else control her life.

Spinifex, $29.95

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Gordon Ogilvie: The Riddle of Richard Pearse

It's a near-miracle that we know anything at all about Richard Pearse, as Ogilvie reveals in this biography of the reclusive South Canterbury farmer who may have beaten the Wright brothers into the air when he accomplished a powered takeoff in his own aircraft as early as March 1903. This is the fourth edition of the 1973 book, extended periodically as new information comes to light. How close we came to having all evidence of Pearse's achievements destroyed, and the detective work needed to put the story together several years after Pearse had died, is a great story in itself. The sad, what-might-have-been subtext whispers through the story of this enigmatic, self-taught mechanic/inventor. He was denied the opportunity to go to university, had no interest in farming, but was forced into it, and lived only for the pleasures of his workshop. An iconic New Zealand tale.

Reed, $34.95

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Tom Hart Dyke and Paul Winder: The Cloud Garden

The story of two young men who did what everyone advised them not to do: trek through the Darien Gap, a World Heritage site between Panama and Colombia, notorious for guerrillas, kidnap and murder. "Don't even think about it!" advised the Lonely Planet guidebook. Winder was a merchant banker on the run from monotony and the tyranny of financial success; Hart Dyke was a fanatical botanist described by the Observer as "the new David Bellamy", who simply wanted to look for new species of orchid. Off they went, and were captured by guerrillas, held for nine months in appalling conditions and then, miraculously, made it back to civilisation and wrote this book. It's a good, easy, honest read in which they each take turns to tell the story. But it probably won't serve as any warning to like-minded hot-heads.

Bantam, $37.95

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Jon Lee Anderson: The Lion's Grave

On assignment for New Yorker magazine, Anderson was one of the first Western reporters into Afghanistan after the September 11 bombing. The articles he wrote over the next four months are reproduced here, along with a selection of emails he sent his editor during that time. His writing is crystal-clear, sober, insightful, commanding - a boon for anyone wishing to better understand that battle-scarred land. He has phenomenal guts, and never lapses into emotionalism, even when bandits are holding up his convoy and brandishing AK47s, or he's pushing a jeep through snow over the Khawak pass.

Atlantic, $32.95

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Thomas Keneally: Lincoln

Keneally is exceptionally prolific, a marvellous researcher with the gift of turning his material into easy, conversational prose, accessible to anyone. Here he profiles Abraham Lincoln: born in a dirt-floored cabin, extraordinarily ambitious, he became President, declared slaves free within the Confederacy - but was murdered only a year later. Keneally has long been fascinated by the Civil War-era United States, and his familiarity makes this a relaxed read, and an incisive and revealing portrait.

Weidenfeld and Nicholson, $42.95