The Whale Rider - Witi Ihimaera


Published by Raupo Press: North Shore, Auckland, 2008.
Originally published in 1987.

 18 years ago, when it first came out, I saw the movie Whale Rider (and now I feel old). It was sweet, it was moving, it was very Kiwi. And so I felt like I knew what I was getting in for when I started reading the book that inspired it: The Whale Rider. But I wasn't prepared for how well written the book was. Within the midst of this Young Adult novel will be a phrase like "Diatoms of light shimmered in the cobalt-blue depth of the Pacific" (page 35), or "The ice cracked, moaned, shivered and susurrated with rippling glissandi, a giant organ playing a titanic symphony" (page 108). Ihimaera has a better vocabulary than Blogger, which has tried to tell me that "susurrated" wasn't a word!

As with many adaptations, Whale Rider the movie makes some changes from the source material, notably renaming the book's title character from Kahutia Te Rangi (Kahu) to Paikea Apirana (Pai) - possibly to differentiate her name more from that of her great-grandfather "Koro". The book also has a far more prominent role for Kahu's uncle, Rawiri, who takes on the role of narrator, observing Kahu's growth from a slightly more distant angle. Rawiri as narrator also allows the novel text to leave New Zealand for a stretch, taking time to compare Maori culture and struggles to those of to 'natives' in Papua New Guinea.

The themes in both versions remain the same, with Kahu struggling to win over the stubbornly traditional Koro, who fails to see his grand-daughter's qualities past her gender. This is a prominent and well-told portion of the book, with the scene including Kahu's speech about her grandfather moving me quite a bit. The book, however, plays up the "mystical" elements of the story more than the movie, with Kahu being drawn to the sea, even swimming with dolphins, and the 'great whale' being decorated with a sacred moko and 'speaking' to the tribe while beached.

I remember enjoying the movie when I watched it, and am now thinking of revisiting it to refresh my memory. But the book is definitely recommended.

Completed 24 January 2020.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Various Picture Books

Image
As I said in my review of Peter Rabbit's Storytime Collection , I am wanting to find a way to acknowledge the books I read to Ezekiel without adding individual picture books to my reading list - I feel that would dilute it a bit much. So in this post, I've decided to look at a group of picture books all together. I've picked five picture books that I like (with a notable and noteworthy exception), and also asked Elise for five picture books she is  enjoying reading to Ezekiel. It's interesting (and helpful for this list) that our lists haven't overlapped at all this time around. So, here are ten picture books (plus one bonus 'book') that Ezekiel has been exposed to in the first 7ish months of his life: Karl's List Bunnies on the Bus - Philip Ardagh and (illustrator) Ben Mantle. Published by Walker Books Ltd: London, 2020 (2019). This is one of my favourites among our current picture books. A group of bunnies hijack a bus and hurtle through the town on th
Read more

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Image
Published by Allen & Unwin: Crows Nest, NSW, Australia, 2008. Book snobs, block your ears. *whispers* I think the movie was better. Okay, book snobs, you can unblock your ears now. *waves to get the attention of book snobs* To be honest, a huge reason why I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at this moment in time was that I thought it would be funny to have two books with ridiculously long titles appear back-to-back in my list. For anyone who thought that there were super-deep reasons why I picked the books that I did, I hope this helps you see the error of your ways. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which I am refusing to shorten for the rest of this review) still tells the same story as that in the movie adaptation (also called  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ), but does so in a less gripping (though still interesting) manner. This is for a few reasons: firstly,  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book is e
Read more

In a Free State - VS Naipaul

Image
Published by Picador: London, UK, 2001. First published 1971. An odd book, containing three different narratives (along with separate prologue and epilogue narratives) all on the theme of feeling displaced in a different culture and environment.  The first main story is told from the perspective of Santosh, an Indian servant who moves to America, only to find himself questioning his life choices. The next story follows a West Indian man who travels to England to support his brother, only to become disillusioned and eventually murder someone.  The third main narrative - which is the longest and also the titular 'In a Free State' - follows follows two English expats - Bobby and Linda - as they road trip south through a progressively more war-torn African nation. On the way we learn a lot about each character - mostly through their conversations - and witness their interactions with each other and those around them. As with many of the  Booker books I have read, there is an occasi
Read more