White Lies, Māori Legends and Fairytales - Falstaff Dowling-Mitchell

Printed by yourbooks.co.nz: New Zealand, 2019.

Despite the outsized title, White Lies, Māori Myths and Fairytales is not a collection of white lies, Māori myths and fairytales; it is a novel. 12 year old Pētera (Pete) and his best friend Hone (John) dream of making the under-14s side at their local school, and eventually the All Blacks. Pete, however, is starting to become less confident that he will do so, as he is one of the smallest in his year and is also starting to be targeted by the bully Wiremu, who wants to steal his prized Damian McKenzie autograph. On top of this, Pete is having to cope with a racist principal and his annoying daughter Wendy, a sister who smirks at him constantly, the pressures of his father, the departure of his mother, and before too long, a serious illness that strikes close to home.

If this sounds like a lot of storylines, it is. This is Dowling-Mitchell's first book, and although it does show a very authentically 'Kiwi' voice coming through, it also may have fallen prey to putting one too many story-lines in. Pete carries the book though. Although the storylines do ebb and flow, all of them are carried through to a satisfactory, and occasionally moving, resolution. An impressive feat for a book in which the definition of 'pubes' is discussed repeatedly in the opening chapters. 

Dowling-Mitchell also manages to develop some of the characters who may originally have seemed to be purposefully stereotyped - in particular the principal, who goes from being aggressively racist, almost unrealistically (one would hope) out-of-touch with modern multiculturalism, to getting a bit of redemption by the end.

It is also interesting to read a book set in contemporary times where Māori gods are believed in by particular characters.

Overall, this is an interesting book with interesting themes. A lot of schools are starting to use this text, and although certain elements (such as the pubes subplot and the excess of storylines) might steer me away from it, I enjoyed it overall and would be interested to read Dowling-Mitchell's next work. Another new Kiwi author to watch.

Completed 11 April 2022.

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