Title: See the film, dont bother with the book
Product review: Duff has a writing style one could be polite and call 'energetic." Or conversely, one could say it is messy, confused, and overfull of capitalisations and exclamation marks. If you like being hit over the head with a chunk of wood while someone is screaming at you, you'll probably enjoy this novel: there sre, however many better works by New Zealand Maori writers (try Patricia Grace, Apirana Taylor, Keri Hulme, Phil Kawana, and Witi Ihimaera.) But Duff's rowdy novel is not all bad - it did generate a taut and brutally exciting film, and it has defined, paticularly for middle-class New Zealand Pakeha (of European origin) readers, the dilemmas and truly vicious poverty traps far too many urban Maori are involved in.
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