Novels

Two New Novels

When New Zealander Ronald Hugh Morrieson published his first novel last year—an unusual murder mystery with uproarious overtones of sex —“ PlM” described it as “the refreshingest thing to cross the Tasman for many a year” and said his next book would be awaited with more than ordinary interest.

HIS second book is Came A Hot Friday, also set in New Zealand with a set of characters just as odd as those in The Scarecrow, but Mr.

Morrieson doesn’t make it this time.

The plot is there, the characterisa tion is there, and so is Mr.

Morrieson’s grasp of dialogue. But while The Scarecrow kept going at a romping pace, Came A Hot Friday bogs down too frequently to hold interest. It needs severe pruning if the highlights are to be brought out, Ronald Morrieson is a clever writer who will surely win acclaim before he is finished, and I, for one, am still content to wait and see what next he has to offer us.—Sl. (CAME A HOT FRIDAY. Angus and Robertson. 22/6.) HARRY’S CHILD, by 19-year-old Melbourne girl Suzanne Holly Jones, is being acclaimed in some quarters as a brilliant novel. It would probably be more accurate to describe it as an interesting little sketch in autobiography, with enough flashes of talent here and there for the reader to be able to say that the author is potentially brilliant.

The book is only 85 pages in large type, and can be swallowed in a gulp once you get accustomed to Miss Jones’ experiments with words and punctuation.

Her story is told through the eyes of a girl growing up with a guardian who is a homosexual, and outlines her school life and her student days at the University. The first pages, of childhood memories, are not a success, for she has not a great deal to say. She has more to say in later sections (one hesitates to call them chapters) and it is here that Miss Jones shows her feeling for words. But it is too early yet to know just what she can do.—SI. (HARRY’S CHILD. Jacaranda Press. 20/-.)