Everywhere we went in New Zealand, and we went all over the place, there were bookshelves galore. Almost every hotel and cabin we stopped at had piles of books for guests to read, and we spotted quite a few take a book/leave a book boxes and shelves along the streets of the small villages we passed through on our drives. It appears to be quite a literate nation, and does have a number of well-known authors (well-known at least within the country). On all these bookshelves, though, I couldn’t find a single novel taking place in New Zealand except for one I had already read and didn’t like well enough to read again (The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton).
I looked for recommendations online and aside from The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, which I didn’t care to read having already seen the movie, none of the novels I saw were available for the Kindle. But some non-fiction was, and one of those books had a title that begged for attention. This is how I ended up reading Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All, by Christina Thompson. The author even (almost) shares my name! I had to read it.
Thompson is an American New Englander who studied in Australia and on a visit to New Zealand, met a Maori man who she later married. Come On Shore is her memoir, focusing on this marriage between people of two cultures. This is interspersed with history of the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand and subsequent ongoing relationship between the European settlers and the Maori people.
I learned a bit about the settling of these islands and their connection to the other Pacific islands, as well as about the history of the Maori people on these islands and the good and bad that has come with the arrival of Western people and culture. I learned that the population of Maori declined rapidly after the arrival of the Westerners, which may partially explain why almost all of the people I have seen in New Zealand have been white. Yet their language has been embraced by the country and can be seen printed everywhere, and thanks to the appendix Thompson included, I also learned how to try and pronounce all the words I see on road signs and buildings here.
Come On Shore is a worthwhile read, not too long or too dry as far as non-fiction goes. If you’re into memoirs, anthropology, or South Pacific history, I’d give it a read, pairing it with some fish and chips and a can of L&P soda.
