The Whale Rider

3.5

Bit of a shame that the plot never quite lives up to the gorgeous writing style it inhibits. While it's a good reflection on the intersection between traditional gender roles and culture, the story and characters themselves often feel one-note. Unlike the film, which is most often through the perspective of Kahu/Paikea, there's an even focus on the other members of her family. While this broader focus could make for a more nuanced portrayal of the subject matter, and does in some ways, the decision to focus on Rawiri's life feels oddly unearned. As well as the strange lack of insight into Kahu's perspective, into what she truly wants. I suppose there's some merit to that, with how her family often overlooks her skills due to her gender, but it leads to her character feeling shallow at the same time. Feels like this could have been a much stronger novel with some structural fixes, but it's not bad in this case.

Funnily enough, I think this shines whenever whales are present. From the sweeping, almost poetic renditions of The Whale Rider's legend to the harrowing scenes with the beached whales (the first of which genuinely upset me, btw - perhaps the only part of the book to actually hit me on an emotional level). Overall, I think this is quite great, yet its a bit of a shame how lacklustre some parts are when contrasted with the novel's strengths.

A 1001 CBYMRBYGU.
Kahu was born into a world that did not want a female chief. Her great-grandfather, the current chief, like all the others in her tribe, ignores her, despite obvious signs of her chief-ish qualities.

From page 64: He (Kingi) used to tell me that his favorite image of Australia was of Joan Sutherland singing “Advance Australia Fair,” a can of Foster's in one hand, and surfing into Sydney Harbor like “an antipodean Statue of Liberty.”

Kahu's grandfather: “Our Koro was like an old whale stranded in an alien present, but that was how it was supposed to be, because he also had his role in the pattern of things, in the tides of the future.”

I loved the way Kahu pulled the stone from the bottom of the water, the dolphins that swam around her, the whales beaching themselves, and the appearance of the tattooed whale.