TELLING TALES
A Life in Writing
William Taylor
HarperCollins, $39.99, pbk
William Taylor is a successful and highly esteemed New Zealand teacher turned author whose 30-something books for children and young adults have reached a worldwide audience.
So why hadn't I heard of him before reading his autobiography?
To compensate, I hastened to the public library to read some of his books.
These ranged from stories of child abuse and same-sex attraction to the lighter-hearted Agnes the Sheep.
Obviously a man with plenty to say about diverse subjects.
Telling Tales also has plenty to say: about families - both immediate and distant forebears, marriage, parenting, schools and teaching, relationships, and good old Kiwi values, all told in a narrative that both commands and maintains interest through every one of its 300 pages.
What's more, these are typeset and spaced so that the physical act of reading is also a pleasure.
As for Taylor's personal highlights, early dramas seem to have mostly centred round the womenfolk, especially his mother, a flamboyant and talented singer who rubbed shoulders with the broadcasting elite of the 1950s and '60s, and just the sort of woman who'd stimulate a boy's creative genes, although the caring ones would have kicked in after a disabling stroke in her early 40s brought her active life to an end.
Thereafter, Taylor's tale becomes more a steady-as-she-goes voyage, with Taylor choosing teaching rather than banking as a career, the children in his classes becoming templates for later fictional models.
In his 50s, Taylor even found time to enter local body politics, first as councillor and later as Mayor of Ohakune, where one civic duty was to unveil the township's famous carrot.
Yes, there's lots of unveiling in Telling Tales, tellingly told by a man who can look back on a life well lived and in a book that does it credit.
John Green & David Levithan
Text Publishing, $25, pbk
There are similarities between Taylor's book and that co-written by John Green and David Levithan, insofar as the major subject material is teens.
But, in Will Grayson, Will Grayson, it's the teens that do the narrating, and very funny it is, too, although there are moments when the angst associated with sex, dating and having to study rather than party throw a blanket over the humour.
The odd title derives from the format whereby two males of the same age and with the same name do the narrating.
With most of the action taking place in and around an American high school, Will Grayson numero uno finds defending his best friend, Tiny, the world's gayest person who is also really, really large, compromises his relationships with straight male friends.
It also confuses the girls who like him but wonder if ...? Meanwhile, Will Grayson number 2 appears on the scene on page 110 and actually is gay.
From then on it's somewhat confusing, though it won't matter to most teens in the 14-18 age group, or older readers on a learning curve as far as their children's tastes in literature are concerned.
Told in a format that's part novel, part textbook, part script, and using the language shorthand that's now in vogue for cellphone users and web-page dating, Will Grayson, Will Grayson could be considered smart-funny or simply trash that crosses the line between good taste and bad on too many occasions to get seals of approval from religious or educational bodies.
I can see the queues forming as I write this.
• Ian Williams is a Dunedin writer and composer.
