Engaging and perceptive

The Piano Girls by Elizabeth Smither, Quentin Wilson Publishing, $35

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In the world of Art, New Zealand has been blessed by the name Smither, especially if you hail from New Plymouth. Artist Michael Smither has been notable for many years. But it’s his ex wife Elizabeth who has carved a career as a writer which followed from her role as the chief librarian at the highly regarded New Plymouth Library.

How about six collections of short stories, six novels, eighteen poetry collections, Poet Laureate between 2001-3 and the Prime Minister’s Award in 2008. The Piano Girls shows again what an engaging and perceptive writer Elizabeth Smither is. Three musical sisters honour their mother with a piano recital every year in her memory. It’s a highly competitive endeavour.

In other stories we share Elizabeth’s knowledge of music, food and restaurants.

These are tender, funny, sharply focused and observed , as we inhabit the world of a woman fending off a seducer, a cat called Min, an elderly an elderly woman who is the pet of a group of young men, an angonising break-up in a luxury hotel, a young woman obsessed by her breasts.

There are twenty stories in The Piano Girls, each one a gem, instilled in a style that’s engaging, humorous, but always compassionate.

Elizabeth Smither deftly demonstrates that there is no better way to examine what it is to be human.

I am sure you will agree. — Tony Nielsen