A Stranger Calls Me Home by Deborah Savage

A Stranger Calls Me Home Reviews

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  Well, and with my three star rating for A Stranger Calls me Home being rather more than a bit generous in my opinion, author Deborah Savage seems to be American (although possibly married to a New Zealander) and that therefore, the Maori elements of Savage's 1992 and set in New Zealand young adult novel A Stranger Calls me Home (mostly comparing and contrasting Anglo New Zealand and Maori culture and ways), although interesting in and of themselves, they should most definitely not at all be considered as being in any manner Own Voices (and yes, this is definitely rather problematic for and to me since it constantly has me kind of majorly questioning and feeling suspicious of every part of A Stranger Calls me Home that is Maori based and wondering whether the details and the information Savage textually shows and features even represent bona fide Maori culture and belief or are likely simply what outsiders would consider and depict as being Maori). And indeed, even though Deborah Savage's storyline for A Stranger Calls me Home is with regard to writing style, narration and basic contents decently and sufficiently readable to an extent, involves three young New Zealanders seeking self-definition (finding themselves) and how recently returned to New Zealand from the USA Paul's friendship with Simon (who is half Maori) is seriously being threatened and put to the test when both are attracted to Paul's second cousin Fiona, I do admit finding with A Stranger Calls me Home not only Simon looking for his roots (and as such mostly his Maori birth father) a bit artificial (and also as already mentioned above not feeling all that authentic or at least with me not really believing that Deborah Savage is necessarily presenting the Maori elements of A Stranger Calls me Home that accurately and believably since she herself is obviously not Maori) but also that the love triangle between Paul, Simon and Fiona seems pretty annoyingly incompletely developed, not to mention that the mystery concerning Simon's father actually feels hugely superimposed, and certainly that most of the presented text for A Stranger Calls me Home is just way too melodramatic, that everything seems overblown and thus as least for me personally both tedious and often rather strangely fantastical and unrealistic (and to the point that I almost quit reading A Stranger Calls me Home but decided to keep going because Deborah Savage does have some very nice textual descriptions of New Zealand and that I also understand and appreciate teenagers needing to determine what their lives are meant to be, needing to make peace with themselves and their surroundings).
  
  Bur yes, even though parts of A Stranger Calls me Home have been interesting and sufficiently so for me to finish the novel, I also cannot really say that A Stranger Calls me Home, that Deborah Savage's presented text (and most definitely the culminating but supposedly also cleansing and healing fire rather easily and conveniently solving both the love triangle between Paul, Simon and Fiona as well as the land ownership, Maori culture and racial tension questions of A Stranger Calls me Home) has been all that fun and rewarding a reading experience for me, with me only at best on the surface feeling entertained and enlightened by A Stranger Calls me Home (and I personally and certainly not finding that Savage as being an author who should as someone not from New Zealand and not of Maori background be writing about New Zealand and of Maori issues and culture, and in particular when it comes to racial tensions, colonialism issues and the like).