.
Thoughtful and
deeply layered, The Legend of Winstone Blackhat tells the story
of twelve-year-old Winstone. An outcast and a runaway, Winstone amuses himself
by transforming his life into an epic western on the big screen of his mind,
drifting into the fantasy world of ‘The Kid’, he rides his horse through the
Wild West with his partner Cooper.
In Winstone’s
fantasy life, author Tanya Moir uses the elements of a Western film, which are
interwoven into the narrative of the story. As Tanya explains, ‘I wrote it
because I was interested by the idea of trying to write a film. Not to write a
film script, but to take the visual symbolism of the Western — its camera work,
its editing devices — and put them back into words.’
There is a
strong juxtaposition between Winstone’s starkly real, every-day life and his
imaginary world, between the simple and the complex, current times and days of
a bygone era. ‘The evolution of the Western mirrors the evolution of society
over the same period, moving literally and figuratively from the simple days of
black and white to the modern era, technologically and morally complex, often
asking more questions than it answers.’ Suggests Tanya, ‘A little like the
process of growing up, one might say.’
‘The Western
Winstone constructs in his head goes through a similar evolution — he wants it
to be morally simple in the early style, but it keeps getting away on him and
morphing into something darker and muddier.’
Tanya uses the
remote setting of Central Otago for Winstone’s story. ‘Central Otago and
Westerns have always been tied together in my mind,’ explains Tanya. ‘I grew up
next door, so to speak, in Southland, and spent a fair amount of time in
Central Otago as a kid, around the same time my mates and I used to spend our
days playing cowboys and Indians in the school hedge. To this day, I half
expect to see covered wagons on the other side of the river every time I drive
through the Kawarau Gorge.’
In this
reflective read, Tanya looks at the delicate layers of Winstone’s world view.
There are no black and white answers for him and his story blurs the line of
what is morally wrong and right. ‘I wrote the book because I wanted to take a
character whom society would normally only consider from the outside, and
explore his inner life: his imagination, his hopes and dreams. Everyone, no
matter what they’ve done, no matter what they are, possesses those things. Some
people are just more willing, or better able, to express them, that’s all. I
wanted to take what was going on in Winstone’s head and put it into words for
him. I don’t believe that anybody can, or should, be defined by a single aspect
of their life, and I wanted to show what we might be missing when we do so.’
Winstone is a
solitary but resilient character: ‘Winstone is excluded from the company of his
peers, and so is forced to form what relationships he can elsewhere. He’s given
no chance to be part of society. The only people who accept him, with whom he
feels safe, are children younger than himself.’
One of the last
projects to come out of the Sargeson Fellowship under the Buddle Findlay
funding, this book is a moving, absorbing novel that packs an emotional punch
and will remain with you long after you have finished the last page.
About the author:
Tanya Moir, a
novelist, was born in Southland in 1969 and now lives on the west coast of
Auckland with her husband. She studied with the Hagley Writers’ Institute and
received the Margaret Mahy Award in 2008. Her first book, the critically
acclaimed historical novel La Rochelle’s Road, was noted for ‘a deeply
poetic sensibility that is, at times, quite breathtaking’ (Your Weekend).
The New Zealand Listener described it as ‘that wonder: absorbing
historical fiction that replenishes our view of the world then and now’,
remarking on language that is ‘fresh, vivid and authentic’. Her second novel, Anticipation,
was published in 2013 to rave reviews, the Dominion Post saying: ‘When
[novels] are written as well as this one is, with as much energy and style, the
result is a rare treat . . . Tanya Moir weaves a story as rich, intricate and
colourful as a tapestry. It is briskly told and is deeply, satisfyingly good .
. . Moir is clearly a New Zealand writer to watch.’ Moir was a 2013 Buddle
Findlay Sargeson Fellow.
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