Book Review: Rangikura

Title: Rangikura

Author: Tayi Tibble

Date: 2021

Publisher: Knopf

ISBN: 978-0-593-53463-2

Quote: "she realised that life / was not going to be fair / but it could be /ferocious."

This is a short book of short essays and free verse about being young and mostly Maori in New Zealand. With lines that are sometimes rude, often funny, and sometimes sad, Tayi Tibble captures moments of growing up in a suburb, being teased and fighting back, loving too much, trying to stay connected to living people and feel connected to her ancestors. 

What some readers will enjoy and others will find unreadable is the way Tibble mixes cyberspeak, Maori, and Black American slang into a whole new form of English. New Zealanders seem to be interested in using Maori words, especially for indigenous food and wildlife, of which several are mentioned in this book. Other readers might actually prefer to read this book online rather than in print.

Tibble is young, and offers no special or new insights, but her word pictures are funny and sad and, yes, ferocious, condemning and celebrating, sweet and sour, and they show a poet's ear. If you finish this book you'll probably want to read the other ones she will undoubtedly write. (This was her second book and by now she's written a third one.)