"My wife made me read this because I lacked (and still do) a collective identity, a resonance with being a NZer or defining myself in relation to race, place, or culture. This is despite experiencing and partially acknowledging the influences of privilege, ethnic/cultural ways of thinking, and social identity on who I am and how I live each day.
But this is about the book lol.
Alison's incredibly open and felt way of learning and self-discovery shone through in her homely writing tone and I was quickly completely hooked into her story and her experiences of being Pakeha despite almost nothing in her life bearing any resemblance to my own.
What she learned in her long life about herself and NZ has well informed my intellectual understanding of what it means to exist and relate in this complex multicultural country as a white person. Regardless, her story granted me no sense of place, I guess words don't posses that magic.
What I gained for my own journey was this. I was inspired by her openness, vulnerability, and sensitivity toward knowing herself as a relational person and part of a larger story. Whilst only my own experiences will inform my evolving sense of self, I am able to take these attributes forward with me in such a search. Exciting. Well worth the read both as a lost soul and a Pakeha."