Liz feels she is going mad. In the first paragraph of the book she calls an institution in 1970's Christchurch and asks about gaining admittance. She ends up being admitted and while recovering meets a young man known as Tug who is there as a ward of the state, who doesn't know what else to do with him. He is half her age, is homeless and can't read. He is also Maori. Liz feels protective of him an genuinely likes him. So they become friends. So begins a book-long relationship that is extremely complex. Tug is fiercely independent and also needy. Liz is fragile and also responsible. Plus, they are an odd couple- she a Pakeha in the 30s and he a Maori schoolboy, if he had been at school that is.

1970s New Zealand was a very conservative place, and a racist place too it seems. Tug tries to get work and is declined as soon as they see him. Taxis speed away from him once they take note of his skin tone and hooded sweatshirt. Since he and his friends are sidelined from society, they think nothing of resorting to drinking, taking drugs and stealing. Liz wants him to be honest, and under her roof as a border, he tries his hardest. But the couple go from disaster to disaster. They fight and make up, and regularly take off on each other in exasperation.

"It had only recently occurred to her that when they had arguments Tug was at a considerable disadvantage. She could trot out worn old homilies and regurgitated theories with some semblance of authority. He found it difficult to organise and present even the words he was familiar with under the stress of battle. She could twist and tighten sentences around him while he struggle to sharpen up one small salient word."

This book is a love story but not of the sort we are used to. The downs are more prevalent than the ups and to me this is why this book makes sense. It presents to us the lives of two very different cultures within New Zealand, and does so realistically. I was a fool to put off reading this for so long. ( )