Regardless of one's position on the controversy, the half Pakeha /half Maori Duff provides a compelling and insightful glimpse into the overwhelming struggles faced by the disenfranchised poor of any urban society-including America's own inner cities. Alan Duff’s novel Once Were Warriors (1990) became an instant bestseller in his home country, New Zealand, and immediately established his reputation as a powerful writer. Duff's choppy sentences, repeated phrasing and use of Maori slang may require some adjustment for American readers, but ultimately his staccato prose style is ideally suited to a world of not-so-quiet desperation. It is based on the incendiary and best- selling novel of the same title by Alan Duff, a book which caused much controversy in New. Duff, who is half-Maori himself, based the novel partially on his own troubled childhood being raised by a series. Once Were Warriors is Duff’s first novel. It tells the story of life in a modern-day Maori family and the realities of domestic violence.

Most vulnerable is Grace who dreams of escape into the Pakeha (white) world and whose brutal rape triggers the downward spiral of events. Once Were Warriors is a 1990 literary novel from New Zealand writer Alan Duff. It is set in the bleak subdivision of Pine Block. With a gritty, realistic eye, Duff portrays Jake and Beth, who because of alcoholism, abuse and poverty can provide little protection against the gangs, drugs and violence that menace their children. Once were warriors, a novel by the Rotorua-raised writer Alan Duff, later became a successful film. In a Maori ghetto of urban New Zealand, Jake and Beth Heke battle entrenched poverty, racism and other ills that overwhelm their traditional Maori culture. Part of Hawaii's TalanoaContemporary Pacific Literature imprint, this first novel won the 1991 PEN Best First Book Award amid controversy over Duff's perceived condemnation of Maori society as largely responsible for the hopelessness plaguing its communities. In an attempt to embody the Maori spirit within literary text, Alan Duffs Once Were Warriors utilizes stream-of-consciousness narration, and his roving.

Once Were Warriors by Alan Duff