Hard-cover good condition, with dust jacket some shelf wear

Publisher: Whitcombe & Tombs Hardcover, 1964

The tragedy of Johnny Rapana is a gripping and powerful story. It tells how Johnny, a young Maori of noble blood, leaves the pa and goes to Auckland, where bad companions and the temptations of city life lead him into serious trouble. His downfall pinpoints a New Zealand social problem: the young Maori and his place in the city, where the old roots and traditions are mocked by a section bend on a debased version of pakeha life.

The author presents than Maori of a certain type as he is to be seen in his thousands, doing the dirty work, denied the right to be ambitious, told on every hand that he is equal and yet, too often, treated as an inferior. These matters are well stated, without sensation or distortion, so that in a sense JOHNNY RAPANA becomes a social document. Yet is not a tract. It is first of all a story that hums with tension.