Rating: 
Summary: Positive Review and social implications on Once Were Warrior
Review: Alan Duff's "Once Were Warriors" has attarcted a great deal of political and social comment since its publication in 1989. It tells the story of Jake Heke, unemployed, poor, a wife basher, and a heavy drinker, and the effects on his immediate family on the rape of his 12 year old daughter, who subsequently kills herself. The story tells not only the story of the poor Maori of New Zealand, but tells the wider story of society in general. This tale relates not only to urban New Zealand but to almost any where in the world where poverty, unemployment and other social problems are prevalent. Dauff writes extremly well weaving a story which tugs at the heart strings and lets you feel the poverty and pain of the family.
Rating: 
Summary: Heavy handed
Review: An earlier reviewer who said skip this and see the film was on the mark.
There's no doubting that this is an incredible powerful and important story (hence the 3 stars).
However, to describe the writing as heavy handed is an understatement. Unlike Lee Tamahori (film's director)Duff seems incapable of letting his characters and the situations they find themselves speak for themselves. When you've created characters as powerful and memorable as Jake and Beth it's so unecessary. The fact that Duff feels the need to intersperse the narative with his simplistic moralising means by the end you find yourself spend more time wishing he'd shut up than worrying about the fate of the family.
The film however is a masterpiece. Astonishingly powerful performances, and the direction pulls no punches whilst allowing the audience to draw their own conclusions. Duff could have learnt much, however from he's done since it doesn't seem that he did.
Rating: 
Summary: See the film, dont bother with the book
Review: Duff has a writing style one could be polite and call 'energetic." Or conversely, one could say it is messy, confused, and overfull of capitalisations and exclamation marks. If you like being hit over the head with a chunk of wood while someone is screaming at you, you'll probably enjoy this novel: there sre, however many better works by New Zealand Maori writers (try Patricia Grace, Apirana Taylor, Keri Hulme, Phil Kawana, and Witi Ihimaera.) But Duff's rowdy novel is not all bad - it did generate a taut and brutally exciting film, and it has defined, paticularly for middle-class New Zealand Pakeha (of European origin) readers, the dilemmas and truly vicious poverty traps far too many urban Maori are involved in.
Rating: 
Summary: Auoi !
Review: Great story. Enjoyed the style. It held me. The movement of the words. Through the eyes narration. Perhaps mistakenly considered modernistic, but I thought rather that it was an extension of the tatau lines which are ancestral. The story itself was universal, and I have heard this from Native friends in the Americas as well. Ia manuia!
Rating:
Summary: "Complete Waste of TIme"
Review: I had watched the movie so I thought the book would be just as good or better: NOT! The lack of dialouge is disconcerting,and you never really get a grasp on the characters. Written correctly this would have been an excellent book, however when a book becomes a chore to finish, it is hardly an enjoyable experience. The movie is fantastic. Save your money {and your eyes} and rent the video!
Rating:
Summary: "Complete Waste of TIme"
Review: I had watched the movie so I thought the book would be just as good or better: NOT!!! The lack of dialouge is disconcerting,and you never really get a grasp on the characters. Written correctly this would have been an excellent book, however when a book becomes a chore to finish, it is hardly an enjoyable experience. The movie is fantastic. Save your money {and your eyes} and rent the video!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and poetic
Review: I loved this book. The story and style of writing carried me away. The movie is also amazing.
Rating:
Summary: similarities across cultures
Review: I read the book after I had read the movie and must agree that the movie told a more complete tale and Yes, a more likeable Jake Heke. However, I thought Duff did a good job in letting us into the minds of the characters. The unique style of writing facilitates that. I thought the book tried to give itself a happily ever after ending by the mother becoming the saint of the neighborhood. I came in with very little understanding or knowledge of New Zealand indigenous cultures. But I could not help but draw lines to other colonized peoples and cultures. Many of the things said about Maori culture, i could have said about my own and have heard said about my own culture as Filipinos.
Rating: 
Summary: A Slight Disappointment
Review: I truly looked forward to reading Mister Duff's book. O dear. It was cliched, and shallow, and inhabited by cardboard stereotypes. The poignancy that should have there with the wife-battering and daughter-raping and general dereliction of all concerned was undermined (I'd love to think deliberately dears) by the author's sad imitation of his betters.
Rating:
Summary: Once Were Warriors
Review: I'm the author of AKA DOCTOR. Alan Duff's writing of this book and the sequel, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted, grabbed me by the shirt collar with both fists. Alan opened my eyes to do my own research of the Maori culture. I have friends in Nelson, New Zealand who helped in this research. Alan hits close to home, with this riveting insight of the Maori culture. A violent, hard hitting story of world magnitude. My hidden emotions were brought to the surface by the movie. A must see.
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