January 7, 1996
By Mark Lindquist
ONE NIGHT OUT STEALING
By Alan Duff
In ''Pulp Fiction'' and ''Get Shorty,'' John Travolta
defines the current pop culture image for hoods: hip,
clever if not bright, and effortlessly charming. The
hoods -- or ''crims'' -- in Alan Duff's second novel,
''One Night Out Stealing,'' are slovenly, befuddled if
not stupid, and inclined to senseless, self-destructive
behavior. ''Once Were Warriors,'' Mr. Duff's first novel,
was made into a well-received movie with unknown actors.
''One Night Out Stealing'' will likewise require
unknowns; not even Gary Oldman is sufficiently unwashed
to play one of these leads. Sonny and Jube live off the
New Zealand equivalent of welfare and spend their time
scheming and thieving and, always, drinking: ''Near
everyone humming from the state of being drunk. . . .
Just felt real good, but yet not so good you felt it was
gonna last. So there was the fear, some of it desperate,
that the feeling was gonna go. Wear off. And so they
gulped.'' Mr. Duff's writing continually rings with
depressing authenticity. While his
story is set in Auckland and Wellington, the issues it
raises -- poverty, racial tension, family strife and
social decay -- will be all too familiar to American
readers.
