Taylor, Chad 1964–

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Taylor, Chad 1964–

PERSONAL:

Born November, 1964, in Auckland, New Zealand. Education: Auckland University, Elam School of Fine Arts, B.F.A., 1988.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Novelist and screenwriter, 1993—. Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand, teacher of creative writing.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellowship for literature, 2001; Auckland University Literary Fellow, 2003; cited as one of the ten best New Zealand novelists under forty, New Zealand Listener, 2003; London Time Out's Book of the Week citation, 2003, for Electric.

WRITINGS:

Pack of Lies (novel), Hazard Press (Christchurch, New Zealand), 1993.

Heaven (novel), David Ling (Auckland, New Zealand), 1994.

The Man Who Wasn't Feeling Himself (short stories), David Ling (Auckland, New Zealand), 1995.

(With Scott Reynolds) Heaven (screenplay; based on his novel), Miramax, 1998.

Shirker (novel), Walker (New York, NY), 2000.

Electric (novel), Jonathan Cape (London, England), 2003.

Departure Lounge (novel), Europa Editions (New York, NY), 2006.

(Contributor) Tze Ming Mok, editor, Landfall 211: Borderline, Otago University Press (Otago, New Zealand), 2006.

(Contributor) Peter Wild, editor, The Flash, Social Disease (London, England), 2007.

Also author of screenplays The Alibi Girl, Funny Little Guy, 1994, and Oilskin, 2005; contributed additional dialogue to the screenplay I'll Make You Happy. Contributor of stories to anthologies and collections, including String of Pearls, Allen & Unwin, 1996; Boys' Own Stories, Tandem Press, 2000; Essential New Zealand Short Stories, selected by Owen Marshall, Godwit Press, 2002; An Affair of the Heart: A Celebration of Frank Sargeson's Centenary, edited by Graeme Lay and Stephen Stratford, Cape Catley Ltd., 2003; The Flamingo Anthology of New Zealand Short Stories, edited by Michael Morrissey, HarperCollins, 2004; and Other Voices: New Writers and Writing in New Zealand. Contributor of short stories to periodicals, including Sunday Star Times's Sunday magazine, Dimsum, and Listener.

ADAPTATIONS:

Electric has been optioned as a feature film.

SIDELIGHTS:

New Zealand novelist Chad Taylor has established a reputation as one of the leading modern writers from the South Pacific island nation. His works have been compared by critics to the film noir genre of moviemaking. His novels tell gritty, contemporary stories set in his native Auckland, but do so in a nonlinear, experimental way that emphasizes their bizarre, unusual qualities. The books, the author told Elise Rana in an interview published on Taylor's home page, "have a mysterious quality but the mystery isn't always revealed. I like stories that take you into strange worlds. I find it difficult to attach one label to my work. People generally ‘get’ the novels once they start reading them, so I'm happy with any label that encourages someone to pick [the book] up."

Critics have noted that Taylor's novels feature unreliable narrators of questionable backgrounds, memorable characters, and wonderfully bizarre settings and plots. One example of this can be found in Shirker. Taylor introduces Ellerslie Penrose as his narrator in the book. Penrose claims that he is a futures broker, but his real occupation, if any, is obscure. He becomes involved in a police investigation after he blunders into a crime scene and walks away with an important piece of evidence. His personal investigation of the crime is complicated by police suspicion, and gradually elements are revealed that link Penrose's life with that of the victim. "The more you bring to Shirker, the more fun you'll have with it," stated Peter Wolfe in Antipodes. "The book's references to pop culture, an old diary (some of which was written in invisible ink) containing a family secret, and a chase through Auckland's urban maze lead to the naming of a 126-year-old murderer." Taylor's "clever atmospherics and an assured command of language," declared a Publishers Weekly contributor, "keep the reader intrigued."

In Departure Lounge, Taylor tells the story of Mark Chamberlain, a two-bit thief who goes to rob the house of Caroline May and discovers that her parents have kept her room exactly the same as it was prior to her going missing many years before when she was just fourteen years old. The room is a shrine of sorts, and it unnerves Mark badly. He has his own issues, beyond his choice of career, as he is a loner, and most of the items he steals remain in his apartment, stacked up in every corner. Over the course of the book, Taylor reveals Caroline's story in flashbacks, including her relationship to Mark. Mark finds himself in contact with Harry Bishop, who had been the chief detective on the case and is equally out of sorts with the lack of a resolution. While the mystery of Caroline's disappearance ultimately remains unsolved, the emotional depth of the work as a whole makes up for that disappointment, one that echoes, in a way, the experiences of the characters in the book who were left behind when Caroline vanished. Reviews for the book were mixed. A contributor for Kirkus Reviews wrote that "there's a certain competence and slickness here that's undeniably appealing, but ultimately, the unrelenting chill makes for an unaffecting read." However, Joanne Wilkinson, in a review for Booklist, praised Taylor for his "eloquently precise prose" and noted that "vivid characters and mesmerizing language contribute to the moody atmosphere."