Book Review: Privatising Parts by Richard Meros

Privatising Parts by Richard Meros, Lawrence and Gibson, ISBN 978-0-473-18475-9, RRP $20.00, Available now.

Privatising Parts is slim volume of that rare beast, local political satire. New Zealand politics is often overshadowed by the more theatrical-style of United States, but as Meros adroitly proves, the home-grown version can be just as absurdist as anything imported.

Meros isn’t as bombastic as Jon Stewart on The Daily Show; the send-up of contemporary politics is more effective for it. It’s themed around the Clark government and the perils – or otherwise – of privatisation.

This is an incredibly pertinent topic. For those of you who live outside of New Zealand or in New Zealand and under a rock (or hey , under a rock outside of New Zealand; I’m not here to judge you), the centre-right National Government just won a second term in power, beating out the centre-left Labour party. National has also taken this as a “mandate” to sell state-owned-assets such as power stations – even though the majority of New Zealanders think that asset sales are a bad idea. Privatising Parts takes this to its natural conclusion: what if just went ahead and privatised everything? What if we privatised love?

“It is National that moves institutions from the public to the private sphere, but it is Labour that moves institutions from the intimate to the public sphere… Labour had nine years and did nothing to make the intimate topic of love a part of our public property.”

Other topics are covered – those political footballs, health education, welfare and prison, come together all at once on page 34 and 35 – but sex and love form the, uh climax of the book.

Privatising Parts is written as a fable. Some sections reminded me of Borges, and other passages of Orwell. Like all fables, Privatising Parts is both rooted in a time and place and timeless. It uses the framework of rural New Zealand and the Clark government to anchor flights of fantasy and rhetoric in a far more interesting way that just laying them out in an essay would.

Meros is credited as a left-wing blogger. I’m a card-carrying leftie as well (as in, there’s a card which I carry in my wallet to wave at people who doubt the colour of my politics), and naturally read Privatising Parts from left-of centre. If, bless your soul, you’re a tory, you probably won’t like it as much as I did – which only makes me think you should read it more. Privatising Parts is the sort of book which demands you mark passages to re-read later. Recommended for every politically aware soul in the country – and double for those who don’t know why we ought, or ought not to privatise our parts.