Blindsight

by Maurice Gee

'Father taught us how not to love...' So begins Maurice Gee's latest novel of 'Wellington noir' (The Times). Narrated by Alice, as an old woman looking back over the mistakes and tragedy of her family history, Blindsight is a corruscating look at the evil we are capable of inflicting upon each other. At the heart of the story lies the strange relationship between Alice and her brother, Gordon, and the mystery behind their estrangement. Only ever afforded Alice's take on events, Gee masterfully contructs a tale of unreliability. As he traces these unhappy lives over a period of forty years, the narrative only gradually gives up the dark family secrets. Published by Faber for over thirty years, Maurice Gee was among ten of New Zealand's greatest living artists named by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Acclaimed in the Guardian for his 'terrifically entertaining fiction of villainy and betrayal, wry social history and deft political analysis' ...

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Novels

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 2005

About the author

Maurice Gough Gee was a New Zealand novelist. He was one of New Zealand's most distinguished and prolific authors, having written over thirty novels for adults and children, and having won numerous awards both in New Zealand and overseas, including multiple top prizes at the New Zealand Book Awards, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the UK, the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship, the Robert Burns Fellowship and a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. In 2003 he was recognised as one of New Zealand's greatest living artists across all disciplines by the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, which presented him with an Icon Award.
Gee's novel Plumb (1978) was described by the Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature to be one of the best novels ever written in New Zealand. He was also well-known for children's and young adult fiction such as Under the Mountain (1979). He won multiple top prizes at the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and in 2002 he was presented with the prestigious Margaret Mahy Award by the Children's Literature Foundation in recognition of his contributions to children's literature.

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Description: Alice Ferry lives in Wellington, and keeps an eye on her brother, though he doesn't know it. Alice as narrator begins telling us the story from their childhood, but there are things she's hiding.

When a young man shows up on her doorstep, claiming to be her brother Gordon's grandson, things get complicated.

Opening: Father taught us how not to love.

The back blurb from The Times gives out that this is 'Wellington Noir'.

Interesting that Gee uses Marmite rather than Vegemite (page 8).

Two Gee's under the belt and both hearty four stars. I loved this subversive read in snippets over night.

4* Blindsight
MB Plumb
4* Going West
TR Live Bodies

[Bryce Galloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read straight after finishing the hugely popular The Kite Runner which I gave three stars, wondering if I was being snob. No, Gee’s writing is immediately superior; the poetry of getting inside someone’s head and moving with their thoughts. The poetry of that mercurial journey makes Hossaini’s story-telling seem a bit leaden. Gee should be more famous than Hossaini but I guess the Afghanistan narrative’s been ripened by the Cold War, the war on drugs, 9/11… Never mind Alice and her brother Gordon fraying at the edges of the perfect postwar family in little old New Zealand.
Thought this was the book inspired by that recognisable (to Wellingtonians) homeless guy - Bucket Man - with the cut off suit, perfectly centred forehead cyst and bucket. Perhaps he’s Gordon, the narrator’s brother, perhaps that’s coming. At the moment, Gordon’s just a fey character on an otherwise regular path through a middleclass postwar childhood in Auckland, New Zealand.
Gee’s In My Father’s Den was one of the first novels I ever read outside of the high school English curriculum, and/or the coercion of Mrs McKessar’s remedial reading targets.
Rather than a straight creative non-fiction bio of Gordon, Gee sees Gordon through the counterpoint of a sister, so that society’s judgement and a family’s affection can be rolled into one mind and voice; smart.
Male writer does a masterful job of writing from a female perspective (I think… what would I know).
Hated the ending. Fell from 5 stars to 4 with the last three pages

[Carolyn Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maurice Gee is a master of the opening line (and every line thereafter). Here: “My father taught us how not to love”. When he repeated it at the end I needed to think again about what aspect of the father’s loving that Alice, the narrator, is referring to. But that seemed properly so. The story is full of humanly complicated relationships. And – my conclusion – it’s in that difficult nexus between love, possessiveness, guilt, and unspoken expiation.

Alice is a mycologist, so her fascination is with things growing in secret places. On the surface, her conversational tone is self-knowing, self-controlling, an observer. And yet we become aware of passionate impulses in the dark hidden parts of her story. She is not entirely the cool scientist she likes the world to recognise.

The novel is an improvisation based around the life of Wellington’s “bucket man” - here, Alice’s brother, whom she has loved dearly since childhood. In adulthood they both have crises: Alice remade herself, Gordon lost himself in caring for others, then lost himself entirely. After she has retired and found he is in Wellington, Alice moves there to be near him although he stays unaware of his relationship with her. She moves around him (describing the relationship as binary stars and quantum particles) trying to keep him safe through her presence.

Her self-constructed world is shaken by the arrival of Gordon’s grandson, seeking his unknown grandfather, and challenging her right to exclude him from making contact.

The unfolding of the story is entirely engrossing and fully convincing. It’s hard to believe that Maurice Gee is not himself a ‘woman of a certain age’. For a Wellingtonian of course there are extra layers of recognition in both the geography, and the descriptions of Gordon’s life with his bucket, and the reactions of those he passes on the street. But for any of us who have wondered how people come to be living on the street, and how that impacts on family, this book resonates.

[Mekerei · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blindsight by Maurice Gee is a story of loneliness and regrets. Alice has a younger brother Gordon, this is the story of their relationship through Alice's eyes.

This novel is set in New Zealand and cities that I know and love are different through Alice's jaundiced eyes. They could almost be cities anywhere in the world. The story could have taken place anywhere in the world.

A young man turns up on her doorstep and claims to be her nephew. Alice is forced to confront events in her life that she has tried to kept buried.

There is no happy ending or justice, it is a story told as Alice remembers things.

I love the way that Maurice Gee makes his characters so believable. Alice is selfish, appalling and vile; the quote "My father taught us how not to love" sums up why Alice is all these things.

An alternative novel that is well worth the read; five stars

[Reenie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this, although I am starting to get a bit jaded with Maurice Gee's habit of sensationalist twists in the last five pages. This one would have been fine, I think, had it not been for the part where something quite similar (well, maybe not similar, but analagous) happened in the other two Gee novels for adults I've read this year. And like those two, the structure of this one is the narrator looking back on their life (from middle age in In My Father's Den (from the late 70s or 80s?), and now from old age in this and Live Bodies, the two written in the last ten years, and dissecting the less than perfect undercurrents in their families.

Still, the character of Alice Ferry is strong enough to stand up to being part of a formula and to leave her own shape and construction on it. The book is leaving me turning over the shape of the story and the relationships in my head, looking to analyse how it all fits together. I'd say that's pretty successful.

[Travis Cottreau · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was recommended to me by a friend because of a novel I'd written about homeless people and this has a homeless theme.

Centering around Alice, a woman growing up in the 1940's and her younger brother Gordon, the book is set in New Zealand, specifically Auckland, Nelson and ending in Wellington, with many references to specific streets and places that are much more interesting if you live here.

Well written and always interesting, the only reason I don't rate it higher is that it's a much different type of book than I would normally read and I found myself wandering away from it to read other things and it took longer than it should to read.

Still, by the last third, I was fully fixed on the book and wanting to know what the next bit of the past that Alice was going to reveal to her curious nephew. The ending of the book was stronger than the rest of it and well worth the read. This is the 3rd Gee novel I've read in the last year.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a young man claiming to be her nephew turns up on Alice's doorstep she is forced to remember things about her life and that of her beloved brother that she had tried to forget. Interesting that though set in NZ the location adds little to the story - if you are British - it could all just as easily be here. Well drawn characters.

[Nik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled through this book. I found the first 40 pages or so painfully boring and I didn't much like the narrative style. Not my sort of thing at all. I would have been more interested in hearing Alice's story, I think - her career and marriage etc. I didn't find Gordon to be of much interest and quickly tired of hearing Alice go on sbout him.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read. The main character Alice was self centred and quite deliciously despicable and very authentic. Having just read Sydney Bridge Upside Down I couldn't help seeing some similarites but Gee writes with more finesse. I really enjoyed the book.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful writing - will definitely read more Maurice Gee

[Suzanne Morgan]

I really oved this book. It is definitely a favourite. Gee writes so well and the storyline was excellent.

[Neil Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A complex study of loneliness and regret of the mistakes we make in life. Beautifully written with a nice twist ending

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probing into human nature. Even the unlikeable Alice is fascinating.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

I needed something lighter after this book.

[Aileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a lot of books by Maurice Gee and they are always fascinating with an element of a thriller about them.
This one would make a good movie.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

An oddly compelling read - particularly as (or perhaps because) the lead character was so unlikeable. And I did not see the plot twist coming.

[Caragh · Rating 3 out of 5]

not among his best.

[Peter Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very evocative of New Zealand and Wellington from the 1950s to recent. Helps to know the places and people maybe? Good twists to the tale.

[Ursula Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Maurice Gee book that I've read and he is a classic NZ author. This was a book group choice and initially I delayed reading it thinking it looked dull. So glad I read it over the Easter holiday and I'm so going to read more Maurice Gee. Looking forward to book group next week for the discussion

[Michelia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book worth sticking around for. I asked myself halfway through if this was a good book, and I was undecided. But I knew there was a lot to learn and that we were being led through gently.
The last third was worth five stars, going from being about broken people surviving life, to being about beautiful and enduring love in blood relationships, but with much more complexity than simply that.

[Cazna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Gee so much. This is right up my alley. Screwed up families and the kiwi way. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Gavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very powerful & moving story of siblings/family relationships, fatherhood, alcoholism & homelessness. Crept up on me how good it is. A beautifully told tale of regret. And I didn't see the surprise twist in the last few pages coming (without wanting to make it sound too melodramatic!). Written with great heart.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very tense, interesting story. I had no expectations, just a note on NZ authors to read eventually. Quite pleased with this exploration of personalities.

[Gerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very moving. Beautifully written.

[Gemma Donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the power of this book, the grounded characters that you lose your way with, even when they have done their worst, you can't help but feel empathetic.

[Catherine Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always admired Maurice Gee's novels and Blindsight, is one of his best. He has the ability to capture a disturbing dark side of the Kiwi psyche, flawed but ordinary characters, their actions or inaction and the repercussions that follow. It has a twist at the end that leaves you thinking now why didn't I see that coming - but then he draws you along so adeptly with Alice, the unreliable narrator, and the portrayal of lives and secrets that are not always as they seem. He calls it blindsight, "where your vision is knocked out on one side, yet another pathway allows you to put your hand on things you cannot see."
Gee took the source of his character, Gordon, from a homeless man who lived on the streets of Wellington carrying his possessions in a bucket. He hardly spoke and avoided eye contact but was a local identity for years until he died in 2003. The story is told by Gordon's sister, Alice and begins and ends with "Father taught us how not to love." They grow up in Loomis; Gordon - kind and sensitive but with an inability to fit in, Alice - sharp, clever and contemptuous and fiercely protective of her brother. She describes herself as "a fixed star, far away, glittering, unchanging and pointing him along the way to go; but a star close at hand as well, that he could pluck down and slide into his pocket to keep him warm." She has a scientific career and Gordon works as a hospital porter but they drift apart until Alice finds him, thirty years later, living as a vagrant in Wellington. Then Adrian turns up claiming Gordon is his grandfather and the past starts to unravel for Alice.
Gee uses the image of drowning to describe Gordon's saving of their parent's marriage: "You pull a swimmer back from the edge of drowning and put him, or her, through the pain and indignity, the choking and mucus-spitting fighting for breath, of resuscitation and stand him up, wrap him in blankets, support him to a warm bed, feed him broth - but the horror remains, the memory." Drowning is also an image that applies to Alice and her relationship with Richie ("No one's worth drowning in"), Gordon's life on the streets and Gordon's girlfriend Marlene - they either succumb or manage to stay afloat in their own way and perhaps find some sort of peace in the end.
Blindsight is quite a slim book (192 p) so I hesitated at the retail price. It was always out at the library when I looked, so when I finally found it in a second hand shop I was delighted. I won't be parting with my copy - it's a gem.

[Evelyn Leech · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first novel I have read by Maurice Gee. I liked his writing and his development of the character of Gordon. It helps to see dignity to those we usually ignore. It is thought provoking about our own attitudes and sad and a crime story too

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

He's done it before and done it better. Phoned in.

[Justin Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite Kiwi novel.

[Amarlee Jagoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

That's it for Maurice Gee books, another sad and strange book.