What do you think?
Rate this book
Ellie and the Shadow Man
Paperback, very good condition. Covers remain sharp, spine is uncreased. Pages are slightly tanned but remain internally bright and clear. DP
- GenresFiction
Paperback
Published January 1, 2002
About the author
Maurice Gee
46 books108 followersMaurice 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 26, 2014
Maurice Gee is so enjoyable to read! He’s a New Zealand author of renown and every time I read him I’m reminded of how well he crafts his stories. This one is set in New Zealand. Be warned, any expat reading this overseas will get on the next plane for NZ for sure!
Gee can describe NZ and it’s inhabitants with amazing effortlessness and we get drawn into the story, the landscape and enveloped by his imagination.
Here we have the story of Ellie, growing up in a boarding house, bottom of the social strata. We get parts of her life, every few pages/chapters is a new era. We see her grow up, her relationships develop and the Shadow Man shadows her through the years.
Ellie becomes a fruit picker in Nelson, meets some artists and then becomes one herself. Her emergence as an artist and as a person are beautifully drawn. Gee is a great author for telling a story simply, getting us to engage with and love his characters.
His other books are well worth a read too.
Gee can describe NZ and it’s inhabitants with amazing effortlessness and we get drawn into the story, the landscape and enveloped by his imagination.
Here we have the story of Ellie, growing up in a boarding house, bottom of the social strata. We get parts of her life, every few pages/chapters is a new era. We see her grow up, her relationships develop and the Shadow Man shadows her through the years.
Ellie becomes a fruit picker in Nelson, meets some artists and then becomes one herself. Her emergence as an artist and as a person are beautifully drawn. Gee is a great author for telling a story simply, getting us to engage with and love his characters.
His other books are well worth a read too.
January 20, 2025
I must have owned this book for 15 years but somehow had never got around to reading it. Shame.
It is the most exquisitely written story of a life, right down to how the author breaks the tale into the core chapters and the “between times”. I absolutely loved it.
It is the most exquisitely written story of a life, right down to how the author breaks the tale into the core chapters and the “between times”. I absolutely loved it.
August 19, 2018
After finding myself internet-less for a couple weeks while settling into a new home, and looking for something to do, I picked up this book from my bookshelf which I hadn't read since I was about 13. I remembered not knowing quite how to feel about it the first time I had read it, and upon re-reading it, still felt that way in a sense.
Ellie and the Shadow Man is not your average novel. If you read the blurb and think "okay... but what happens ", I'm afraid to say there really isn't much to tell. There isn't much in the way of plot. It's not a neat, tidy thread of a storyline that follows your expected structure of how a story should play out, and that will mean that some people will leave it feeling disheartened.
But its structure and flow, while being its deterrent, is also its foundation. A life is not about one series of events that go on one to the next perfectly connected, and Maurice Gee paints the life of a woman as it is: fractured, a little disjointed in parts, containing everything to the person itself and perhaps not much from an outsider looking in. The book is broken into 5 parts, focusing on different blocks of her life, roughly broken into where she lives at the time. This is key to understanding the puzzle of Ellie and her story: she moves around and changes her life for this or that reason, makes friends and loses them, meets lovers that are not storybook princes but your everyday mediocre bloke; she's never quite fully settled, always almost belonging.
For a reason I can't put my finger on, the book pulled me in. I found myself almost intimately knowing Ellie, and the people in her life (at least through her eyes), and yet she remained complex. I leave this book not with a riveting sense of plot in my head but with a perspective. A perspective on life, on our surroundings and the people in it. It has altered me in some small sense, which is no small feat.
In this book, Maurice Gee creates a sort of literary vivarium, creating vivid micro-environments that he uses to make observations on people. Ellie and the Shadow Man allows you to immerse yourself in these environments and get a real feel for the pictures he paints.
Ellie and the Shadow Man is not your average novel. If you read the blurb and think "okay... but what happens ", I'm afraid to say there really isn't much to tell. There isn't much in the way of plot. It's not a neat, tidy thread of a storyline that follows your expected structure of how a story should play out, and that will mean that some people will leave it feeling disheartened.
But its structure and flow, while being its deterrent, is also its foundation. A life is not about one series of events that go on one to the next perfectly connected, and Maurice Gee paints the life of a woman as it is: fractured, a little disjointed in parts, containing everything to the person itself and perhaps not much from an outsider looking in. The book is broken into 5 parts, focusing on different blocks of her life, roughly broken into where she lives at the time. This is key to understanding the puzzle of Ellie and her story: she moves around and changes her life for this or that reason, makes friends and loses them, meets lovers that are not storybook princes but your everyday mediocre bloke; she's never quite fully settled, always almost belonging.
For a reason I can't put my finger on, the book pulled me in. I found myself almost intimately knowing Ellie, and the people in her life (at least through her eyes), and yet she remained complex. I leave this book not with a riveting sense of plot in my head but with a perspective. A perspective on life, on our surroundings and the people in it. It has altered me in some small sense, which is no small feat.
In this book, Maurice Gee creates a sort of literary vivarium, creating vivid micro-environments that he uses to make observations on people. Ellie and the Shadow Man allows you to immerse yourself in these environments and get a real feel for the pictures he paints.
August 9, 2025
Another marvellous and beautifully written Maurice Gee novel.
If I have one criticism it's that it goes on a bit long, perhaps the final story of Dion is unnecessary to the plot of Ellie and her story. But just because it doesn't add much, it doesn't detract either, and provides a West Coat road trip.
If I have one criticism it's that it goes on a bit long, perhaps the final story of Dion is unnecessary to the plot of Ellie and her story. But just because it doesn't add much, it doesn't detract either, and provides a West Coat road trip.
May 8, 2021
Would recommend to anyone who has spent time in the top of the South Island. And would recommend in these odd COVID times when our identities are being challenged as it addresses having a bit of an identity crisis!
March 15, 2020
Loved this book. Maurice Gee writes so simply and with such sensitive insight. I always feel calmed and stirred at the same time when I read his books.
October 17, 2022
I have read this book four times. I will read it again. Haunting, mesmerizing, somehow familiar. It’s more like a person than a book to me.
February 16, 2024
Maurice Gee is such a smooth writer. If someone were to write my biography I'd want it to be him!
September 19, 2015
Only just scrapes in with 3 stars.
The blurb on the back is a pretty accurate summary of the book. In terms of plot, there pretty much isn't one. We are introduced to Ellie as a fourteen year old girl growing up in Lower Hutt, NZ. The book follows Ellie for about fifty years (from the 1950's into the early 2000's). She travels around central NZ from job to job, meeting a few boys, making friends, basically just living her life. Eventually she becomes a recognised painter. The eponymous 'Shadow Man' doesn't appear until the last third of the book when she starts becoming a serious artist.
Like any plotless story Ellie and the Shadow Man is heavily character driven. We are essentially a fly on the wall observing Ellie as she lives her life, which, for the most part, is incredibly ordinary. Maurice Gee discusses themes of religiosity, sexuality, politics, abortion, and the artistic process (among others) through his characters and their relationships with one another. None of the themes Maurice Gee brings up seem forced. They flow naturally and believably from the behaviours and values of the characters that people Maurice's world.
While, at first, I didn't particularly relate to or feel much sympathy for Ellie she did grow on me in the book's latter half. She's brash, strong-willed, and believable. Maurice Gee writes attractively with clear, flowing descriptions and evenly placed metaphors and similies although the dialogue between characters was a little flat at times and indistinguishable from ordinary descriptions. That being said Maurice Gee switches effectively between the narrator's simple, Steinbeck style, descriptions and Ellie's inner speech/ monologues, blending them together to create a realistic image of character and setting. So, while the character dynamics aren't as strong, the view into Ellie's mind is quite well done (although having to hear Ellie's reaction to everything around her does get tiring and a bit dull).
For all the positive aspects of character development and its truth to reality, there is nothing that actually pushes this story forward. Imagine having someone sit next to you on a four hour train ride and start narrating their life to you. It's interesting to a point but is it interesting enough to warrant writing a book about it? In the case of Ellie Crowther - no, not really. It is ultimately just a self indulgent literary exercise. While it offers insights into New Zealand culture and the artistic process, I feel it could have done a much better job of it if there was actually a more appealing incentive to turn the pages. If I didn't have the hang up of finishing every book on my book shelf then I probably wouldn't have bothered with Ellie and the Shadow Man and my life wouldn't have been any lesser for not having read it - it just wasn't very interesting.
There are 3 reasons I can see to read this book:
1. If you want a limited perspective of life in New Zealand from 1950 to 2000.
2. If you want insight into the process of an artist (although you could skip to the last third of the book if this is what you want).
3. If you want to feel like you've lived 50 years of someone else's life in the space of a few hours. That's essentially what this book offers.
Fans of East of the Mountains by David Gutterson or Nineteen Widows Under Ash by Damien Wilkins (also a NZ author) will probably like Ellie and the Shadow Man as both these stories are essentially plotless, are character driven and deal with personal and family relationships. Fans of Kafka on the the Shore by Murakami might also like it.
The blurb on the back is a pretty accurate summary of the book. In terms of plot, there pretty much isn't one. We are introduced to Ellie as a fourteen year old girl growing up in Lower Hutt, NZ. The book follows Ellie for about fifty years (from the 1950's into the early 2000's). She travels around central NZ from job to job, meeting a few boys, making friends, basically just living her life. Eventually she becomes a recognised painter. The eponymous 'Shadow Man' doesn't appear until the last third of the book when she starts becoming a serious artist.
Like any plotless story Ellie and the Shadow Man is heavily character driven. We are essentially a fly on the wall observing Ellie as she lives her life, which, for the most part, is incredibly ordinary. Maurice Gee discusses themes of religiosity, sexuality, politics, abortion, and the artistic process (among others) through his characters and their relationships with one another. None of the themes Maurice Gee brings up seem forced. They flow naturally and believably from the behaviours and values of the characters that people Maurice's world.
While, at first, I didn't particularly relate to or feel much sympathy for Ellie she did grow on me in the book's latter half. She's brash, strong-willed, and believable. Maurice Gee writes attractively with clear, flowing descriptions and evenly placed metaphors and similies although the dialogue between characters was a little flat at times and indistinguishable from ordinary descriptions. That being said Maurice Gee switches effectively between the narrator's simple, Steinbeck style, descriptions and Ellie's inner speech/ monologues, blending them together to create a realistic image of character and setting. So, while the character dynamics aren't as strong, the view into Ellie's mind is quite well done (although having to hear Ellie's reaction to everything around her does get tiring and a bit dull).
For all the positive aspects of character development and its truth to reality, there is nothing that actually pushes this story forward. Imagine having someone sit next to you on a four hour train ride and start narrating their life to you. It's interesting to a point but is it interesting enough to warrant writing a book about it? In the case of Ellie Crowther - no, not really. It is ultimately just a self indulgent literary exercise. While it offers insights into New Zealand culture and the artistic process, I feel it could have done a much better job of it if there was actually a more appealing incentive to turn the pages. If I didn't have the hang up of finishing every book on my book shelf then I probably wouldn't have bothered with Ellie and the Shadow Man and my life wouldn't have been any lesser for not having read it - it just wasn't very interesting.
There are 3 reasons I can see to read this book:
1. If you want a limited perspective of life in New Zealand from 1950 to 2000.
2. If you want insight into the process of an artist (although you could skip to the last third of the book if this is what you want).
3. If you want to feel like you've lived 50 years of someone else's life in the space of a few hours. That's essentially what this book offers.
Fans of East of the Mountains by David Gutterson or Nineteen Widows Under Ash by Damien Wilkins (also a NZ author) will probably like Ellie and the Shadow Man as both these stories are essentially plotless, are character driven and deal with personal and family relationships. Fans of Kafka on the the Shore by Murakami might also like it.
July 3, 2007
Maurice Gee, like Tim Winton, seems to be a wonderful secret of the Antipodes - most people have heard of Thomas Keneally or Peter Carey, but Gee and Winton don't seem to have the same celebrity factor and I don't understand why.
This isn't the best Gee novel I've read to date, that vote goes to The Burning Boy, an intense and yet subtle novel, but this one is pretty damn good. To a certain extent I felt let down, not by his depiction of a woman's psyche, which I thought was well done, but by his version of the artistic psyche, which seemed glossed over in areas where more depth was needed. I wanted to know what, exactly, drove Ellie to create or drove her away from creation, and although Gee illuminates the facts, I wasn't convinced he managed to give them the weight and depth that turned them into motivation. But this is still a thoughtful and thought-provoking book, and as a description of what makes a painter, it's fascinating if not entire.
This isn't the best Gee novel I've read to date, that vote goes to The Burning Boy, an intense and yet subtle novel, but this one is pretty damn good. To a certain extent I felt let down, not by his depiction of a woman's psyche, which I thought was well done, but by his version of the artistic psyche, which seemed glossed over in areas where more depth was needed. I wanted to know what, exactly, drove Ellie to create or drove her away from creation, and although Gee illuminates the facts, I wasn't convinced he managed to give them the weight and depth that turned them into motivation. But this is still a thoughtful and thought-provoking book, and as a description of what makes a painter, it's fascinating if not entire.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews