Going west

by Maurice Gee

For all the promise of his name, Jack Skeat cannot be a poet. His friend Rex Petley – eel-catcher, girl-chaser, motorbike rider – takes that prize. Is he also a murderer? And why, forty years later, does he drown out on the Gulf? Jack has to find out, and is drawn to examine their lives. Going West has long been regarded as one of the most autobiographical of Maurice Gee's novels.

Genres: Fiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Frazer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really not expecting this to be the masterpiece it undoubtedly is. Maurice Gee is New Zealand's Ian McEwan. A brilliant structure with just enough of a nod to narrative unreliability to keep you guessing.

How much can we know know about our friends, our loved ones, even ourselves? Gee plays with the phenomenon that is the instability of personhood, and the surprising mercuriality of place.

This had everything: nostalgia, heartache, love of all stripes, and a strong feeling of Turangawaewae (though not necessarily that word).

Set between my two cities of Auckland and Wellington, I felt like I was reading myself in a way. Strange also to be reading it while temporarily based in Karori/Kelburn, where much of the action takes place.

I absolutely recommend this if you're in Aotearoa, and frankly even if you're not.

[Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I often don’t enjoy NZ literature that much because I think I should connect with it more than I generally do but I really felt Auckland and Wellington in this

[Fergus Usal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found Going West to be captivating, in a sense, for the way in which it investigates people, and the way in which we may attempt to perceive, know, and grasp others. The rhyme and rhythms relationships are conducted by—and the inevitable chaos that underlies them. The haphazard yet beautiful connections that we make both with others, and how we try to understand, whether amateurishly or profoundly, that other person’s life. More akin to Maurice Gee’s metaphors, the songs and melodies that are woven in our shared experiences, our lives, our relationships, and their accompanying absurdity or simplicity.

There’s something deeper in there as well to do with art, the act of creation. The disconnect between the reader and poet, observer and painter, listener and musician. Both the extraordinary and plain experiences that lead to the composure of art. That it is never an easy task to truly comprehend what that composer was attempting to convey. That intimate and personal act.

What really drew me in—beneath all that I think Maurice Gee might be trying to convey—was the way in which he captured the cities of Auckland and Wellington. I’m always a sucker for seeing these places I have spent to much time in retread through another’s eyes and ears.

[Bea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slow burner but I rly enjoyed. I think I’m a sucker for the descriptions and name dropping of familiar places and this book was exactly that for Auckland and welly

[Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure initially with the introduction of the main character, a man in his 60s with a dodgy prostate, if I was on the demographic for this. But that dissipated very quickly.

This is masterfully plotted, wonderfully paced, beautifully written and very engaging.

It's easily the best New Zealand novel I've ever read, and could only have been written by someone who has lived in and loved Wellington.

Although the central story concerns two men and their lifelong friendship the women are very well drawn, and their relationships quirky but real.

Most families have lots of secrets from that generation which the current generations are uncovering and this put them all together in a great novel.

I loved it.

[Geoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took effort to get into it for me then got captured by the character development. Being a kiwi and Wellingtonian made the novel more relevant for me.

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stopped reading this about a quarter of the way in. Very well written, as one would expect from Gee, but the characters just held no interest for me.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really intriguing. Took quite a while to get me hooked, but it all came together as I got to know the characters, and as the story tightened. I really liked the collection of flawed, believable characters and realistic, complicated relationships. I liked how the characters and their relationships evolved as the story unfolded. I attempted to read this book years ago and didn't make it past the first few chapters - I'm really pleased that I gave it another try.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I also found this one through that wonderful NZ Book Council promotion, and am so glad I finally got around to reading it; Gee is a beautiful writer and I loved the theme of the tension between creativity and preservation. I really liked the way Petley's poems are described but not reproduced, and I especially liked Gee's subtle suggestion of "arrangement and description," in different ways, as the work of both archivists and poets. All in all, thoroughly worth the interlibrary loan fee.

[Samuel Moncur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewing this after Maurice Gee's passing in 2025, he deservedly received acclaim for many of the books he wrote, but I felt like this book should have been mentioned in more obituaries. In my opinion, one of the best NZ fiction books I've ever read. An excellent character study and minor mystery about the relationships we have and what we really know about them. 5/5

[Andrew Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really close to a "2" tbh. Beautifully written bt so so undernourished contentwise, just some irritating old writer rambling away abt his uneventful life. I've loved all the other Gee I've read tho, so maybe I'm missing something.

[Amy]

from that amazing NZ print commerical...had to have

[Ruth Brittain]

Related to closely.....a brilliant writer who builds believable characters