Maurice Gee

I first read this as a college student (Form 5 /6 -1974 Taihape College) as it was part of our literature studies which focused on NZ authors. As students, we read a lot of Maurice Gee and I remember that I struggled to build up mental images from the text to assist comprehension of storyline. I could not determine if the father or brother was the perpetrator of the affair with the young girl, who our teacher described as somewhat promiscuous. All I remember from that time (1974) was that it started with a lie, ended with a lie and learnt the sayings “Truth will out” “Sins of the father are those of the son”. I also learnt words such as pious, sanctimonious, promiscuous, puritanical, immoral so in a sense our literature studies served the purpose of learning language although at that time I really had no idea what this meant apart from ‘To thy self be true”.
So when this story was recently televised (2024) it evoked memories of my English Studies and a favourite teacher, Mr Ivan Lawson who instilled in his students a love of reading (I got the bug). I thought I would watch it on stream feed to make sense of it as I cannot find a copy of the book.
Surprisingly, as an adult, it was much easier to digest I found that I had a better understanding of the storyline and characters. I felt the film filled in my lost understanding of the storyline, although different in some aspects of who and where events took, place I understood the dysfunctional life that the main protagonist, Paul Prior lived. It became clear that the father was not all he seemed (sanctimonious) and was somewhat depraved and that the den was a hideaway for his depravity.
The story is about Paul Prior who returns home to help his brother Andrew sort out his late father’s affairs. Paul, a well-known war photographer, has no intention of hanging around too long as he is haunted by his past and the knowledge of what happened in his father’s den.
As a young boy discovers his father’s den (a gardener’s equipment shed at the back of the large home with rambling gardens and orchard) and views it as a wondrous world of books and the universe. His father, Jeff shares this wonderful hideaway, with his son Paul on the condition he does not tell anyone else.
The father, Jeff, constantly seeks solace in his den, away from his puritanical wife, Iris; here he can fuel his love of literature and freethinking.
As teenagers, Paul and local girl Jackie (somewhat more adventurous than Paul) are schoolyard sweethearts. Going to the house to see Paul, Jackie is invited into the den by Jeff, it is here that intimate touching and eventually a sexual affair takes place. Ultimately, this illicit affair is witnessed by Paul and exposed. Grief-stricken and betrayed, Iris (wife & mother) commits suicide, while Paul, ignoring the pleas of Andrew, leaves the family home at the age of 17.
The story is an entanglement of lies and deceit, which become known as Paul reluctantly, prolongs his stay to sort out the sale of the family property and orchard.
Persuaded by his ex-teacher, Paul accepts a temporary teaching position at his old high school. He forges an unlikely friendship a student, Celia, they intrinsically connect; Celia is a troubled teen who loves writing and dreams of travelling. Celia is the daughter of Paul's former girlfriend Jackie. Paul begins to believe that Celia maybe his daughter, and becomes a father figure with Celia seeking solace at Paul’s, where she is also introduced to the wondrous literary den.
This relationship, between teacher & student, eventually comes under scrutiny, Jackie forbids Paul from having contact with her daughter, while Andrew voices judgmental concerns to his brother. Despite this, Celia continues to visit and Paul encourages her in her ambitions as a writer.
Celia goes missing and due to their close friendship, Paul becomes the prime suspect and endures the hostility and suspicions of the town including family. However, all comes to light through parallel storylines.
After viewing illicit photos of Celia on Andrew’s office desk and knowledge of Jeff’s will, Andrew’s jealous wife, an enraged Penny accidentally killed Celia. She believes that her husband Andrew was having an affair with Celia and when Celia visits the house looking for Jonathon an incensed Penny fights with Celia who falls and smashes her head. Andrew returns home to discover the tragedy and covers up to protect his distraught wife by dumping Celia’s body.
Paul confronts his brother Andrew for confiscating the camera that he gave to his nephew, Jonathon (Andrew’s son). Paul learns from the confrontation that Celia infatuated Jonathon as Andrew produces illicit photos of Celia taken by Jonathon. It is revealed that Andrew invited Celia, to the house to preview his late fathers will in which Jeff had left a third of the estate to Celia this reveals that Celia is the biological daughter of Jeff through the illicit affair with Jackie. The brothers angrily discuss the past transgressions of their father. ‘The sins of the father are those of the son’ and Paul believes that Andrew may have been responsible for the missing Celia. Jonathon, behind closed doors, witnesses this confrontation, irate and wanting justice for his missing love, he rings the police to also believing that his father killed Celia.
To protect his family Andrew takes eh blame and is arrested while his brother Paul tries to erase the past. He razes the den and reconciles his friendship with Jackie where they seek solace in each over the loss of Celia.… (mais)

Part 2 of Trilogy - An ambitious young woman, Meg Plumb, struggles to lead her own life and searches for her own identity in the shadow of her extraordinary Plumb family. In book 1 – ‘Plumb’ the reader is introduced to the intolerant, irritable Presbyterian clergyman George Plumb, a memorable character with an unyielding and stern personality and a strong belief in his own principles, he is half saint, half monster, and destructive in his utter self-absorption of his pacifist and rationalist opinion. His beliefs lead to sacrifices made by both himself and his family, which develop to fractured relationships with his late wife, and their twelve children (Meg being one of them) long after he passes.
George’s youngest daughter, Meg, narrates this novel Meg. I found this hard reading - too poetic - too dozy, Meg got on my nerves, as she was too whimsical, submissive, and dreamy. However, I can relate to Meg, as a child - young woman, when you live this life you create a fantasy world to take yourself out of it. What I did like about the book was the insight that it gave the reader into the diversity / dysfunction of family life that is portrayed to the public as the good all round Christian family, but in reality there is a lot of damage that is done (if you become a victim to it). I could relate to this upbringing (authoritarian - judgmental - subservient), however it was not all bad, as an adult you have choices and can take the learning you choose from your upbringing and grow from it.… (mais)

I found this hard reading - too poetic - too dozy, Meg the main character got on my nerves as she was too whimiscal, submissive, dreamy. However I can relate to Meg, as a child - young woman, when you live this life you create a fantasy world to take yourself out of it. What I did like about the book was the insight that it gave the reader into the diversity / dysfunction of family life that is portrayed to the public as the good all round Christian family,but in reality there is a lot of damage that is done (if you become a victim to it). I could relate to this upbringing (authoritarion - judgemental - subservient), however it was not all bad, as an adult I have been able to take the learning that I choose and grow from it.… (mais)

I had vague recollections of reading but not finishing this as a kid, and 30 years later a few certain details stuck with me, so I decided to finally finish it.

With adult eyes it was nice to recognise the New Zealand setting, and even when we moved to the fantasy world, there was such a focus on the details of landscape that I really felt a sense of recognition. Most of the time in fantasy, landscapes are described in a grand sweeping way, with a lack of attention to detail which leaves them quite abstract. Maurice Gee describes scree, gullies and pathways in such an intimate way that resonates with me as someone who has explored the New Zealand wilderness and experienced similar settings personally.

The bad guys are pretty one-dimensional edgy evil dudes, complete with black leather and everything, but that's presumably part of the point since the entire premise of the novel hinges on every human in the world having been split into either entirely good or entirely evil, which is what our heroes have to fix. This does raise a few philosophical questions that might not be obvious to a child - the evil humans almost entirely wiped out the good ones, because the good ones are incapable of violence. At one point the last remaining Good human has to siphon some "evil" power from Susan so that she can kill the pursuing bad guys. It makes the point that some evil is a requirement to any fully functional human, since killing or violence is always evil even if you are doing it in defence of yourself or others. Then there is the meat eating vs vegetarian theme - it's not super in-your-face but killing animals, even to survive, could be considered evil. It's part of Jimmy Jaspers dual - perhaps more-evil-than-good - character.

We also see a single child in the evil land - which raises the question - can a child really be evil?

Susan demonstrates a believable emotional response to her situation, one that is not often portrayed in fantasy fiction - the chosen hero feeling isolated and overwhelmed by the task given her. I did get a little pissy at her for abandoning her companions over the darklands - they could easily have died while she floated off.

The bird people and the underground people were one of the ideas I'd remembered all these years, and I enjoyed the bird people culture. Would have loved to experience more of the undergrounders, however the effect of the darkness stayed with me for thirty years so I can't fault the episode too much.

It was a bit weird at the end that they never bothered to turn off the pollution machine themselves - the device that threatened to destroy both our world and the world of O. Instead they trusted the surviving humans to choose their own way. I guess that's very noble of our heroes, but personally I wouldn't take the risk!!

Great read, and finishing it gave me some long-delayed satisfaction.… (mais)