Access Road

New Zealand author and setting. An older woman reflects back on her past and her family relationships and tries to understand why one of her brothers seems to have lost the will to live. She's a crusty, wry old bird and tells the story of her life with warmth and wisdom.

Some past crimes are eventually revealed and the mystery is solved. In the closing pages I literally gasped out loud when the surprise twist emerged - had no idea that was coming.

Well worth reading - good writing, good dialogue, central characters are well drawn - for a male writer Gee gets the psyche of his female narrator so well.

Our master story-teller strikes again. I borrowed this from the library as I was too impatient to wait till Christmas. My one regret is that I don't own this.
Rowan a woman in her seventies leads us through this story. We are again in the Auckland suburb of Loomis. Her thoughts reminiscent of my own growing up in Auckland and now reflecting back on the complex relationships of childhood and youth. She describes her feeling for her husband "putting up with, at my time of life, is only a nudge away from love." Beautiful! In Rowan's attempt to know and connect with her brothers she uncovers the secrets of the past. Maurice Gee's observations of the nuances of sibling bonds is spot on. I loved this book and wil ruminate on it in the days to show more come. show less

With his usual masterful ease Gee weaves in and out of generations, locations (to a limited extent) headspaces and perspective, paradoxically all the while remaining faithful to his narrator's voice and knowledge. This tale moves through three generations entwined by DNA, by whakapapa and by fate. Gee captures the complexity of simple lives, enmeshes them, and makes the reader's life richer for the encounter.

Penguin categorises ACCESS ROAD as modern and contemporary fiction, and it really has the feel of a cross-genre novel. Rowan Pinker nee Beach is the narrator, describing what it was like being part of the Beach family, growing up on Access Road, near Te Atatu Road, on the outskirts of Auckland. Rowie's two brothers Lionel and Roly were different in many ways, one clever, the other always finding school a struggle, both leaving home in their late teens. We see seven decades of Beach family history through Rowie's eyes. Finally the brothers come home, bachelors, back to the house they lived in as boys, and Rowie visits them each week, looking after them in their old age, just as her mother would have done had she still been alive.

Much of show more the novel focusses on how life in New Zealand has changed over the years and there were many times when I mentally thought I know what that was like. And yet the reader knows that hidden by the years there is a crime. When Clyde Buckley returns we know it is just a matter of time until all is revealed.

ACCESS ROAD is bit different to my usual fare. It's not a police procedural, not noir, nor a thriller, not a cozy, and the crime almost takes a back seat. If I had to compare the style with someone else's, I'd suspect it owes a bit to Australia's Patrick White. It is a carefully layered story, building to its climax in the final pages. show less

Rowan narrates a tale of family relationships and dark secrets, shifting back and forth in time as she searches her memory for reasons behind her bedridden brother Lionel’s silence. Rowan lives a somewhat-contented life with her “silly old git” of a husband Dickie, a cheerful drunk but regularly visits her siblings Roly and Lionel, who’ve moved back to the old family home in Access Road, Loomis. Visits that spark a flood of memories, not all of them pleasant.

A really good read.

A chilling family saga set in West Auckland