By Peter Archer
This Maurice Gee novel is a bit different from his other work.
One difference is that the first-person narrator-protagonist is not a native-born Kiwi: Josef is an Austrian-Jewish refugee who flees Austria about the time of Hitler’s takeover, and somehow ends up in New Zealand.
Another difference is that most of the New Zealand action is set in the Wellington area, and there is no mention of the mythical West-Auckland suburb of Loomis.
However, like most of Gee’s other work, this story does have rumblings of deep, dark hidden subconscious-mind disturbances. With his background of having battled the Nazi street-gangs, and endured the rampant anti-semitism of 1930’s Vienna, it must be inevitable that anyone would be deeply affected: and Josef obviously has been affected by all this, but not in an obvious, overdone way.
Gee employs his usual writing technique of telling the story from the viewpoint of the elderly man, writing about his earlier life, skillfully utilizing flashbacks, in much the same way as employed in other Gee novels, like “Plumb”.
Only, this time, many of the flashbacks are to pre-war Vienna, about street battles between the communists (which the writer was in his youth) and the various other political factions, mainly various shades of fascists, including the Nazis.
A major part of the narrative, around the middle stages, describes in some detail Josef’s experiences while being interred on Soame’s Island for most of World War 2, as an “enemy alien”, despite his obvious anti-Nazism and Jewishness.
Gee obviously has done some rather comprehensive research about the WW-II internment camp on Soame’s Island, and also about pre-WWII Vienna. While I have no expertise in either of these subjects, Gee’s treatment of them certainly seemed very authentic to me, and I learnt a lot about those sorry chapters in history from this novel.
I enjoyed the odd sprinkling of German words and phrases, in the sections of the book that were set in Vienna.
As is always the case with Gee, he tells the story unembellished with any judgement or moral commentary, leaving it to the reader to form his own opinions regarding any rights and wrongs, etc.
For example, the pig-headed system that was used to put so-called “enemy aliens” on trial, to decide who should be interred for the duration of the war: Gee describes the process in a straightforward, unemotional manner, leaving it to the reader to make up his own mind as to the fairness of the system. This certainly opened my eyes to this aspect of our past history.
The same with the situation regarding Josef’s in-laws. Their racial bigotry was absolutely breathtaking, in fact it was more than breathtaking, it was almost unbelievable. Yet, the way that Gee describes it, I found it believable. Having grown up in 1950’s New Zealand, and having known a few people who had similar racist opinions, I can believe it.
One of the reasons that I really love Gee’s novels is that most of them give the reader an incredibly well-crafted and insightful portrait of aspects of life in New Zealand. Most of these pen-portraits on God-Zone are from the point of view of a native-born Kiwi. And, these are all so skillfully done, they are without peer.
Often, while reading these novels, (examples are Blind Sight, Access Road, and Sole Survivor), I find myself nodding appreciatively at some aspect of New Zealand life that the author has captured just perfectly: in a way that I can imagine that it is me that is there in the book, having that experience.
This time, it is somewhat different. Gee has skillfully shifted his perspective, and tells the story from the point of view of someone from a foreign land, someone who is having trouble understanding all of the subtle little things about this strange culture that he has landed in at the bottom of the world.
For example, sprinkled throughout the book are examples of various Kiwi slang phrases (of the 1940’s and 50’s), in the context of Josef’s experiences with them as he comes to grips with these more subtle aspects of Kiwi-English. And, of course, to become a really fluent speaker of any language, one has to master these local slang idiosyncricities.
So: does Gee succeed in portraying this? I believe he does. To me, Gee’s “Josef”, from Vienna, is just as believable as any of his Kiwi-born first-person protagonists in his other novels.
Among other things, to attain this level of credibility obviously requires meticulous research, which Gee obviously has done, and it shows.
Another thing that Gee handles well is Josef’s complex relationship with Willi, the likeable German rogue who becomes his best friend while interred on Soames Island, and who pops up in various phases of the story, until he is finally killed off, somewhat to Josef’s relief. Josef’s struggle to make a new life for himself in this strange land is interwoven with his links to his past, and Willi embodies much of that past that Josef would just like to move on from and leave in the past.
Interestingly, Willi is from Berlin, and it is to Berlin that he ultimately returns, not having ever really been comfortable in New Zealand. And, it is quite fitting that he meets his death there, reported second-hand, in an East Berlin prison.
So, well done, Maurice! Another well-crafted masterpiece from the pen of New Zealand’s foremost living novelist!
