Gillespie and I: A Novel Paperback – January 31, 2012

I've arrived late on the scene here with this review; there are already plenty of exemplary five-star reviews. In fact, it was the high quality of many of those reviews (and the reviewers) that caused me to buy this book and read it as soon as I downloaded it. The book sounded too good to pass up...a delicious and very special literary treat. I needed that. So I stole the time and I certainly don't regret it.Many of the highly praiseworthy reviews note that the book drags for the first 90 to 200 pages. I agree. But, please, don't let that get in the way. These pages are essential; they build character and, more important, tension. Stick with it. Try to relish the detail and abandon yourself to it. It's already given away in these reviews that you're dealing with an unreliable narrator, so spend that extra time and energy trying to read between the lines, examining the facets, looking behind the incidentals. Soon those long atmospheric character-building pages will be behind you and you'll be primed (yes, primed) for the amazing psychological rollercoaster ride at the end.The ending is spectacularly spine-chilling! No matter how well, or how closely, you've attended to the beginning of this novel, you'll find the hair at the back of your neck standing straight up as you make your way through the last third.Harriet Baxter is a character that you'll never fail to remember; she's as unforgettable as Hitchcock's Norman Bates. Without a doubt, Jane Harris is an extraordinarily effective and accomplished author.If you love strong character-driven literary psychological mysteries, don't pass this up. This is as delicious a literary treat as they come. "Gillespie and I" will certainly be on my list of one of the best books I've read this year.

To quote from the Washington Post review: "If you are in any way squeamish or genteel, skip "Gillespie and I." I don't know that I totally agree."Gillespie and I" reminds me of the sensation novels of Wilkie Collins. The author captures the vocabulary and rhythms of nineteenth century writing and I really felt transported to that era. The protagonist, Harriet, is relatable and, at times, even funny. I didn't find the beginning slow as some readers did, probably because I hadn't read anything about the book and it starts out like a novel of manners, akin to the books of Jane Austen. "Gillespie and I" has more in common with "Gone Girl," though, than anything Austen wrote. The reason I would caution the more gentle person about this book is because the book is ultimately about evil. I find it hard to distance myself from the events in a book. Although I know they're not real, they feel real to me, and so I began to feel uneasy about a third of the way through, and then about halfway through, the novel got so creepy that I wanted to stop reading, but couldn't because I cared about the characters.Now, that's not to say there was anything graphically offensive. Not at all. It is in keeping with the morals of the times. I don't believe there is any profanity and there is no sex. But there is still evil. And I was made uneasy by it, not just because of the outcomes of that evil, but because I inevitably had to ask: in what ways am I like this? Of course, that's a good question to ask yourself.So read it because it's well written and memorable, and you might learn a few hard lessons about yourself. But it's certainly not a cosy read.

There were a few times while reading the 1st half of the book that I asked myself why am I reading this book. Hence the 3 star rating (I would have rated 3.5). Accepting the 1st half as the setup, the 2nd half of the book is much more interesting. I thought it was a clever ending which some may not like as it seems to raise as many questions as answers.

Jane Harris' narrator, Harriet Baxter, is an old woman writing in 1933 about events that took place in Glasgow in 1888, when in her mid-thirties she became friends with the rising painter Ned Gillespie and his family. Harris has the voice down perfectly, the expansive late Victorian style that reports every detail and (apparently) every nuance of feeling. She is an attractive protagonist, with a nice touch of humor and less maiden modesty than one might imagine. But she does go on, at Jamesian length and more; my only problem with this novel is that, at 504 pages, it is about 150 pages too long.It was especially interesting to me for personal reasons, for when Harriet moves to Glasgow to attend the International Exhibition, she finds rooms in a part of the city where I myself lived as a young man; her depth of factual detail is extraordinary, even down to the addition of genuine period street maps. She also uses words that I have not heard in years, such as "outwith" (for "outside of") and those wonderful archaic terms of the Scottish legal system. For, as Harriet makes clear early on, her originally charming story will eventually turn tragic and climax in a criminal trial sensational enough to feature in books published many decades later. We will learn more about both these things in time, but for now we have to wait for them.Harriet had met Ned Gillespie briefly in an exhibition in London. Four months later, by sheer chance, she rescues a lady from choking in a Glasgow street who turns out to be the artist's mother. She is invited round to tea, and soon comes to see more of the family: Ned, his wife Annie (also an artist), his two young daughters, his sister and brother, and of course the mother, Elspeth, a determinedly "raffeened" woman with an active involvement in Christian charity. Harriet herself is helpful, generous, and moderately well-off, so she soon becomes a godsend to this family whose lives are more of a struggle. Before long, one wonders if she is not becoming too ubiquitous as a friend, like a guest who will not depart, though the Gillespies always treat her with respect.But how should WE treat Harriet? Her brief accounts of incidents in her life in 1933, while she is writing this memoir, and especially her troubles with her live-in housekeeper-companion, suggest that she may be emotionally self-deluding. As events unfold up there in Scotland, we will find ourselves in the extraordinary position of not knowing quite what to believe; she is true in detail, but perhaps less so in matters of feeling. The climactic trial scenes, where various versions of truth will contend with one another, are superb. Perhaps they are only possible because of the leisurely way Harriet had drawn us (again apparently) into her mind earlier. As the book has grown in my mind over the past two weeks, I see the author has planted all sorts of seeds that may or may not germinate later -- a fascinating technique that perhaps justifies the book's length after all.

There was a lot in this story to keep me engaged, and it was very well written. The trial got a bit long for me, hence 4 stars instead of 5.

2006 was an excellent year for me as I read two of the most memorable debut novels, The Observations by Jane Harris and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I'm not holding my breath re a new offering from Ms Setterfield but I can't tell you how excited I was last year when I heard about Gillespie and I. I had to put myself out of my misery, buy the hardback tout de suite and dive straight in.Well, I can assure you that if you were even remotely titivated by The Observations, then you will love Gillespie and I. Our narrator is 35 year old English woman, Harriet Baxter, who finds herself in Glasgow in 1888 for the International Exhibition. Following the death of her aunt for whom she was full-time carer, Harriet comes into a modest sum of money and decides to move temporarily from London to Glasgow for a change of scenery. The book takes the form of a memoir about her time in Glasgow which she writes in 1933, in London where she now lives on her own. attended by a series of carers, none of whom appear to stay very long in her employ. We are fed little crumbs of information along the way which let us know that her time in Scotland does not end happily and that her initially halcyon relationship with the Gillespie clan, in particular, with Ned, the artist, is doomed to disaster. However, as the narrative progresses, we realise that all is not what it seems and we might very well revise our initial impression of Harriet as a thoroughly objective observer.I won't spoil things by revealing anything more about the plot but suffice to say that Jane Harris has created a compelling, dark, psychological narrative which belies its benign facade. Harriet isn't quite the cute, fluffy puppy she'd have you believe! The whole novel is a delight from start to finish, peopled with vivid, engaging characters from Ned's interfering mother whose attempt at a posh accent results in Harriet being transformed into Herriet Bexter to Ned's truculent eldest daughter, Sibyl. Indeed all of the characters have their very own, distinctive voices and all have their role to play in this dramatic tale. Such is the power of the writing that even a 160 page account of a trial continued to engage me and indeed I didn't want it to end.Gillespie and I is one of those rare books which will remain with me for a very long time. Its characters are extremely believable and although I'm not entirely sure if any of them are that likeable, you certainly won't forget them in a hurry. It's a carefully nuanced portrait of a family torn apart by tragedy yet it has its sublimely comic moments too - it's been well worth the five year wait!

Having read and liked The Observations, I found Jane Harris 's writing unusual and highly engaging. Gillespie and I is a little more main stream, and has a slightly less sympathetic heroine. The aged Harriet Baxter's lucid telling of her youthful relationship with the Gillespie family, begun in great amity during the International Exhibition in Glasgow, and the ultimate tragedy which befalls the family is beautifully narrated. By drawing together the threads of doubt which are cleverly hinted at as "Saint" Harriet moves innocently through the ups and downs of Gillespie domesticity, Jane Harris has given us an apparently hugely likeable and extremely practical character who ultimately may or may not be what she seems. Ned Gillespie and his wife, Annie, are both artists - she possibly the more talented of the pair, although much taken up with running her home and raising her two daughters and their new friend is initially a bit of a godsend. The Gillespie family's own story is a brilliant study in generational relationships and sibling dynamics and its ultimate destruction is almost Gothic in tone as desperate tragedy tears them apart, and relationships are further fractured during a tense criminal trial.As narrator, from the perspective of geriatric musings, Harriet ensures she has the advantage of believability, the burden of being misinterpreted and the implied ill will of many of the people whom she counted as friends. Was the 30-something Harriet a misunderstood innocent abroad; well meaning but overly interfering, or is there a darker side to this genteel lady which hints at thwarted passion and the ways in which that may have manifested itself. Her feelings for Ned Gillespie, initially expressed as an interest in promoting his artistic work, are clearly more than those of a friend. On one level, she definitely wants to "possess" him and isolate him from Annie. Harris keeps us tantalisingly apart from the person who could shed light on young Harriet growing up - her shadowy step-father. As the elderly Harriet deconstructs the huge events of her life, she is "assisted" by a procession of agency supplied companions who inevitably fail to measure up and who could no doubt tell a tale or two about their odd employer!! There are hints of controlled madness just below the surface, all the more chilling for being expressed in lovely prose. Ned and Annie Gillespie themselves are pitched from mere money worries and lack of artistic success into an all consuming disaster. Would it all have happened thus if Ned's mother had NOT been rescued from choking on her dentures by Harriet, or "Herriet" as she would have said, on that random shopping trip to Buchanan Street?The sense of time and place in late 19th Century Glasgow is exceptionally well done. Overall, this is a really good read.

I was recommended this book, and seeing all the good reviews, I decided to buy it. Having just finished it today, I have this feeling of having been cheated. It was readable, a bit plodding, but still it held my interest. I had the feeling all along that Harriet might not be what she seemed. But when I'd finished the book...well, I still had that feeling, but nothing else. Nothing is made clear, nothing is resolved. It's left to the reader to think..what? I think I may have missed some clues throughout the book, but frankly, it wasn't an interesting enough story with good enough characterisation for me to re-read it to find out what was really going on...or perhaps really going on. It may be great fun for book clubs to discuss endlessly, but for the ordinary reader...forget it. To be honest, I feel annoyed that I wasted so much time on it. I won't be reading any more of Jane Harris' books.

'It would appear that I am to be the first to write a book on Gillespie. Who, if not me, was dealt that hand? Indeed, one might say, who else is left to tell the tale? Ned Gillespie: artist, innovator, and forgotten genius; my dear friend and soul mate.'And so begins Miss Harriet Baxter's memoir of the forgotten artist Ned Gillespie. It is 1933 and forty years have passed since the artist burned almost all of his paintings and committed suicide, at the young age of thirty-six. Harriet's rapport with the artist, she informs us at the outset, was profound; so intimate was their friendship that she learned to understand him through his merest glance. His family, on the other hand, was 'a group of persons who, sadly, were a burdemsome factor in his life'. Then we are presented with a glimpse of what is to come, as Harriet refers in passing to 'all that white-slavery business and the trial'.Harriet begins her tale with her arrival in Glasgow in the spring of 1888. A young unmarried woman of independent means (with, I might add, a biting sense of humour), she has made the journey to visit the first Glasgow International Exhibition, in search of distraction following the death of her aunt, who she nursed in London through the previous autumn and winter. Soon after her arrival she encounters, and saves the life of, Elspeth Gillespie, who has collapsed in the street and is in danger of choking on her own false teeth. Harriet quickly becomes a close friend of the family, which consists primarily of Elspeth Gillespie, her son Ned (a moderately successful artist), his wife Annie (who is an aspiring artist), and their two daughters Rose and Sibyl.Harriet is eager to be of assistance to the family which, while it is not poor (Ned and Annie do employ a maid), is not terribly well off, so she commissions Annie to paint a portrait of her. During her visits, which become frequent to the point where she is practically part of the household furniture, she observes the daily habits and most intimate moments of this seemingly happy family. 'On the surface,' she explains, 'the Gillespies did seem like a fairly stable family. However, ere long, I began to see beneath the façade, and to realise that, particularly with regard to Sibyl, cracks were beginning to show'. Sibyl turns out to be a very troubled child, Ned's brother's behaviour threatens to cause a scandal that will destroy the entire family, and then there's that sensational trial on the horizon that Harriet has already alluded to... a trial in which she will play a very significant part.Though set predmoninantly in Glasgow in the 1880s, we are frequently given a glimpse of Harriet's current life in 1930s London. She lives in an apartment in Bloomsbury with two caged finches, Layla and Majnum, and is convinced that her companion, Sarah, is an imposter who is out to do her harm. It is, in part, these glimpses into Harriet's present that cast her past is a somewhat different light. All is not what it seems, and Harriet is not exactly a reliable narrator. We begin to wonder if we are being manipulated...This is a book that, in order to really do justice to it in a review, I'd have to reveal too much of the twisty-turny plot, which I won't do as it will spoil your enjoyment. It's quite a long book, being over five hundred pages in length, but every one of those pages is necessary. I could not put this book down. I stayed up until half past four this morning to get it finished; that's how gripped I was. This is a tale that makes you think, work, question everything. It is only when the story has reached its conclusion, and you acquire the benefit of hindsight, that the real significance and nature of events truly unfold.I enjoyed this book so much that I'm giving it five stars. I'm also going to go and get Jane Harris' first book, 'The Observations'.

This is a longish novel written in the first person from the viewpoint of an elderly single lady, Harriet Baxter. It centres on the relationship between her and a Glaswegian artist and his family in her younger days, around the time of Jack the Ripper, and most of the novel consists of her memoir of what happened then, following the publication of a work which seems to have disparaged her, though we have little detail of what it contained. At first she seems just a caring, kindly person. Gradually hints creep in that she is more complex than that - she can be cunning and deceitful. Her prose style is impeccably correct and genteel, but is that lulling us into a false sense of trust? Can we believe all she says? When tragedy strikes, is she involved in kidnap and murder? She finds herself on trial, alongside a couple who seem definitely to have been involved. Much of the latter part of the book is a lengthy account of the trial from her perspective, and this is superbly done, with good knowledge of Scottish legal process, and is riveting. Interspersed with this main narrative are brief sections about her relationship in old age with the latest in a series of (in her eyes) unsatisfactory companions - women employed to keep her company and look after her - and these show her unbalanced, and having taken at least a little to drink. These sections intensify the doubts about the reliability of her memoir - but everything is at the end left ambiguous. It seems clear that Harriet has advanced cancer, and that parts of her account are false, but it is not at all clear how far they are false, or whether or not she is guilty. And she seems not to be the only one in her family not to be believed. Her stepfather plays a background role, but also seems to have told untruths: is he more sinister than appears, or is Harriet imagining things or misremembering? We never know.The novel starts slowly but soon the atmosphere becomes increasingly ominous. The period detail is generally good, though I see from some reviews that there are a few uses of language which would be incorrect for the Glasgow of the time. As far as the plot goes, just one thing jarred with me: a key missing bit of financial evidence could surely easily have been found - or found not to exist - by other means, and helped to prove things one way or the other. For that reason I have given the book 4 rather than 5 stars.