From the Orange Prize-nominated author of The Observations comes an absorbing, atmospheric exploration of one young woman’s friendship with a volatile artist and her place in the controversy that consumes him. Jane Harris’s Gillespie and I presents a strongly voiced female protagonist evocative of Moll Flanders and Becky Sharp, who offers a keen sensibility, deeply felt observations, and poignant remembrances of the world of a young artist in turn-of-the-century Glasgow in this fantastic work of historical fiction. London’s Sunday Times calls Gillespie and I “a literary novel where the storytelling is as skilful as the writing is fine.” Fans of The Piano Teacher and The Thirteenth Tale will find it irresistible and unforgettable.
Gillespie and I
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Harris, author of The Observations, follows up her smashing debut with another biting, character-driven satire. As elderly narrator Harriet Baxter takes a trip down memory lane, the story of an essentially lonely life punctuated by one period of giddy activity and involvement unfolds. When Harriet, a well-heeled, youngish Victorian spinster, travels to Glasgow in 1888 to take in the sights and sounds of the International Exhibition, a chance encounter embroils her in the middle of the eccentric Gillespie family. As she becomes indispensable to the clan, her relationship with Ned Gillespie, a struggling artist with a wife and two daughters to support, becomes more and more obsessive. The initially playful narrative tone darkens decidedly as the double mystery of Ned’s eventual suicide and Harriet’s reliability as a memoirist steadily unpeels. --Margaret Flanagan
Review
“To detail even minor aspects of the plot twists in GILLESPIE AND I would necessitate an additional crime: You’d want to kill me. So delectably well has Harris constructed this psychological thriller that even the slightest hint of what’s to come would spoil things.” (Chicago Tribune )
“To say anything more would be to give away the plot, which is too delectable to spoil.” (Washington Post )
“Even for readers who think they’ve seen everything, GILLESPIE AND I is almost certain to be surprising. . . . A masterwork of subtlety and penetrating psychological insight. . . . But few hints will prepare most readers for what is to come.” (Shelf Awareness )
“Elegant novel of love, loss and redemption. . . . Harris writes sensitively and in rich detail. . . . A fine evocation of a lost era, and without a false note.” (Kirkus Reviews )
“Haunting. . . . Harris succeeds with nuanced characters. . . . The reader will be so thoroughly entrenched in the carefully arranged details and the courtroom’s gripping drama that there will be no turning back.” (Publishers Weekly )
“It is rare to read a literary novel where the storytelling is as skilful as the writing is fine, but in Gillespie and I, Harris has pulled off the only too rare double whammy—a Booker-worthy novel that I want to read again.” (Sunday Times (London) )
“Harris follows up her smashing debut with another biting, character-driven satire.” (Booklist )
“This is a compelling, suspenseful and highly enjoyable novel—but what stands out is the way in which this narrative provokes us to think again about what we imagine, and what we hope for, and about the burdens that those hopes and imaginings impose upon those around us.” (The Times (London) )
“A wonderfully compelling read.” (Daily Mail (London) )
“To say anything more would be to give away the plot, which is too delectable to spoil.” (Washington Post )
“Even for readers who think they’ve seen everything, GILLESPIE AND I is almost certain to be surprising. . . . A masterwork of subtlety and penetrating psychological insight. . . . But few hints will prepare most readers for what is to come.” (Shelf Awareness )
“Elegant novel of love, loss and redemption. . . . Harris writes sensitively and in rich detail. . . . A fine evocation of a lost era, and without a false note.” (Kirkus Reviews )
“Haunting. . . . Harris succeeds with nuanced characters. . . . The reader will be so thoroughly entrenched in the carefully arranged details and the courtroom’s gripping drama that there will be no turning back.” (Publishers Weekly )
“It is rare to read a literary novel where the storytelling is as skilful as the writing is fine, but in Gillespie and I, Harris has pulled off the only too rare double whammy—a Booker-worthy novel that I want to read again.” (Sunday Times (London) )
“Harris follows up her smashing debut with another biting, character-driven satire.” (Booklist )
“This is a compelling, suspenseful and highly enjoyable novel—but what stands out is the way in which this narrative provokes us to think again about what we imagine, and what we hope for, and about the burdens that those hopes and imaginings impose upon those around us.” (The Times (London) )
“A wonderfully compelling read.” (Daily Mail (London) )
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More About the Author
Jane Harris was born in Belfast and grew up in Scotland before moving to England in her 20s. Her first book "The Observations" won the USA Book of the Month Club's First Fiction Prize in 2007 and was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2007 and the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger in 2009. Her second novel "Gillespie and I" was shortlisted for the National Book Awards in 2011 in England and the Scottish Book Awards in 2012.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
By Bham
Format:Hardcover
Jane Harris's first novel, "The Observations," was a brilliant piece of writing -- funny, tender, and full of twists and turns. So I had been looking forward to her next novel with much anticipation, and I wasn't disappointed. "Gillespie and I" is just as original and inventive, with plenty of surprises. In fact, as soon as I finished it, I was tempted to re-read it. The action in "Gillespie and I" moves back and forth between the late 1800s and the early 1900s, and the link is the main character, Harriet. I won't say more, as I don't want to give away any of the novel's secrets, but it is definitely one of the best books I've read this year.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By P. Woodland
Format:Paperback
Where do I start? This is a very hard book to review; it was fantastic, don't get me wrong. In fact one of the best books I've read - but to explain why is to give away too much. Ms. Harris is brilliant. She has created a heroine that is so multifaceted you run the gamut of emotions from like to out and out hate and back again before you are done with the book. Just who IS Harriet Baxter?
Harriet, at the start of the book is a young woman who has lost her mother and has just buried her aunt. She is of independent means and so she decides to go to Glasgow for the great International Exhibition that is being held. While there she saves the life of Elsbeth Gillespie and ingratiates herself into the family. To what end?
The book is Harriet's memoir as she writes in her dotage. She is "to set the record straight" about her time with "the artist Gillespie." But one wonders about her ability to discern the absolute truth from the Harriet truth. The story is told in a well constructed flashback/flashforward style that forces you to piece snippets of information together like a jigsaw puzzle. Never have I enjoyed a book more. Never have I puzzled over a book more. Never have I wondered at the sanity of a heroine more. And I am still thinking about her and I finished the book over a week ago. This book has serious pull. Oh, I will read it again and I suspect that I will find all manner of things I missed as I flew through it the first time.
Do not miss the chance to acquaint yourself with Ms. Harriet Baxter. You won't be disappointed. Her times are fascinating, her story is thrilling and her life a conundrum. All manner of praise to Jane Harris for creating a character so complex and a story so rich in detail and human drama.
Harriet, at the start of the book is a young woman who has lost her mother and has just buried her aunt. She is of independent means and so she decides to go to Glasgow for the great International Exhibition that is being held. While there she saves the life of Elsbeth Gillespie and ingratiates herself into the family. To what end?
The book is Harriet's memoir as she writes in her dotage. She is "to set the record straight" about her time with "the artist Gillespie." But one wonders about her ability to discern the absolute truth from the Harriet truth. The story is told in a well constructed flashback/flashforward style that forces you to piece snippets of information together like a jigsaw puzzle. Never have I enjoyed a book more. Never have I puzzled over a book more. Never have I wondered at the sanity of a heroine more. And I am still thinking about her and I finished the book over a week ago. This book has serious pull. Oh, I will read it again and I suspect that I will find all manner of things I missed as I flew through it the first time.
Do not miss the chance to acquaint yourself with Ms. Harriet Baxter. You won't be disappointed. Her times are fascinating, her story is thrilling and her life a conundrum. All manner of praise to Jane Harris for creating a character so complex and a story so rich in detail and human drama.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Harriet Baxter is an 80 year old woman living alone in Bloomsbury in 1933. As she nears the end of her life, and while she possesses a full mental capacity, she decides to write a memoir about Ned Gillespie, a brilliant Glaswegian painter who never achieved the fame he deserved.
Harriet is a single and outspoken woman of good taste and independent means in her mid-30s, who travels from London to Glasgow to attend the 1888 International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry. She is introduced to Ned after she has a remarkable encounter with his mother Elspeth and wife Annie, and she recognizes him from an art exhibition in London held several years previously. The two women befriend Harriet, who integrates herself into the lives of the Gillespie family, including their younger daughter Rose and her older, troubled sister Sibyl, along with Ned's overbearing mother and his secretive brother.
Harriet decides to lengthen her stay in Glasgow, as she becomes a somewhat awkward yet appreciated fixture in the Gillespie household. Sibyl exhibits increasingly strange and disturbing behavior, which strains the marriage and Annie's relationship with Elspeth, and culminates in a shocking crime that devastates the Gillespies and their new friend.
The novel shifts between 1888 Glasgow and 1933 London, as Harriet tells her side of the events that surrounded the crime and its notorious trial and aftermath, in order to set the record straight. The action and tension build in both settings, as Harriet proves to be an increasingly unreliable narrator, which left this reader fascinated and on the edge of his seat until the final page.... Read more ›
Harriet is a single and outspoken woman of good taste and independent means in her mid-30s, who travels from London to Glasgow to attend the 1888 International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry. She is introduced to Ned after she has a remarkable encounter with his mother Elspeth and wife Annie, and she recognizes him from an art exhibition in London held several years previously. The two women befriend Harriet, who integrates herself into the lives of the Gillespie family, including their younger daughter Rose and her older, troubled sister Sibyl, along with Ned's overbearing mother and his secretive brother.
Harriet decides to lengthen her stay in Glasgow, as she becomes a somewhat awkward yet appreciated fixture in the Gillespie household. Sibyl exhibits increasingly strange and disturbing behavior, which strains the marriage and Annie's relationship with Elspeth, and culminates in a shocking crime that devastates the Gillespies and their new friend.
The novel shifts between 1888 Glasgow and 1933 London, as Harriet tells her side of the events that surrounded the crime and its notorious trial and aftermath, in order to set the record straight. The action and tension build in both settings, as Harriet proves to be an increasingly unreliable narrator, which left this reader fascinated and on the edge of his seat until the final page.... Read more ›
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
ISBN: 978-0-06-210320-8
Harper Collins
Published: February 2012
Trade Paperback, 528 pages
As the book opens it is 1933 London, England and elderly Harriet Baxter begins to record the story of her friendship, 40 years earlier, with the Scottish artist Ned Gillespie.
This is historical fiction set against the backdrop of the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1888 and the art scene of the day. Thirty-six-year old Harriet Baxter arrives in Glasgow for the Exhibition. She soon meets and becomes fast friends with Ned Gillespie and his unusual family in a very intrusive way as she not only accompanies them on outings, but also does housework and laundry for them (what?) and is forever giving them gifts. Throughout the first few chapters of the book there are hints of things to come as Harriet says "if only we had known then what the future held in store" and "due to everything that happened" and "given what happened." There are a lot of references to Sybil, one of Ned's two young daughters. Her wild, uncontrollable, destructive actions led me to think that she is somehow going to figure into the mystery that is very slowly developing and that only really begins in chapter 11. I wasn't wrong. Sybil figures very largely in this tale. Suddenly her sister, Rose, is abducted, a ransom note arrives and mysteriously, Harriet is implicated and arrested. The household is turned into chaos. Sybil is put into an asylum. Life changes forever for the Gillespie family and Harriet.
Apart from 3-year-old Rose, none of the characters are very likeable. I didn't care for Harriet, despite her being quite funny and witty. I saw her as a manipulative, sad, hanger-on.... Read more ›
ISBN: 978-0-06-210320-8
Harper Collins
Published: February 2012
Trade Paperback, 528 pages
As the book opens it is 1933 London, England and elderly Harriet Baxter begins to record the story of her friendship, 40 years earlier, with the Scottish artist Ned Gillespie.
This is historical fiction set against the backdrop of the Glasgow International Exhibition of 1888 and the art scene of the day. Thirty-six-year old Harriet Baxter arrives in Glasgow for the Exhibition. She soon meets and becomes fast friends with Ned Gillespie and his unusual family in a very intrusive way as she not only accompanies them on outings, but also does housework and laundry for them (what?) and is forever giving them gifts. Throughout the first few chapters of the book there are hints of things to come as Harriet says "if only we had known then what the future held in store" and "due to everything that happened" and "given what happened." There are a lot of references to Sybil, one of Ned's two young daughters. Her wild, uncontrollable, destructive actions led me to think that she is somehow going to figure into the mystery that is very slowly developing and that only really begins in chapter 11. I wasn't wrong. Sybil figures very largely in this tale. Suddenly her sister, Rose, is abducted, a ransom note arrives and mysteriously, Harriet is implicated and arrested. The household is turned into chaos. Sybil is put into an asylum. Life changes forever for the Gillespie family and Harriet.
Apart from 3-year-old Rose, none of the characters are very likeable. I didn't care for Harriet, despite her being quite funny and witty. I saw her as a manipulative, sad, hanger-on.... Read more ›
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yep, this was good both in writing and plot
This was a really good mystery. I enjoyed it a lot. It was well paced with an intricate plot feeding out bits of information in a well considered manner. It was a satisfying read.
Published 6 months ago by Diane Challenor
2.0 out of 5 stars
Gillespie and I
At first this sounded like a good read, but the further along I went the more frustrated I became with so many hints of things to come, but no movement toward getting around to... Read more
Published 8 months ago by psyanhko
4.0 out of 5 stars
Two mysteries in one
This is a great read, a story of a women who becomes involved with a very interesting family. Told in flashbacks by the woman, she delves into family secrets and problems, all the... Read more
Published 10 months ago by mrs O
4.0 out of 5 stars
Was patient and ended up liking it a lot
It is very hard to tell you why I liked this book without giving away an important twist. I will say that I almost gave up on it several times in the first two hundred fifty pages. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mom Round the Clock
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Gillespie and I
Gillespie and I is one of those rare books where all those raving reviews? They are spot on.
There are so many things I want to praise about this book. Read more
There are so many things I want to praise about this book. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Lydia
4.0 out of 5 stars
Really 3.5 stars for me, but Amazon doean't allow that option.
This was a good story. It was a very good story. But, I disliked almost all of
the characters from early on. Read more
the characters from early on. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Kathleen Wagner
3.0 out of 5 stars
hmmm....
I have very mixed feelings about this novel. The first part was interesting enough, developing characters and dropping hints as to what was to follow, 'though it was not... Read more
Published 13 months ago by louking
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favorites!
[...]
The title refers to the memoir that the main character, Harriet Baxter, is writing about her time spent with Ned Gillespie in 1880's Glasgow, Scotland. Read more
The title refers to the memoir that the main character, Harriet Baxter, is writing about her time spent with Ned Gillespie in 1880's Glasgow, Scotland. Read more
Published 14 months ago by jottingswithjasmine
5.0 out of 5 stars
Part "The Good Soldier" and part "All About Eve.,"
Part "The Good Soldier" and part "All About Eve," this book kept me up very late over several evenings. The author is adept enough to render "Aha!!! Read more
Published 14 months ago by Carlye J. Piparato
5.0 out of 5 stars
A narrator who will play with your perceptions until the end
The "I" in the title of Jane Harris's "Gillespie and I" is Harriet Baxter. Now elderly and residing in London in 1933, she is finally telling her events of what happened in the... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ripple
