The White Family [Paperback]

Maggie Gee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2003

This ambitious, groundbreaking novel takes on the taboo subject of racial hatred as it looks for the roots of violence within the family and within British society. The Whites are an ordinary British family. Alfred White, a London park keeper, still rules his home with fierce conviction and inarticulate tenderness. May, his clever, passive wife loves Alfred but conspires against him. Their three children are no longer close; the elder son has left for America and the youngest son is a virulent racist. The daughter is involved in an interracial relationship with a black social worker. When the father’s sudden illlness forces the children to come together, their deep fears and prejudices come to the surface, raising issues about kinship, trust, and hatred. Maggie Gee expertly illustrates the tensions and prevailing social problems of modern day England in this fascinating novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The gritty intimacies of everyday middle-class life in England flesh out a larger story of race and resentment in Maggie Gee's The White Family, shortlisted for Britain's Orange Prize. Alfred White has been park keeper at Albion Park for nearly 50 years when he collapses and is taken to the hospital. As his family gathers around him, their individual histories are revealed: son Darren is a very successful and rather superficial journalist; daughter Shirley, to her father's disgust, lives with a black man; son Dirk is a budding skinhead. Their mother, May, tries desperately to hold the family together, despite the odds. A violent attack shows how strong racial hatred can be, but also serves as an emotional release for some of the novel's tormented characters. Gee's graceful, nuanced family portrait is well framed by her take on racial tensions in late 20th-century England.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Rascism, or at least the inability to see beyond someone's race, is a trait that all of Gee's characters share."--Mat Johnson, Washington Post Book World

"...her book takes flight...maintains a careful balance between realism and allegory...."--Simon Leake, New York Times Book Review

“The most provocative contender for this year’s prize.”—Independent

“In her outstanding new novel, Maggie Gee has audited the multi-ethnic, murderous matter of everyday suburban life and rendered it tender, sexy and alarming.”—Jim Crace

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Saqi Books (February 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0863563805
• ISBN-13: 978-0863563805
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,287,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The father hath eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge, December 12, 2010

By 

Ralph Blumenau (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The White Family (Paperback)

Alfred White is seriously ill in hospital. His family - wife and three children - come to visit, and the various chapters relate how they really feel about him. May, his wife, loves him, in part for his sense of duty, and despite his choleric and imperious temper and his crude race prejudice. Shirley, his daughter, had escaped his control at the age of nineteen after he had committed an act of violence against her. She had been driven, first, into a disastrous one-night stand; but later she had been able to make a happy marriage with a Ghanian. He had died and she was now living with a Jamaican partner. Nothing could have enraged her father more. The two sons have inherited their father's explosive temper: Darren is a successful international journalist, but is on his third bad marriage; and Dirk is a foul-mouthed failure and is as racist as his father. The sons have never dared to stand up to him.

Alfred and May are rather lost in the modern world and, in their different ways, nostalgically look back to an older England which, in their memories at least, was more personal, more cohesive and less challenging.

While May is nearly pure goodness (her only failing a lack of courage) and Shirley is a genuine counter-point to all that racism, the men are all pretty unlikeable figures; but they are all damaged and vulnerable, and one comes to feel sorry for them all. Alfred and the children often seem consumed by hatred; but there are also moments when we see that Alfred is capable of love, and his children's attitude towards their father is also quite ambivalent; so the scenes around Alfred's hospital bed are taut with emotions. Two of the children do some very dramatic things on their way back from the hospital. The novel started rather slowly, but it steadily gathers pace, power and pathos.

Maggie Gee is a terrific writer!