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Review
'Maggie Gee is a superb and pitiless analyser of middle-class angst. Elegant, humorous and surprising, this is a classy performance.' The Times 'Maggie Gee is one of our most ambitious and challenging novelists.' Sunday Times 'This beautifully observed, intelligent and moving novel is one of those rare things - a small, carefully wrapped surprise that gets better and better with the unravelling.' The Scotsman 'My Cleaner is a moving, funny, engrossing book.' The Observer 'Gee satirises the liberal conscience of the chattering classes with uncomfortable perception in this hugely enjoyable novel ...' Metro 'Gee is unique as a novelist who is white and explores issues of race.' Bernardine Evaristo 'Her writing is clear as glass and has marvellous rhythm, fluency and grace.' Observer
Scotsman
Beautifully observed, intelligent and moving.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I thought that I had touched the sky with Maggie Gee's previous novel, The Flood, but My Cleaner (perfect title) is even better, richly funny and moving. Vanessa Henman is a middle class writer who for the past 25 years has taught creative writing (instead of writing), who lives 'in that big empty house, so much too big for only two people' and who has too many books that she doesn't read or need, too much of everything. She has raised her handsome, intelligent son Justin as a single-parent mother, but, blind to her failings as a mother, blames her ex-husband for what has happened to Justin. Justin has abandoned his job, mopes about the house all day and hates everyone except Mary, an Ugandan village girl who was Vanessa's cleaner when he was a boy. Mary now is a Makerere graduate living in Kampala, but somehow she has escaped the corrosive effects of education and urban life. Her preoccupations are the people she loves, her son who has been taken from her and her kabito (boyfriend). She believes in God and loves to sing and dance. She is grateful to be who she is. She needs money and, when Vanessa asks her to return to London to look after Justin, she accepts.
Maggie Gee confronts in this novel (one is tempted to say parable) life as so many of us in Europe and America now experience it: a sterilized life separated from the soil that nourishes us, of neuroses and trivial preoccupations, godless and lonely. She juxtaposes Vanessa and Mary (choosing an African, one suspects, because an English rustic would be a less convincing foil), leads us through a fascinating story happy and painful by turn, and makes her case with convincing authenticity of detail, grace and wit. 'It is strange how Mr Blair is always smiling (he seems happier than anyone else in Britain!). And he likes our President Museveni, and so does Mr Bush, who came to visit. They all like war, and so they all get on.'
This reviewer believes that, with The White Family, The Flood and My Cleaner, Maggie Gee has secured a place in English letters that will survive our time. Another triumph.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The moral dilemma of whether employing someone to clean your home is right (I think not) made me pick this up.
This book is all about light and shade, in a lot of senses. Obviously with the women's skins, backgrounds and outlooks - Vanessa is white, middles class, terribly concerned with appearing right on, selfish, prickly and aggressively ambitious. Mary is black, working class, upbeat, down to earth, friendly and quietly ambitious - but also with their story, which flicks around, from the past to the present, taking in their flaws and good bits.
Both Africa and Britain are described in a way that is neither gritty nor romantic. Britain is grey and overly complicated, Africa is shiny and simple, which mirrors Mary and Vanessa's characters - Vanessa is a cringeworthy, hand wringing liberal who is horrifically selfish and uptight, and Mary as an open woman who has seen a lot but has inner strength.
Although this was an enjoyable look at class and morals, I thought the descriptions of both women's childhoods went on a bit too long, and was disturbed by Mary's behaviour with Justin (suckling a grown man? Eww!), but other than that, it wasn't half bad.
This book is all about light and shade, in a lot of senses. Obviously with the women's skins, backgrounds and outlooks - Vanessa is white, middles class, terribly concerned with appearing right on, selfish, prickly and aggressively ambitious. Mary is black, working class, upbeat, down to earth, friendly and quietly ambitious - but also with their story, which flicks around, from the past to the present, taking in their flaws and good bits.
Both Africa and Britain are described in a way that is neither gritty nor romantic. Britain is grey and overly complicated, Africa is shiny and simple, which mirrors Mary and Vanessa's characters - Vanessa is a cringeworthy, hand wringing liberal who is horrifically selfish and uptight, and Mary as an open woman who has seen a lot but has inner strength.
Although this was an enjoyable look at class and morals, I thought the descriptions of both women's childhoods went on a bit too long, and was disturbed by Mary's behaviour with Justin (suckling a grown man? Eww!), but other than that, it wasn't half bad.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Our book club, without exception, loved this novel. Unexpectedly amusing developments in the power holding of relationships. A few other acqaintances disliked the book, but admitted their views were affected by their own prejudices. Keep an open mind and enjoy !
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
To err on the side of generosity, three stars
'My Cleaner' is one of a slew of books which fashionably deal with cultural differences, tolerance and the like. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mrs. A. M. J. Wigmore
Good read
Have read a few Maggie Gee ; I always know I will be held by her themes etc. One of my favourite authors.
Published 10 months ago by Hifi
A Ugandan looks at England
The main characters in this beautifully written book:
Vanessa Henman is a writer, snobbish, selfish, insecure, self-deluding, a cold single mother, though her ex-husband... Read more
Vanessa Henman is a writer, snobbish, selfish, insecure, self-deluding, a cold single mother, though her ex-husband... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Ralph Blumenau
Couldn't put it down!
I wanted a couple of books to take on holiday and after consulting my daughter's wish list (she's an English Lit student) considered "My Driver", another of Maggie Gee's... Read more
Published on 13 April 2010 by Karen Evans
Funny, touching and sharply observed, a joy to read
A lively warm, thoughtful and human tale. Outwardly confident, curvaceous, beautiful, Mary Tendo from Uganda returns to London after a decade away, to ride to the rescue of her... Read more
Published on 31 Aug 2009 by Mrs. Katharine Kirby
an entertaining read
I enjoyed this book, and in particular the main character Mary. It was an achievement for a middle class white english person of Maggie Gee's generation, who are so much less... Read more
Published on 20 July 2009 by H. Beardon
Great characters who illustrated many different things
It was a very clever introduction to these characters. I wanted to know more about them but there was, initially, only hints about their past history. Read more
Published on 12 April 2009 by Janie U
Highly enjoyable
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was funny, moving, convincing and wholly engaging.
I did feel that there was a slight imbalance between the two main characters - Mary was... Read more
I did feel that there was a slight imbalance between the two main characters - Mary was... Read more
Published on 10 Oct 2007 by K. G. Keet
There is more to a 'Cleaner' then cleaning.
I bought this book following a review I read in the 'Sunday Times'. Mary a Ugandan lady returns to her former employer's house Vanessa, to help her son Justin through a... Read more
Published on 16 April 2007 by S. Redpath
Read it and rejoice
This novel has everything - a good story told in excellent writing, with irony, tenderness, humour, compassion, and even some wonderful descriptions. Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2006 by Mrs. Caroline Johnson
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