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Read Helpless (2007)

Helpless (2007)

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Author
Rating
3.35 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0805082883 (ISBN13: 9780805082883)
Language
English
Publisher
metropolitan books

Helpless (2007) - Plot & Excerpts

This is a disturbing book, one that once begun kept me turning the pages. It is very typically Gowdy, meaning that the protagonist is a humanized creep. And that is what marks Gowdy apart from the good writer — the ability to bring to her readers a feeling of understanding, and even some empathy, for a completely unsympathetic character. It seems anti-social to think and feel that a child abductor could be human, and not just a caricature of evil. But this is the power of Gowdy's writing.Gowdy commented that the story she wanted to explore with Helpless was the anguish of a parent whose child disappears. And on the surface the disturbing part of this book is of a mother's horror of a child being abducted by a person or persons unknown. But somehow that story did not dominate the novel. Perhaps, during the writing, the writer's challenge of the abductor's motivation and humanity took over because that part becomes the central driving element of the novel. And what makes the book as disturbing, psychologically, as it is — and it is very disturbing — is the manner of Gowdy's portrayal of the kidnapper.In her hands the human proceeded along an insane course of action within the bounds of fully justified logic and sound reasoning. There is a disturbing, unsettling empathy that is generated by this character as he proceeds along his path not as an insane evil creature, but as a frail human who has successfully denied to himself the nature of his nature. His self-delusion allows him to perfectly rationalize his actions; within his scope of self denied understanding his motivations are truly honourable and in this psychology he echos our own failings of self understanding, honesty and/or awareness. Not that many of us have stalked and kidnapped children! But where have we, for example, not fallen victim to own self denials, to our own delusions about our motivations or sense of social propriety? Who here on the planet has not rationalized and justified small selfish behaviours as being for some kind of altruistic 'best'? Where have we chosen to live a lie because it served an end which was made to look generous but served our ego's need? When have we mislead someone around us to support us, or manipulated someone to collaborate with us to assuage our feeling of doing something amoral? And how often are we unaware of why it is we do the things we do, ignorant of what motivates us?... [To see my extended review of this complex book, please go to my blog @ egajdbooks.

Barbara Gowdy has written six novels, and each one explores extremely different subjects and characters. Helpless, Gowdy’s latest work, concerns child abduction. Helpless is an unusual love story, and Gowdy maturely analyzes different kinds of love: parental, romantic, and destructive. The novel contains a cast of complex, well-drawn characters, but Nancy, the girlfriend of Ron, a child abductor and pedophile-in-denial, emerges as the most intriguing.tGowdy skillfully shows how Nancy’s past history influences her current decisions. Nancy’s father sexually abused her when she was a young girl, but Gowdy never bludgeons readers with this information. Instead, she alludes to Nancy’s abuse as insight---rather than explanation---about why Nancy is both a recovering drug addict and in love with Ron. Ron, in turn, is more interested in vacuum cleaners and Rachel, a beautiful nine year-old girl for whom Ron develops an obsession, than Nancy. For Ron, Nancy serves dual roles of lover and mother, and although it’s clear Ron cares for Nancy, he also uses her. Ron refurbishes his basement into a lush bedroom for a little girl, and then he kidnaps Rachel and locks her in the room. Thus, Nancy fulfills maternal needs for both Ron and Rachel, all the while denying her inner voice, which tells her Ron harbors sexual feelings for Rachel. Early in the novel, Rachel screams to be released, and Gowdy tells us Nancy “knows this helpless fury.” It is with glimpses like this that Gowdy shows Nancy’s moral struggle and the connections between Rachel’s abduction and Nancy’s past.tIndeed, Nancy is a character that is caught between her love for Ron and her responsibility to Rachel. A lesser writer might have written Nancy as one-dimensional---or worse, unintelligent---but Gowdy avoids this by developing Nancy’s empathy. Nancy struggles with issues of self-identity, but she possesses deep understanding and compassion for others. Gowdy sculpts Nancy as a tragic, admirable woman, someone that keeps her promises.tI recommend Helpless for its complex characters and intriguing story. Gowdy examines sensational topics---child abduction and pedophilia---with sensitivity and her trademark humor.

What do You think about Helpless (2007)?

Barbara Gowdy is like a female Canadian Michael Haneke - only a writer not a filmmaker. I always look forward to her books -she has this cool detachment that allows her to talk about seemingly squishy subjects (like the interior lives of elephants in The White Bone) or beauty and child molestation in her latest, Helpless. I gather some reviewers didn't appreciate the subject matter (abduction, child beauty) but I turned the pages like a thriller. One of the few books that could have been longer,fleshed out the characters a wee bit more. Although the abductor and his accomplice - will I ever forget his sweaty, fleshy self? Her tippy-top best? No. Absorbing and well-written? Yes.
—Kyla

What I enjoy most about Barbara Gowdy's work is her willingness to take risks, and her interest and ability in portraying misfits, the disenfranchised, and outcasts of society.This novel's POV alternates between five characters. There's Celia, a single mother, her beautiful nine year old daughter, Rachel, their loyal and generous landlord, Mika, Ron, a nerdy man struggling with pedophilic tendencies, and Ron's quirky and naive girlfriend, Nancy.When Gowdy published this book she was accused of empathizing with pedophiles and as a result was compelled to defend her work. But of course, as a writer, her goal was merely a curiosity and a desire to study this abnormality, all wrapped in a suspenseful story.Following is a snippet of an interview with Gowdy that helps show what she was up to:An Interview with Barbara GowdyHow did you first become interested in the theme of child abduction?I found myself wondering, What is the worst thing that could happen to a person? The answer I came up with was losing a child. Not to death, but actually losing a child, finding yourself faced with the unspeakable fact of her disappearance. So I decided to try to write a novel about that. The challenge became how to make the story readable, how to offer hope to the character of the mother and to pull back on the tension.You have described the book as a suspense novel and also--this might be surprising to some readers--as a 'love story.'Ron, the abductor, is desperately in love, clearly, an unrequited love, a hopeless, illegal love, but it's pure and true in its way.Because of the subject matter, I hesitated in choosing this book to read. But, nothing nasty happens and the result is a real page turner. My only complaint is that the ending seemed to unfold too quickly. Even at 300 pages, I could have gone on for another 200.It's a good read, and job well done!
—Denis

My favourite writer, Timothy Findley was quoted as saying (or writing) that a writer's responsibility is to draw attention to the ills of society. I paraphrase the quote from memory and I have mixed feelings about the quotation itself. For Findley, it was clearly one the driving forces behind his work. Every good book should be shining a light on something negative in this world for it to be a good book but I've read some good books that are the equivalent of a candy bar - they taste good, they go down easy and they're otherwise not all that good for you. And there's nothing wrong with that because people don't always want to be challenged when it comes to reading fiction.It takes a darn courageous writer to wander deep into the reeds where the most vile stories slowly rot, so sick and nasty that nobody wants to dwell on it.Those types of stories are difficult to write for exactly this reason. They are difficult stories to read because they show society at its worst.In Helpless, a beautiful exotic nine-year-old gets abducted by a man who is obsessed with her, convincing himself that he is saving her from a bad situation. That the abductor is one of the point-of-view characters, and his just-under-the-surface obsession is front and center in the story is what makes it uncomfortable. He tells himself that he wants to be a good father figure to this young girl, but he can't keep his eyes off her skin, hair, lips, etc.It's horrible and I felt sick to my stomach reading this book in some parts but it's also a fantastic book because it goes there. These types of things happen and it's all too easy to apply capital punishment or close the bars and walk away but it is much harder to look into the face of the devil and realize that it might be your neighbour, the lady at the nail salon or the guy running the gadget repair shop.I had always heard of Barbara Gowdy but never really knew much about her. I read The Romantic and it was a good and mildly uncomfortable book about another kind of attachment but I always sensed that she never got the kind of respect that the top-tier Canadian writers did.Helpless changed that for me. Gowdy is one of our best.
—Christopher Sword

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