Meg, Part Two in the stifling saga of a family called Plumb, is the everyday tale of profoundly dull New Zealand folk….

It isn't Mr Gee's fault that he has no ear for dialogue, but he could at least resist the appalling name-dropping syndrome…. He writes from the mind of his heroine, the earnest Meg, and there he lodges with acute lack of conviction. In desperation he attempts that so-called women novelists' forte, the noticing of the small detail. These details, in his hands, only serve further to labour the story. There is no gusto of any kind.

Angela Huth, "Good Gusto" (© British Broadcasting Corp. 1981; reprinted by permission of Angela Huth), in The Listener, Vol. 106, No. 2735, November 12, 1981, p. 584.∗