The Official Book Club Guide: The Rules of Seeing

Penknife

August

Nova returns from Oxford to check on her London flat and is horrified to find Tony waiting inside for her. Tony reveals that he checked her address before leaving the MET and has been living there in her absence. Before Nova can escape, Tony throttles her and begins to undo his jeans. Grabbing the penknife in her pocket, Nova rams the blade through Tony’s hand, temporarily pinning him to an armchair. Before he can free himself, she runs from the flat.

Nova calls the police and also phones Kate to tell her what has happened. She goes to Kate’s flat to meet with police officers. While the officers promise the women police protection, Kate says she would feel safer if they went away together. Nova tells Kate that their relationship is over but suggests that they could stay at her parents’ house in Yorkshire.

House

When they arrive in Bradford, Nova sees her childhood home for the first time. Kate is warmly received by Nova’s parents, Uzma and Peter. She also meets her brother, Alex. At the end of the evening, Nova kisses Kate, confirming that she is ready to resume their relationship.

Envelope

Nova and Kate spend a carefree day on the Yorkshire moors. Later, they go to a Chinese restaurant and, during the meal, Kate asks about the small, heart-shaped tattoo on Nova’s hand. On the journey back, Kate insists that they stop at a tattoo parlour and has an identical heart tattooed on her own hand. Outside, Nova sees the stars properly for the first time.

Back at the house, a white envelope waits on the doormat. Inside is a note that reads ‘I’m watching you both.’

Gingerbread Man

After informing the police of the threatening note, Kate and Nova find out that Tony traced them by placing a tracking device underneath their car. They take refuge in a hotel and Kate refuses to leave the room. After a week, Nova has cabin fever and leaves the hotel, despite Kate’s warnings that it is unsafe. She spends an enjoyable few hours enjoying the sights of Bradford but, on the way back to the hotel, she is grabbed by Tony who holds a chloroform-drenched rag over her face. Nova fights buts slips out of consciousness.

Planet Earth

Back at the hotel room, Kate has convinced herself that she must end her relationship with Nova. Her musings are interrupted by texts from Tony. Tony reveals that he has kidnapped Nova but claims that he will not hurt her if Kate comes to his hotel room. Kate feels the stirrings of a panic attack but fends it off, knowing she must be strong to save Nova.

Chair

Kate goes to Tony’s hotel room where Nova is tied to the bed, blindfolded and gagged. Tony is holding a kitchen knife and instructs Kate to sit in a chair. As he reaches for a rope to tie her up, however, she launches herself at him. They struggle, and the knife becomes lodged in Kate’s shoulder, but she ignores the pain, continuing to punch Tony until he seems to be unconscious. As Kate reaches for the knife, which has dislodged itself from her flesh, Tony revives and knocks her out with a blow to the head.

Kate wakes on the chair with her wrists bound and sees that Tony is about to pour acid over Nova’s face. She leaps at Tony and, placing her bound hands in front of his throat, strangles him. As Tony falls backwards on top of Kate, the acid splashes over his own face, blinding him. Kate continues to pull on the rope until her husband goes limp. She ties him up, frees Nova, then slips into oblivion.

Raincloud

December

In Kate’s flat, Nova cries as she watches the rain at the window. The melancholic moment is interrupted when Kate arrives home. Nova declares that she wants to stay, and Kate agrees that she can - always.

Style (#u62196fa5-59b0-577a-86ee-c64cbb8c61bb)

NARRATIVE VOICE

When embarking on a first novel, many authors select a narrative viewpoint that is relatively close to their own (same gender, similar cultural background, etc). In The Rules of Seeing, however, Joe Heap laughs in the face of safe narrative options. For a debut novelist, he makes incredibly brave choices, producing a third-person narrative which alternates between two female protagonists (Nova and Kate).

Heap’s rendering of the female perspective is particularly topical in the aftermath of recent literary debate. A male author’s claim to be “living proof” that a man can write an authentic female character recently met with derision on Twitter – largely due to the protagonist’s lengthy description of her own ‘curves’. Believing that he had brilliantly encapsulated the female viewpoint, the author only emphasised the fact that some writers find it impossible to shake off the male gaze.

Link to article on this entertaining discussion (https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/apr/03/male-authors-write-female-characters-twitter)

While it may be true that many male authors struggle to write convincingly from a female perspective, Joe Heap’s novel is proof that it can be done. The characters of Kate and Nova are delineated with great sensitivity and without a hint of the lasciviousness that some male authors have been criticised for. As a result, the novel feels refreshingly genderless.

In addition to intrepidly entering the realms of the female mind, Heap throws race and visual impairment into the mix through the character of Nova. Nova’s cultural background is particularly diverse as, although born in the UK, she is the child of a Ukrainian father and Pakistani mother. Her narrative also provides a perspective which even fewer readers will have experienced: that of a visually impaired person. Nova’s viewpoint not only allows us to see the world through blind eyes but also from the perspective of someone who is learning to see (a process we have all experienced as babies and promptly forgotten). In conveying the experiences of a visually impaired, mixed-race woman, the author demonstrates the ability to empathetically portray characters very different to himself. By taking this leap of imagination, Heap invites readers to do the same.