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Customer Reviews (3)

Meta-fiction on the installment plan.
How many tens of thousands of us want to have written a book? Notice I did not say anything about going through all the work necessary to actually write one. John Tunnock, our stereotypical never married, ex-teacher, ex-schoolmaster hero, has made a post-retirement second career of not getting that often promised book written. But, he is working on it.

Ancient Greece seems to be the desired starting point of the unwritten book, with Socrates our main character. Since we meet Socrates late in his life, we know from our own school days that this portion of the book isn't going to last for too many pages.

Tunnock's story makes a stop in 15th century Italy to visit Brother Filippo before deeply immersing us in the story ofHenry James Prince and his Agapemonites in 19th century England. We are led to believe the Prince part is a different story. We do get back to Socrates before it's too late.

Interspersed with the attempts to have written a book we are treated to the story of The Life of John Tunnock. While he was pretty much a jerk, as a jerk with money he was pretty well liked (even if he never seems to finish that book).

Compared with Gray's Lanark, it's doubtful this book will be a conversation piece at the cocktail party. I can imagine many claiming to have read Lanark but few bothering to mention Old Men in Love. To those, like me, who like to read those books that are difficult to classify (much less review), this will be enjoyable. Those who don't like to wander too far afield from books with beginnings, middles and ends, should avoid this one.

I do wonder - if a book is about the writing of a book by someone with no writing skills, is it still meta-fiction? Or is it meta-folly? Perhaps Old Men in Love qualifies as both.

Good but not Alasdairs best
There is often more than meets the eye with Alasdairs novels, hidden meanings and obscure references, so its very possible/likely I missed something when reading this, but I don't think its his best work. Its a quick read and felt like it had been written quickly (maybe Alasdair thinks he doesnt have another 20 years left to rewrite Lanark?)

In terms of asthetics, OMIL has a few nice chapter headings etc, but nothing like Lanark or Pretty things, if I was buying again I would be tempted to save a few quid and make do with the paperback. You could get some tunnocks caramel wafers with the change.

5 stars to counteract the other ludicrous review on here (Anyone who thinks Gray should be read on some electronic gizmo is missing the point entirely)

Where's the Kindle
If you don't produce a kindle...to force consumers to pay the higher dead tree prices...you get slammed with one star!!!!! -_-I love Gray's work...have been a fan for years...but it just ain't cool to stick it to Kindle App (iPad) readers!!!! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

It was the best of times, ...
.... Wait! No it wasn't. It was the worst of times (again!), I think. Or, the times were at least as bad as the last time. But, what's happened to time? And, what's happened to place? Most of all, what's happened to me?

We are being taken somewhere that is not like where we were, but we can't remember where we were - or when. There's that time thing again; maybe, we think, we don't need time; but we do, so we have to find a way to find some.

This book is about something, somewhen, leading somewhere with some point that Gray wanted to make. I really hope he made it. It isn't important whether I recognized it as it went by. I was trying to figure out how I could avoid being what, when and where this was.

The main character is named Lanark and/or Thaw. He, or one of him, is dead. Or, the one who was that is now dead is also the one who is now alive or this second one is the dead first one somewhere else. Whatever he is, he isn't very likable. This puts him in good company with every other unlikable person. We are told about him(s) and the others by the author or the author's author.

Is a metafiction created by the author as author the same as a metafiction created by the author about another author? Is it still a metafiction or is it only the author sticking himself into the one fiction? Does the answer to either of those questions make a bit of difference? And, was there any reason for the last question, before this, or was it presumed to be asked before it, or this second question before this question mark and after the previous?

Confused (there should be a question mark next, but I don't want this to be confused as being a part of the previous questions, so I'll consider 'Confused' (the first) to be a statement of fact rather than an interrogatory).

It is worth the price of the book to read the Epilogue (which isn't one). By the by, Part 1 is not first, either; though, given everything else going on, no one should expect it to be. And, part of the time is spent in hell. All for one inclusive price and set of pages - that include Gray's art work.

To put it succinctly, if you need a book to start at A and go to Z and say The End - run from this one. If you need a book to actually make sense in such a way that you know what's going on or has gone on - join the race to the door. If you need likable characters or characters that make sense - recite the Who's on First? routine as youput this book down (un-bought).

If anyone is left, this is not an easy book to read or like - but it is a lot of fun. That's why I spend so much time reading. I've ordered three more by Gray. Consider that statement as a recommendation for this one.
... Read more

Product Description
This book is a unique history of how literature spread and developed through three British nations and most North American states. This anthology gathers the work of great writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Lewis Carroll, John Milton, Edgar Allan Poe, and many more. The Book of Prefaces offers an unusual and unprecedented look at literature, a treat for any reader.
Amazon.com Review
The preface usually contains one of four pleasures, says anthologistAlasdair Gray. There is the biographical snippet, full ofgossipy details that "make us feel at home in earlier times." There is theauthor's attempt to forestall criticism (in first editions) orto answer it (in later ones). There is the report on the state ofcivilization, both favorable (see Walt Whitman) and unfavorable (seeKarl Marx). And there is the attack on other writers or translators,sometimes bridging centuries and containing spears thrown atthe long dead. All four pleasures are well represented in this 640-pagetreasury of English and American intros, which runs from anA.D. 675 translation of Genesis to the 1920 poems of Wilfred Owen. Why stopthere? "The flow is stopped at 1920," admits Grayin his own disarmingly self-effacing preface, "by costs of using work stillin copyright."

This is anything but anthology-on-the-cheap, however. Gray (Lanark andA History Maker) poured 16years of research into The Book of Prefaces, and adds considerablevalue with his ownrunning commentary, which straggles down the margins in brash red ink. Grayon the God of Genesis: "This God, with revenge inmind, first makes earth ugly as hell." Among God's anthologized fellows areMark Twain, who defends his use of Southern dialectin The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; Lewis Carroll, whoanticipates his critics' charges of writing nonsense in The Hunting ofthe Snark and proceeds to prove their case; and Charles Darwin, whorecalls how the seeds of The Origin of Species were sownaboard the HMS Beagle. Gray mixes scholarly research with playfuleccentricities: When was the last time you saw a book'stypesetter, typist, and publisher memorialized in pen-and-ink drawings? And"with this in their lavatory," writes the cheeky author, "everyone else canread nothing but newspaper supplements and still seem educated." He may beright. --Claire Dederer ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Thank You for your Efforts
What a wonderful book in so many ways. Mr Gray has always known how to produce a visually and physically appealling book. His playfulness in this wide reaching book makes the history of literature human: which, of course, it is. Alasdair Gray has not been recognised, outside his native Scotland, for the amazing talents he has; he is one writer who will last for a very long time.

Disappointed
I picked this book up at the library because it had an interesting look to it. It is unusually designed and weirdly illustrated. It's great to have all these wonderful prefaces in one handy volume, but Gray, who supplies an introduction and many of the glosses, writes in a kind of shorthand, staccato style that is unpleasant, and he has weak control of comma usage. I might have bought this book except for Gray's writing style.

It was worth the wait, Mr. Gray
After a decade and a bit of footling around with pleasant but whimsical novels and the occasional killer short story, Alasdair Gray has finally delivered his long-promised anthology of English-language prefaces.Andwhat a treasure it is.Designed and presented with the author'scharacteristic loving care, it's a mighty selection of beginnings-of-booksfrom Anglo-Saxon down to 1920 or so (more recent prefaces being excludedbecause of copyright laws.)

Besides the sheer wealth of Stuff To Read,there are dense, canny and wonderfully sure-footed essays on theprogress-or-not of English culture'n'society courtesy of Mister Gray, plusmarginal glosses by a variety of highly intelligent people and also RogerScruton.Scruton (England's dimmest philosopher) provides the gloss on thepreface to Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France", andoffers up his customary brand of simple-minded conservatism, but it doesn'tmatter because Gray has already neatly undercut him several dozen pagesearlier with his own reflections on the revolution.

A book to keep withyou for the rest of your life and leave to someone in your will.Therehaven't been many such in the past 50 years.And while the errata slipisn't quite exhaustive (there are a few typos that it fails to credit), howcan you resist it when it's written in rhyme?

A labour of love but no labour to love
For many years in catalogues of forthcoming publications Alsadair Gray's Anthology of Prefaces has been referred to.Some suspected a Gray type joke as the book failed to appear year on year.Was it a post modern joke? Gray after all was the man that had an erratum slip inserted in an earlierbook reading "This erratum slip was inserted by mistake."Theapparent joke was taken too far when one catalogue of second hand bookspublished almost a decade ago suggested that the book had not appreciatedin value and was worth roughly £20 second hand.This was not a bad sum fora non-existent text.Snippets of text appeared occasionally, and while thebook remained unpublished it became apparent that Gray was beginnning tomake serious progress on the work.It then became known that others wereassisting Gray in his task of glossing the prefaces including cruciallyimportant Scottish writers such as Jim Kelman, Tom Leonard, JaniceGalloway, and Alison Kennedy.

So now the book has arrived.The title haschanged (now The Book of Prefaces, rather than an anthology).The pricerather more than the suggested second hand value.

And it is well worththe wait.This will stand as a monument to Gray's achievements as anartist (of words and of pictures).His remit has been to produce a historyof literature in English from the sixth century to the present day.

Thisis a book to revel in.Among prefaces to novels and poems (from the wellknown, such as Mary Shelley's genesis of Frankenstein to the less wellknown such as Trahern's poetry) there are prefaces (and prologues) to worksof philosophy (e.g. Bentham and Franklin) and law (the introduction toStair's Institutions, a crucially important work in the survival of Scotslaw as an independent legal system).

The book is beautifully illustrated,wonderfully designed, and contains a charming introduction by Graydetailing reasons for prefaces and for enjoying reading them (my favourite,enjoying watching authors in a huff).

This book will be an invaluablecompanion through life, and careful reading will have the desired effect ofmaking an individual appear better read and more erudite than they reallyare.

Buy and enjoy this wonderful book. ... Read more

Product Description
1982, Janine is a liberal novel of the most satisfying kind. Set over the course of one night inside the head of Jock McLeish, an aging, divorced, alcoholic, insomniac supervisor of security installations, as he tipples in the bedroom of a small Scottish hotel, it makes an unanswerable case that republicanism is a state of absolute spiritual bankruptcy. For Jock McLeish, being a Republican is something he has to cure himself of, every bit as much as his alcoholism and his Sado-Masochistic fantasizing, if he is to become a human being again. 1982, Janine explores themes of male need and inadequacy through the lonely, darkly comic, alcohol-fueled fantasies of its protagonist. An unforgettably challenging book about power and powerlessness, men and women, masters and servants, small countries and big countries, Alasdair Gray's exploration of the politics of pornography has lost none of its power to shock. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Wow.
This is a powerful and unusual novel. I'm surprised that Gray isn't more widely known. His writing is challenging but rewarding.

Demonstrably Demented
I have a headache.This book was one of the most bittersweet reads I can remember:a page where I'm engrossed, followed by a page where I'm grossed out (by the author's style, not the content).I'm open to all sorts of subtle and not-so-subtle literary devices, and Alasdair Gray's 1982 JANINE embarks on a journey of writing creativity with all the tenderness of a sledgehammer.

The premise of Gray's story is interesting:a burned-out, middle-aged businessman drowning his sorrows in a shabby motel room while concocting a series of farfetched sexual fantasies--all in an effort to smother the overwhelming dreariness of his actual life.A plot dripping with existentialism, to be sure, and Gray's furious (often unreadable) style creates a mood of despair and frustration that conjures up enough alcohol-induced pink elephants to fill the San Diego Zoo.Yet the style also works against the story, as it becomes redundant to the point where its impact is lost.And as an aside, Gray's (through his protagonist) preoccupation with white silk blouses and button-down denim skirts became downright annoying.I would have preferred to have seen a little spandex, myself.

This is no "light" read; the author's style requires the reader to pay close attention.Yet there is a literally unreadable chapter--when Jock, our protagonist, takes a bottle of sleeping pills on top of his fifth of whiskey--where my heart went out to the copy editor who had to tackle all the nonsensical and upside down prose.The author waits until the end of his story to tell us the intimate details of Jock's trials and tribulations, then gives us an anticlimactic ending in the form of a very weak epiphany that doesn't measure up to all of the madness running rampant through the preceding pages.So as I reach for the aspirin, I would like to believe that 1982 JANINE is a metaphorical Mae West:when it's good, it's very, very good--when it's bad, it's blathering nonsense.

--D. Mikels

Wonders and terrors
1982 Janine is set in the consciousness of a middle-aged inspector of security systems, holed up in a small Scottish hotel with a bottle of whisky, trying to have sexual fantasies.So far, so unpromising.Thetrouble is, his memories of his (far from satisfying) life keep getting inthe way.And so the book continues, with Jock's baroque andteeth-gratingly embarrassing fantasies (big-breasted women in leatherskirts, behaving badly) displaced more and more frequently by the shabbyand unflattering truth - Jock is aware that he is a small, not very braveman who has spent his life making bad decision after bad decision. Eventually he swallows a bottle of sleeping pills.And that's not even thethird last chapter, so I'm not spoiling anything for you. This is abrilliant novel - Gray's style is (as ever) classical, measured and almostpedantically correct, but it fits Jock as well as the three-piece suitshe's worn since his college days.There are some barkingly insanetypographical maneuvres in the wake of the pill-swallowing episode, butthat's all just to set up what comes next.The comedy is grim and thesadness is awful, but there's real catharsis there for those who canappreciate it.My favourite of Gray's novels - leaner and tougher (if notas wild and ambitious) than Lanark, and less whimsical than much of hislater work.The paperback edition is completed with his now-characteristicinclusion of snippets from the book's worst reviews. ... Read more

Product Description
Alasdair Gray is known throughout the world for his writing, but he is also a highly regarded artist who not only illustrates and designs his own books, but has created many beautiful and intriguing portraits, paintings, posters and murals. Alasdair started painting and writing from an early age, and in his seventies he's still vigorously doing both. In this autopictography he gathers together the work that has mattered most to him over the years, and weaves the story of his life through and around these pictures in his own unmistakable style. A beautifully and copiously illustrated book, designed by himself, this is life as seen by one of the millennium's most entertaining and wry creative geniuses. ... Read more

Product Description
POOR THINGS revises the story of FRANKENSTEIN by replacing the traditional "monster" with Bella Baxter--a young erotomaniac brought back to life with the brain of a child. Satirizing the classic Victorian novel, POOR THINGS is a hilarious political allegory and a thought-provoking contrast between the ambition of men and the knowledge of women.Amazon.com Review
The full title of this work, Poor Things: Episodes from the EarlyLife of Archibald McCandless M.D. Scottish Public Health Officer, reflecta bit of wacky genius at work here. Someone named Alasdair Gray has found amemoir supposedly of a 19th-century public health officer in Glasgow. Thetruth of the memoir is suspect, nevertheless Gray manages to change it andthen lose it. And that's just the backdrop. Inside the memoir is the story ofMcCandless, an acquaintance named Godwyn Bysshe Baxter who takes a suicidevictim, gives her the brain of her unborn child to create a promiscuous andbrutal girlfriend. The book, which won the 1992 Guardian Fiction Prize, takesoff from there. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

One of his best
This is one of Alasdair Gray's best books.Be prepared to learn some Scots as you read this.Gray can be compared to Mark Twain -- their compelling use of vernacular, their concern for human rights, their use of contradiction and wonder at the cruelty of their fellow peoples.

Eccentric alternate history/fantasy
I make it my job to read some pretty weird books--as an aficionado of science fiction and fantasy, I sometimes run into some doozies-- but this novel by Gray has to be one of the strangest that I've run into recently. The fact that this novel was not published in the genre, and won a couple of mainstream awards makes me wonder what else I'm missing in the "mundane" fiction shelves.

Poor Things is supposedly non-fiction, as illustrated by its full title on the title page: "Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D., Scottish Public Health Officer, Edited by Alasdair Gray." But this is all part of its mystique. Gray has constructed a literary puzzle, a Frankenstein's monster of a book that takes its inspiration from that novel by Mary Shelley as well as the works of Robert Louis Stevenson and H.G. Wells. McCandless is the titular biographer, but the story is actually that of the eccentric Scottish doctor Godwin Baxter and his "creation," Bella Baxter, later known as Dr. Victoria McCandless. Set in Glasgow in the 1880s, the plot entails how McCandless met Baxter, how he then met Baxter's protege Bella and fell in love with her, her subsequent departure, and the circumstances of her return. To reveal any more would be to dilute the heavy stuff of the novel's innovative twists.

If Gray were writing with the Fantasy label stuck on the spine of his books, I would have termed this one a "steampunk" novel for its revisionist look at medicine and technology in a pre-auto world. Fans of Tim Powers and James Blaylock should definitely check this one out.

Great book
I just finished the book a few hours ago and it's the best book I've read in a while. "Poor Things" is the story of a lonely doctor, Godwin, who reanimates a beautiful woman's body who commited suicide (in a unique Frankenstein-esque fashion). Godwin's creation was meant to be for his own selfish desire but like every Frankenstein story it goes horribly awry. The books goes into detail bringing you into points of view from every character, not letting you forgot what happened, and using excellent foreshadowing. Make sure you read the extra writings at the end of the book to get the full impact of Alisdair Gray's skills.

Very Odd
Not for everyone, but it will appeal to those with macabre humor.

Merchant Ivory Gone Wrong - Poor Things by Alasdair Gray
'Poor Things' is the perfect example of how Gray understands the power of the medium he works in.Just as two poets could destroy the Eastern Empire in 'Unlikely Stories, Mostly', Gray playfully toys with the reader'sperception of reality and truth and how it is influenced by the media. Rather than being the author of Poor Things, Gray purports to be merely aneditor, who has discovered a manuscript and letter, which he presents forthe reader's examination.His personae in this instance implies that thenovel has been 'received' rather than 'created'.This lends the ratherbizarre proceedings a strange air of credibility, and stops the readerpondering over the likelihood of some of the more extraordinary eventsoccurring.For example, Baxter's "skeely, skeely fingers"performing the "skilfully manipulated resurrection" of a youngwoman is the stuff of fairy tales, but due to Gray's web of fibs, it isunderstood as a rational medical discovery rather than a magical act. The main body of the book is presented as a first-person narrative, writtenby one Archibald McCandless.In it, he describes how an eccentric friendcreates a woman from a dead body, in the manner of Baron Frankenstein. However, a letter accompanying the narrative (according to Gray) statesthat it is little more than a pack of lies.The letter has been written bythe very woman who the narrative covered.On top of this confusion, Grayhas annotated and analysed the text, and professes to believe the originalnarrative as true. In this fashion, the novel is as 'stitchedtogether' as Bella herself, every 'fact' seems to be contradicted later,true history is marred by pure fiction, almost making it impossible toseparate truth from falsehood.From the very beginning of the novel, thereader is confronted by colliding facts, and must make a choice as to whohe or she believes: Archibald or Victoria.Because the choice has to bemade between the two characters, Gray's own 'facts' are never brought intodoubt.Even the erratum slip in the endpapers adds unnecessary confusionto the proceedings, stating: "The etching on page 187 does notportray Professor Jean Martin Charcot, but Count Robert deMontesquiou-Fezensac." Apart from the fact that the accuracy ofthis one etching has little if no effect on the reader's perception of thenovel, Gray has once again abused the power that has been vested in him bycreating unnecessary confusion.If Gray himself was responsible for theillustrations, would he choose to draw the wrong character deliberately, orwould he draw the correct one but deliberately try to mislead the readerswith an erratum slip?Alternatively, is the etching of someone completelydifferent (i.e. neither Charcot or Count Robert)?Whatever the identity ofthe etched man, to mislead the reader in this way would be entirelypointless.Therefore, the only rational answer is that the illustrationswere done by William Strang and Gray is indeed only the editor.In thisfashion, Gray leads the reader to ridiculous conclusions throughout thenovel. Another example of this trickery can be found in the medicalterminology used within the novel.When describing Bella being shot in thefoot by Blessington, McCandless states that the bullet had punctured"the integument between the ulna and radius of the second and thirdmetacarpals". However, Bella, in her letter, describes thisterminology as "blethers, havers, claptrap, gibberish,gobbledegook" and then describes the actual wound as "puncturing the tendon of the oblique head of adductor hallucisbetween the great and index proximal phalanges without chipping abone". Unless the reader is aware of medical terms for variousparts of the foot, neither sentence makes more sense than the other.Grayis fully aware of the power of the written word, as if he had not broughtthe statement into question, the great majority of his readers would haveaccepted it as a sound medical analysis.However, as he takes on thepersona of the editor, he has put himself into a position to make thereader aware of this power.In a similar way to the etching, the accuracyof the medical description has no bearing on the novel, but is Gray's wayof making the point that what is written cannot be assumed to be fact. Although this may seem rather obvious, if I personally looked back over themultitude of books that I have read, there must have been countlessoccasions of me blindly accepting a similar statement without a secondthought.In this way, Gray has used his persona as editor to provokethought and contemplation in the reader over the book that they have justread.What better way could Gray have found for his piece of writing tohave a lasting effect on its reader? Once again, Gray has hidden thekey to the entire novel in the epilogue, on this occasion on pages 274-5 ofVictoria's letter.The sentence reads: "If you ignore whatcontradicts common sense and this letter you will find that this bookrecords some actual events during a dismal era... it is as sham-gothic asthe Scott Monument". Gray fully realises that his novel isfantastical and the period in which it is set is outwith his ownexperience.However, Poor Things is the kind of novel which, when read fora second time, offers the reader a whole new perspective on the goings-onand Gray is actively encouraging his readership to do this.By printingthe book in a certain order, each section offers a new perspective on theprevious ones, encouraging re-reading. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (14)

amazing
This was the first novel I read by Alasdair Gray and i wasn't disappointed in the least bit. The story is incredibly imaginative, always taking a unique turn in a direction i did not expect and have not seen with another other author. Gray's writing nails many aspects of life encountered in other books, but is accurate and meaningful.

Playful
One of the modern great novels, though certainly a slap in the face to academia (The Institute). Alasdair Gray has read widely and with such thought that he can be so playful with many themes. Read his Book of Prefaces, whether you enjoyed this massive and sometimes rambling headtrip of book or not. I feel William S Burroughs' Cities of the Red Night trilogy to be one of the only modern literary worlds to compare with . . .

I did like the book cover though....
I didn't like this book.I didn't like it at all----Well, let me rephrase:I didn't like Books Three or Four in this rambling tetralogy. That is, I didn't care for, didn't like, didn't fancy, was much off put by the mediocre "Dystopian" Science Fiction section and, above all, by the cutesy so-called "Epilogue."Books One and Two were really quite good, I thought, and deserve five stars.But books Three and Four were so inane that it's more than a bit of a stretch to bequeath three to the whole lot. ---Let it be noted that the books follow this sequence when reading them: 3,1,2,4.What is gained by this rearrangement, I haven't the foggiest.

A short dissertation:All this Dystopian nonsense is merely reworked Gnosticism, especially here, given Gray's theological obsessions. As the minister tells Duncan in Chapter 18 in Book One (coming, naturally, after book Three), "...the spirit ruling the material world is callous and malignant."This pretty much sums up Books Three and Four in a nutshell.And, as Bertrand Russell once put it, if something can be contained in a nutshell, it's better to leave it in a nutshell.Really, if the reader wants to read truly gripping fiction of this sort, let him or her read any of the early Cormac McCarthy works, particularly Blood Meridian and Suttree or, more broadly, anything before All the Pretty Horses.

As for Books One and Two, high laud indeed! -A very poignant and harrowing, obviously autobiographical account, of the artist vs. society, an artist modelling himself very much on William Blake, as Alasdair Gray obviously does.

An epilogue on the "Epilogue": I truly hated this section for several reasons, but not primarily for the reasons Gray, as the "King" or author seems to suggest the reader likely will.Really, it's the icing on the Pomo cake of Books Three and Four.It's obvious that Gray has taken from other authors, as all authors do in one fashion or the other. It's the influences he leaves out, much better books, that bother me.To wit:

1.) The Private Memoirs And Confessions of a Justified Sinner by fellow Scotsman James Hogg

2.) The Recognitions by William Gaddis

I strongly suggest that any reader piqued by the better parts of this tetralogy delve into these other two works of genius.The first is quite possibly the most profoundly eerie book ever written.And the second, coming in at a bit over 1,000 pages, is a true masterpiece detailing the breakdown of modern artistic values and one man's struggle against it, all the while maintaining humour and verve.Malcolm Lowry, author of Under The Volcano, called it "A secret missile of the soul" shortly before he died.Gaddis never wrote anything to match it in his later efforts.The point is that, after reading these two works, you will see this one, however good in parts, as a pale shadow in comparison.

Happy reading then and taking a cue from the last page herein: GOODBYE

A landmark in Scottish literature
Maybe more time is needed for literary audience, both Scottish and worldwide, to recognize this book as a new page in history of fiction literature. After Joyce's Ulysses there happened a kind of a great explosion that opened a way for numerous unimaginable ideas to push through from a vague, sometimes disordered author's mind to the reader's. After Ulysses, it seemed as if all the boundaries in literature have been trod over. Suddenly, everybody was ALLOWED to play with the language and style, to play with readers' good taste, to play with Freud, with Kafka, to jump over classics of literature. It was quite hard to be special in a case when everything possible is allowed. But, when everything is allowed, it doesn't automatically mean that everything is already used or even tried. Being special in a world with no boundaries can be achieved by overcoming the boundaries within us and not outside us. And that is certainly what Gray managed to do in his Lanark. He - or, should I say Lanark/Duncan Thaw - is not really impressed by a society that is allowed to do everything. Because he himself is not able to do everything. So the boundaries must lie within him. Because of the belief that these boundaries are still something set by society, Thaw wants to flee out of it, to be self-sufficient and independent and, moreover, alone in the world. But where to find those gates that would lead him to such kind of a world? As a real, or at least realistic being, as Thaw, he finds the only way of that transcedention in death, so he commits suicide. As Lanark - ressurected, imaginary, surrealistic Thaw - he enters big mouth. In a way, he is trying to find the gates of his own heaven, because everyone believes, or at least would like to believe, that there is a world where they could be completely satisfied. For Lanark/Thaw, it is a world without other people, so he is in a constant search of some kind of such gates. In a search of such heaven, he only finds out that he's been living in hell all the time - both in his real and surreal life. As in O'Brien's The Third Policeman - hell is all around. And not because it is in society, but because it is inside a person: in Thaw, Lanark, Gray, us. Hell is there because we can see that being without others is as impossible as being with them. And this is a boundary that could hardly be overcome.
Gray at least reached it and tried to define it. Lanark is, as far as I can say, the only book that could stand side by side to Ulysses. In a way, it is a response to it. Ulysses is a book with, in global, quite an optimistic, positive spirit. Its light-heartedness can be found in an answer to the question about the word that all the people in the world know. Less as a Christian soul, but more as a pure, sincere human being, Joyce answers: LOVE. And since then love seemed to be the only hope. But Gray can't be satisfied by that. By his opinion, LOVE could be the word all the people in the world know, but he fears that most of them can't do better than just to say it. Lanark is thatways in a search of some kind of a new hope. But the world he lives in seems to be too fluid, too slippery to find any firm point that one could rely on. Even when one would just give himself to the fate because everything is written, Lanark comes to the conjuror, to the creator of the whole world he lives in just to find out that even the creator's mind is not defined completely. Finally, Lanark finds his own rest and satisfaction in giving himself completely - not to fate, but to the people. In the moment of his death he finds out that accomodating and compromising can bring at least a bit more satisfaction than being completely individual. Like Molly Bloom, in his bed, in his last moments, he says YES to everything that should come.

As much as being that global, this book also works on a local basis, being one of the rare and possibly the first books to expose all the secrets and wrongs of Scottish society. It is Gray's intimate contemplation on a somewhat sad existence in/of an industrial city such as Glasgow, where everything seems to be rid of heart and soul. While revealing it, Gray at the same time still gives something to that society to be adorned with. And that is certainly this precious book. A masterpiece that only needs to be recognized as such.

A legible nightmare
Reading Lanark is like reading an alternately baffling and lucid nightmare, the prose taking you places you probably don't want to go, but places that you're morbidly curious about anyway. Suicide, self-obsession, frustration and the inescapable horrors of capitalism: these are the cheery themes that Gray investigates, using his characteristically jet-black irony to tell us that maybe laughter is the only answer. A typical scenario: Lanark, the protagonist (he doesn't deserve to be called a hero) has a job with the DSS in a dying future city. Asking why he shouldn't tell the residents straight out of their fate (unavoidable catastrophe) he is informed of the government's strategy of compassion: "It is important to kill hope SLOWLY." Tracing the life of an artist obsessed with attaining perfection in creation, and an antithetical character who is bounced around unkindly by Fortune, the novel posits many philosophical conundrums. Is Thaw Nastler; are the two narratives creating one another rather like MC Escher's 'Hands drawing each other'; do we in real life do as Lanark does and try to find an way out of the Borgesian labyrinth the world presents? And is it self-created and perpetual, returning eternally? Certainly the narrative of Lanark is circular. Enough. Five stars. But only because there aren't more than five. Brilliant. Dark. Weird. Read it. ... Read more

Product Description
From its first publication in 1981, Lanark was hailed as a masterpiece and it has come to be widely regarded as the most remarkable and influential Scottish novel of the second half of the twentieth century. A work of extraordinary imagination and wide-ranging concerns, its playful narrative conveys at its core a profound message, both personal and political, about humankind's inability to love, and yet our compulsion to go on trying. With its echoes of Dante, Blake, Joyce, Kafka, and Lewis Carroll, Lanark has been published all over the world and to unanimous acclaim. This collector's edition -- deluxe four-volume slipcased and numbered -- marks the novel's return to its original publisher and features a superb new introduction by the award-winning novelist Janice Galloway. In addition, it includes the author's Tailpiece, a fascinating addendum to the novel. "It was time Scotland produced a shattering work of fiction in the modern idiom. This is it." -- Anthony Burgess" Alasdair Gray is one of the most important living writers in English." -- Stephen Bernstein, The New York Times Book Review "Remarkable ... Lanark is a work of loving and vivid imagination, yielding copious riches." -- William Boyd, The Times Literary Supplement (London) "Undoubtedly the best work of fiction written by a Scottish author for decades." -- Time Out (London) "A quite extraordinary achievement, the most remarkable thing in Scottish fiction for a very long time." -- The Scotsman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A True Modern Classic


"Lanark" was first published in 1981, but its author spent 20 years writing it. And it's indeed a massive piece. The whole book is divided into four books (starting with book 3). I think it's one serious classic novel, sadly not as famous as it ought to be; but this here review will change that for the best. Of course.

This novel is a bit of two stories in one. There's a "surreal" story and a more autobiographical "realist" story. If I was to go into details, this would quickly become very complicated. It's not exactly an easy read, but it's worth it. I don't even know how I am going to say anything about it without going crazy...

The story begins in a world which at first seems fairly common, but quickly turns into something you're not familiar with. I won't say more on that, but it's a kind of hell, or afterlife of some sort. Within that frame, the second story occurs (or the first, since book 1 and 2 are the "realist" story and book 3 and 4 are the surreal world). The order of the books is: 3,1,2 and 4. I'm sure this sounds messy as hell but I promise it makes much more sense when you are into the book.

Book 1 and 2 are very much autobiographical of Gray's life, though not an actual biography. In short, Duncan Thaw (the main character) is a young boy living in Glasgow and we follow him throughout his (short) life, and then in the afterlife world, hence the subtitle of the book "a life in four books." Duncan is a very talented boy and grows up to be an art student (Gray worked as an art teacher for a long time, and is a great painter himself, he did all the illustrations found in Lanark). I can't say enough those two books, I think I prefer them over the surreal ones but they're not quite comparable.

As to book 3 and 4, I'll give you a tiny taste of it with the following stuff: the story begins in the city of Unthank, and it's a bit of an urban hell where the sun shines for a few minutes each day. That's where Lanark is, and he has no memories of his past. He wants sunshine and love. In that world, people "disappear," and that won't make sense till you're further into the novel. But I'll tell you what, people get strange diseases in this world, and these diseases reflect the problem with them. Eventually everyones is... can I even say that without sounding completely weird... everyone is swallowed by giant mouths into the "institute," which is a place much like hell, only it's an hospital where these people, who have "disappeared," are treated. I won't say more because it's important that you find out for yourself (and anyway summing this stuff up is just like talking about an acid trip).

Gray is a really brilliant writer and his books 1 and 2 are stuff to be worshipped. Maybe I'll post selected bits later on in this thread. I really recommend this for anyone interested in something that will surely be looked upon as one of the best novels ever written in the universe (no less). It's already a big classic in contemporary literature, but my guess is it won't cease to grow.

It's only worth reading books one and two
Maybe I missed something, but this didn't do a lot for me.It's a jumbled up ragbag of ideas which don't fit together coherently while its characters are unlikeable and without much individuality.
The story starts in a depressing world called Unthank, and follows the character Lanark as he arrives in town.He craves for sunlight in a world where there is none and since he's fast turning into a dragon he decides to throw himself down a large mouth in the ground (as you do...).
He comes out the other end in an institute where he is cured of his dragonhide and becomes a doctor for a short while before, like me, getting very bored and frustrated with the place.
So he decides to leave but that's quite dangerous involving a trip across an intercalendrical zone. Inevitably he leaves the hospital and takes along his girlfriend who, unsatisfyingly, doesn't seem to display any affection towards him at all.
In the intercalendrical zone, time moves erratically, and his girlfriend discovers she's heavily pregnant. They return to Unthank in the expectation that shortly the place will be swallowed by an even larger mouth and they'll be transferred to a sunnier land.
But Rima leaves Lanark, taking the (talking) baby with her. Lanark is then sent on a mission to return to the institute to ask them to save Unthank, which has suffered a pollution spill that threatens to destroy the place. At the institute he is stitched up by his rivals and finds time to meet the author of the book, who spends a chapter trying to explain what the hell the book is about. Lanark returns from the institute to Unthank in time to witness the place destroyed.
Books one and two in the middle tell the story of Duncan Thaw (Lanark before arriving in book three) and surprisingly this part of the book is a lot more readable. The chapters follow Thaw as he grows from a child to a sickly adult. There are some parallels with the Lanark story (Thaw is emotionally inhibited, he suffers an illness as a result, he can't keep hold of the girl he likes). In my opinion, if this story stood alone it would be a much more satisfying read. It's very reminiscent of the writer Iain Banks who no doubt was inspired by Gray. Interesting also the split between contemporary fiction and sci-fi which Banks also practices. However, in my opinion, a book like Walking On Glass by Banks is far superior to Lanark in that it made me think about the connections between the strands of the stories.
I suppose my review is a little biased because I'm not a huge fan of science fiction any more. But since the author asserts in his incarnation as god in the final chapters that he doesn't write science fiction I suppose I shouldn't worry.

A bleak yet compelling vision of survival
First published in 1981 and set in the dystopic cities of Unthank and Glasgow, Lanark: A Life In Four Books by Alasdair Gray is an emotional and starkly brilliant saga about the struggle to love despite contradictions and vices in human nature that attack bonds of care or trust. A bleak yet compelling vision of survival and the endless search for something more in life, Lanark consists of parallel tales of an eponymous hero living in a bizarre city of the future called Unthank, and Duncan Thaw, a young Glaswegian of the twentieth century. This edition of Lanark is enhanced with a new foreword by novelist Janice Galloway and includes Alasdair Gray's "Tailpiece" which serves as an unusual addendum to this surreal and highly recommended novel.

Daunting to be the first
I don't know if no one has reviewed this tome for fear of where angels tread lightly or what, but I have to say something about this amazing book, if for no other reason than to start a dialogue.

I first heard of this book from a Village Voice article about the republication of "Lanark" in a four-volume set.The structure of this edition is that it begins with Book 3, followed by the Prologue, Book 1, Book 2, and Book 4 is divided by an Epilogue that takes place 4 chapters from the end.This convoluted structure actually makes the book rather fascinating, in that Gray has said that he wishes for the book to be remembered in a certain order, which is why he put "Book 3" first.This edition also features artworks by the artist at the front of each Book, and the Epilogue features some interesting typesetting.

For readers of science fiction, this book will offer an interesting challenge, for books 1 and 2 are more a coming-of-age of the artist sort of affair.Books 3 and 4 center around the Lanark character, who is called Thaw in 1 and 2.The Thaw books reminded me many times of Maugham and Joyce, while 3 and 4 seemed positively Dickian.(Not to be confused with Dickensian, which slant-applies, if at all.)There's a lot of ferocious literariness going on in this book, yet there's all sorts of humor.And also a slice of life in a city I know absolutely nothing about.The depictions and commentary on Glasgow reveal a lot about the self-consciousness of 2nd-tier and below cities--the cities that are not New York, London, Florence, Paris, Moscow, etc.

I found this a wise book, filled with difficult ideas and a morose feel for the future of mankind and the difficulties of being a solitary individual in the anomie-infested modern civilization.Book 4 I think is a fascinating attempt to turn Hobbes's Leviathan into a sentient being, as viewed by the hapless adventures of the eponymous hero.I will be thinking about this book for a long time. ... Read more

Product Description
Duncan Thaw, the narrator, has to cope with a loveless family and the drudgery of growing to maturity in Glasgow. Elsewhere the author moves Thaw into fantasy when he sends him to Unthank, a city he is condemned to after his death. From the author of "Something Leather". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Amazing Read
The story is written as a kalidescope of imagery, allowing the reader to piece together as best he or she can the setting and events of Lanark's life. I was so moved by the characters in this story that I, for a time, thought that I would find my calling in art school as the main character had. Turns out I was wrong about art school, but I still love this novel. The Schizophrenic pace at which events unfold keep the reader's attention and curiosity, while the metaphoric symoblism is sure to make this novel a lasting cult classic. Amazing, beautiful, and above all a work a genious. ... Read more

Product Description
This is Alastair Gray's first collection of short stories. This edition includes a new story, "Inches In a Column", that was lost at the time of original publication. He is the author of "Lanark", "Why Scots Should Rule Scotland" and won the Whitbread Prize for "Poor Things". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Quite Likely, Really
Lurking betwixt the whacky covers which feature gray Gray art, are these brilliantly witty little tales which explode between your ears. Think of Vonnegut, Kafka, even Philip Dick, or the late great Robert Altman's shock/horror movie,'Images'. No, this is not the comfort zone, but the stimulation zone, the traveller's tonic...the world re-mapped in Surrealist vent and the colonisers' grasp in all the wrong places. Powers are misplaced and misappropriated. Vasco Pyjama(thank you Michael Leunig) is out there at the far edge of consciousness. Start anywhere in the collection (though they're arranged chronologically for those so fixed on 'development'). Anyway, I'd start with'The Spread of Ian Nichol' as a primier and don't draw breath until you've finished,'The Axel Tree' with its Swiftian swipe at Modernism. Go Alisdair! This is my grey pick since its advent to my shelves during a bitter mid 1990s winter.

Unlikely author, mostly
1982 Janine is Gray's best book (and his own favourite) but is difficult to get hold of, Lanark is his most important but difficult to get through, Poor Things is his most successful but not weighty enough. Unlikely Stories, Mostly is just right -- like Little Bear's porridge.
This book is more an anthology of Gray's early works than a collection of stories. One was written when he was 15, others were written when he was at Art College. Considering he was 46 when it was published, there's hope for all of us. Highlights are Five Letters From an Eastern Empire, a masterful portayal of censorship in art and the control a dictatorship can have on creative minds; the Tale of the White Dog, after reading it you'll be more enquiring about your potential in-laws; and The Cause of Some Recent Changes.
Some dislike the long central story Logopandocy. However if, before reading it, you know it is about a real person and the high-falutin' dense, sometimes willfully obscure, language accurately reflects Urqhuart's own writing (in fact, tones it down considerably) you may enjoy it more.
But despite the writing itself, the book would be a joy to own just for the way it looks. The paperback is a poor substitute for the original hardback, but is still one of the most beautiful mainstream publications you can own. The original had a slip inserted, which said "Erratum: This slip has been inserted by mistake". The whole is smothered in Gray's own wicked illustrations, inspired by Blake, Eric Gill and Stanley Spencer. I can't really recommend this highly enough.

i bought this man a drink
and he said "whiskey" and I said "with what" and he said "just whiskey, I'm scottish."

this book is an irreplacable companion to any trip to Scotland.this book is neat.oh, and so muchmore.

as with all of Alasdair's work it is a lyrico-poetic journeythrough a scots writer's personal Scottish playland.and it is also amini-history of his literary efforts, something not all of us can be proudof, but Alasdair's talent is such that he has been producing gems sinceinfancy.

why four stars?the big long story in the middle.logopoan --something.thoroughly unsatisfying and makes you ask, "Alasdair,Alasdair, what were you thinking?"Maybe I'd like it more if I wasScottish.I'm not.

But Prometheus. . . wow.Please read this story. Writer or artist or rocket surgeon. . . it'll change the way you look atthings.Isn't that why we read books?? ... Read more

Product Description
A tale of border warfare, military and erotic, set in the twenty-third century, where the women rule the kingdom and the men play war games. This is the fictional memoir of Wat Dryhope, son of Ettrick Forestis twenty-third century chieftain - edited, annotated and commented upon. History has come to an end, war is regulated as if it's all a game. But Wat, the History Maker himself, does not play entirely by the rules, and when a woman, Delilah Puddock, joins the fray, this 'utopian' history is further enlivened. Alasdair Gray cleverly plays with the notion and writing of history, as well as perennial modern debates on war, sexism and society - entertaining and thought-provoking, this is a delightful satire illustrated throughout by the author.Amazon.com Review
In the 23rd century, the Public Eye, a television-like device thatlets everyone see what everyone else is doing, has turned warfare into aspectator sport. One of particular interest involves the Scottish borderregions' fight with the English. Wat Dryhope, leader of the Ettrick clan,pretends to surrender his clan's standard during a climactic battle, only toresume attack and win a draw. The trick gives him heroic standing andrevolutionizes the rules of battle, setting off a global change in humancombat. Though he seeks a more peaceful existence for his people, Dryhope'sperformance in warfare makes him the "history maker" of the novel'stitle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Indescribable -- and wonderful!
How can I review a book that's essentially indescribable?For one thing, A HISTORY MAKER isn't really a novel but a Stapledonian future-history in miniature, although it's too short and succinct to fit comfortably into that rambling genre.Perhaps the closest to Gray in style, wit, and profoundly enraged (civilized) humanism is my favorite Italian, Umberto Eco -- but A HISTORY MAKER remains apart from BAUDOLINO or any other surreal, fantasy or science fiction novel I've ever read.I've devoured about 3 or 4 such books each week for the past fifty-five years, so I'm a fair judge.

If A HISTORY MAKER isn't a novel, nor a full-blown future history, what is it?It certainly is not, as the London DAILY TELEGRAPH blurb has it, "Sir Walter Scott meets Rollerball."I bought the book a few years ago because a friend recommended it, but when I got it home I did a double-take at that awful blurb, which I dare say was meant as a come-on.It turned me off so I put A HISTORY MAKER up on a high shelf till this week.I'll grant the strong possibility of Borderer Walter Scott's influence, but comparing this book to "Rollerball" is hyter-styte, as Wat Dryhope might say.So's the literary review labeling the language in this book "futuristic," when it's nocht but auld lang syne Scots Lowland tongue.

"Rollerball" as I recall pandered to the superficially grown-up but socially preadolescent male who can't deal with his own testosterone but lacks the vigor to bash everything in sight -- and therefore does so vicariously.A HISTORY MAKER starts out misleading the reader into thinking that it might just be another one of those silly "heroic" war stories.But strobblin' Wat makes an unusual and highly imperfect hero -- confused, dour, educated, ambivalent, attractive to women, hating bloodshed but a braw warrior, a natural leader.I see him as Gray's future incarnation of Robert Bruce, who was no pulp fiction cowboy hero, but one of history's genuinely great men.Bruce, too, embodied the same characteristics; they even share a preference for ponies instead of gigantic warhorses.

Once we realize that Wat lives, as Walt Whitman wrote, "in and out of the game, watching and wondering at it," Gray has begun the process of standing the whole genre of male violence and hero worship on its doitered heid, and he keeps on till any sane person would be embarrassed ever again to take The Alamo, The Somme, Rambo or Iraq seriously.At the same time the author understands that male boredom and feelings of inadequacy are at the root of it all, and he sympathizes, as should we all.None the less, the older women, not the men, are the saviors of civilization in this book.

I can't really describe A HISTORY MAKER. I can only revel in Gray's use of language, the punning names, the snatches of folklore and off-color doggerel, the tweaking of asinine Thatcherism/Toryism and love of liberty, and -- in the finest sci-fi tradition -- the casual way in which his Scotland of the 23rd Century is introduced to us. The story ends like a Mozart symphony, exactly when it should.As would occur in a genuine historical document, background, a glossary of Scots words, and what-happened-next get explained in five "historical" chapters after the story's end, plus a postscript.We could compare these post-chapters to Tolkein's in THE RETURN OF THE KING, but Gray's are as hysterical as they are historical -- parodies.After such a wrap-up there can be no sequel, so enjoy A HISTORY MAKER while it lasts.It's a brief book but nigh-hand perfect.

Amazing Gray
Few authors are as inventive as Gray.This work combines both old fashioned legends and science fiction, and leaves the reader pondering the idea of what makes a hero, and why society finds the need to constructthem.

Inventive but a bit disappointing
After _Poor Things_, Gray's wonderful satire of Victorian literature, sexual politics, social convention, and who knows what else, I expected even solider and more inventive structure and style in _A History Maker_.Unfortunately the book is terribly uneven, the concluding chapters so rushed that the potentially important Delilah Puddock and the licentiousness she represents are insufficiently developed, the endnotes not carrying the comic punch of those in _Poor Things_ (or Nabokov's _Pale Fire_).Not a bad dystopian novel, better than average, but not Gray's best book either. ... Read more

Product Description
Alasdair Gray, author of the modern classics Lanark, Poor Things and 1982, Janine, is without doubt Scotland's greatest living novelist. Since trying (unsuccessfully) to buy him a drink in 1998, Rodge Glass, first tutee and then secretary to the author, takes on the role of biographer, charting Gray's life from unpublished and unrecognised son of a box-maker to septuagenarian "little grey deity" (as Will Self has called him). A Jewish Mancunian Boswell to Gray's Johnson, Glass seamlessly weaves a chronological narrative of his subject's life into his own diary of meeting, getting to know and working with the artist, writer and campaigner, to create a vibrant and wonderfully textured portrait of a literary great. ... Read more

Product Description
From "Lanark" to "The Book of Prefaces", Alasdair Gray, more than any other writer still working, can be claimed as the modern successor to William Blake. As well as being award-winning tales, his books are also works of art, from the embossed boards to his own illustrations: books, not texts. Since "Lanark" appeared in 1981, Gray has produced work of all kinds - novels, short stories, poetry, polemic, plays - all of which retain the sense of humour, Scottish heart, intellectual curiosity and unique style that is Gray's mark. This volume of essays contains a detailed bibliography of Gray's writing and design, illustrations of his artwork and original essays from such diverse hands as the poet Professor Philip Hobsbaum, Kevin Williamson, author of "Drugs" and "The Party Line", and Jonathan Coe, author of "The Rotters' Club". In addition, the illustrated jacket has been designed by Alasdair Gray himself, who is also contributing a personal view of his career to date. ... Read more