Amazon.com
Drama teacher Joy Stone is losing her grip. In a captivating story of the onset and evolution of depression, her problems accumulate, denial activates, and food becomes a major player. Through the wit and irony that is gaining international applause, Galloway crafts the chicken-or-egg dilemma of life in our times and being depressed. Yet even through her growing obsessions and the metamorphoses of family and friends into suspicious characters, Galloway's main character and the reader find that the trick in living rests with the simplest things. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

This is the best book I've ever read.
I read this book when i was about 14.I have had depression since childhood and when I read It I was shocked It was like reading a story about my own feelings.Anyone who Is considering this book,buy it!I borrowed It from the library the first time I read It and I did not want to return It.You won't regret buying this book.Unless you've never been depressed in your life,this book will grab you and won't let go.

A book u HAVE to read unless ur crazy
Janice Galloways unique technique of writing is very significant in this book, as Joy the maain character is slowly slipping into madness the techniques used show how she feels for example when people talk to joy she uses a script to show how joy thinks nothing said to her s genuine. Also Janice uses joys home outside of glasgow to show her isolation. i recommend this book to everyone. and if u do read it it will show u how we r all so close to maddness ourselves.

Haunting
My interest in the band "Garbage" led me to this book - its title was used by them to create a chillingly magnificent song on their second CD. I found the book itself to be one of the most creative and compelling works I read this year. The story it tells gets under your skin to such a point that I don't recommend it for those already depressed. For the rest of us, it is a chilling look inside a sympathetic character, a young woman dancing around the border between sanity and madness. She knows she is on the verge of losing it all, and knows she is not getting the kind of help she needs from anyone - least of all the mediocre medical personnel who see her as just one more casefile. Yet she's unable to shake the helplessness and displays the lack of will to take control of her own life which is so often found in the insane and/or suicidal. Galloway makes extremely skilled use of innovative page layouts and even unexpected graphics to really show us her character's imbalanced view of the world. We see through her eyes.

An amazing noveloffering insight regarding female depression
Galloway's novel about the depression and life of a middle-aged, female drama teacher living in Scotland, is captivating and insightful. Galloway uses snapshots from Joy's memory as well as emotion filled diction to create a fictional novel with a lasting effect and unique style. This first person narritive, written from the point of view of Joy Stone, a female battleing a depression over the death of her lover. "Sometimes things get worse before they get better. Sometimes they just get worse. Sometimes all that happens is passing time...The whole point is that time passes. That things fade" (Galloway, The Trick is To Keep Breathing). The novel tracks Joy during a year of her depression and gives a more personal understanding of the world of female depression.

Painful, but So Beautiful
This novel is painful to read because Janice Galloway's descriptions of Joy Stone's feelings and experiences are so accurate.We've all felt the way Joy feels at some time or another.The accuracy is so startling thatat times it's tempting to forget that this is fiction, and not a non-fiction depression narrative, like "The Beast" or "Girl,Interrupted."Perhaps this is why Galloway added the subtitle,"A Novel."This novel is truly inspiring; it's refreshing toread a novel about depression which maintains a sense of humor.Gallowayuses a number of unusual narrative techniques, including spontaneouslybreaking into dialogues when she's on the phone or talking to doctors, andputting comments in the margins to represent the thoughts that we all have,but don't always acknowledge, even to ourselves.This is a novel I'm sureI'll go back to again and again, because even though the subject matter isdepressing and painful, this novel is so beautifully written and the endingis uplifting.This novel will be with me for quite some time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The strange bits I have found in blood
The inside of Janice Galloway's head scares me. Blood is a bizarre but mesmerizing collection of strange short stories, unsettling almost-plays, and uncomfortable snapshots of human nature. Her words walk that sharp line between brilliance and madness, and you are never quite sure what side you have landed until it's much too late. These stories are clever and brutal. Twisted things happen to a menagerie of misfits. Simple, everyday events are carefully braided together into something with which you will end up flagellating themself after a few pages. And there are never more than a few pages; you don't know if you really want there to be more pages. But, really, you do.

Virtuoso work
This book of short stories has no one theme, but gets it shape and unification from Galloway's strong, highly individual voice and the eerie atmosphere of fear and tenderness it manages to convey. From the very short(The Meat) to the longer pieces (A week with Uncle Felix) this collectionrattles with desperate life, vivdness and a visceral edge all its own. Idefy anyone to read BLOOD (the title story) without feeling the sensationof a former tooth extraction, though what she does with the story goes muchfurther, turning an everyday, unremarkable mutilation into a parablethreaded with loss, yearning and isolation from the the herione's dearestsource of comfort, music. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to readmore in the contemporary Scots voice or who enjoys virtuoso writing for itsown sake. Galloway is a rare, brave writer. ... Read more

Amazon.com
From the beginning this novel's tension weaves warp and woof between hilarity and hell. Two women friends travel through France, encountering backroad-European misogynist crudities and the awkward experiences of being female, over thirty, with your teeth almost literally at your closest friend's throat, and "fancying men, but not liking them very much." Throughout Rona's random acts of innocent irritation and Cassie's caustic reactions, the funny and fumbled art of their compassion supersedes self-slaughter, stretches itself thin, but refuses to puncture, throughout years of pals together both on holiday and in troubled spirit.Book Description
Winner of the McVitie Prize and the Scottish Arts CouncilBook Award

When it was first published in Great Britain, Foreign Parts was describedas "a road movie for feminists . . . a funny, sharp and gutsy portrayalof female friendship," and "a painstakingly crafted, multi-layeredinvestigation of contemporary female experience." What begins as adriving holiday in Northern France for two Scotswomen turns into acaustic and funny account of dysfunctional relationshipsboth between menand women and between women friends. Cassie and Ronain their latethirties, both single and childlessare on each other's nerves from themoment they cross the Channel: Cassie is testy and cynical, Rona patientand plodding. Both are self-conscious of the fact that they seem to fitthe stereotype of two "spinsters" linked by loneliness, and consequentlyrebel against the notion that a woman needs a man to feel "complete."Faced with the dilemma of "fancying men and not liking them very much,"the women ponder alternatives as they endure one tourist nightmare afteranother. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Delightful armchair vacation
Although I can't say this was a totally knockout read, I have to admit Ithoroughly enjoyed traveling the French countryside with Cassie and Rona,the book's enormously likable female protagonists. Once I adjusted toGalloway's rather inventive literary style (no punctuation to denotedialogue, stream of consciousness narrative, loose spacing within sentencesand paragraphs, etc.), I was off and running. Cassie's contrary and cynicalnature is the perfect foil for Rona's perpetual Pollyanna personality, theclashes well illustrated in short vignettes and terse conversations thatwill leave the reader laughing out loud on occasion. Stopping at variousFrench tourist attractions and sites along the way (many highlighted inhilarious travel book lingo within the text), the Scottish duo cope withrude male behavior, snarling dogs, decrepit hotel accomodations and their own dramatic mood swings. With a long history of taking"holidays" together, Cassie and Rona explore not just theunfamiliar terrain of the French countryside, but also the sometimesstartling interior landscape of their own psyches. The resulting literaryjourney is well worth the reader's time, so sit back and enjoy the ride!This book is a wonderful testimony to the power of female friendship.

reading it right
A fan of Galloway's first book, I loved this even more. I am horrified to read that the only on-line review here is by a man who think this book is somehow a slight to him! It's not about men at all, it's a book about twowomen, and their thoughts on men occur as part of the narrative they havebetween themselves. That the two women have an exrtemely funny, leg-pullingas well as tender relationship with each-other doesn't seem to reach theover-sensitive British male reader, though it does reach the male readerwith a sense of humour. It's not a "story" (go to the movies forthose), it's a meditation about love, aging, what success might be,European identity and, above all, companionship. I have taught this book inhigh school (Brit Lit) as well as given it to friends and have yet to finda US male who doesn't find it a hoot (or who didn't learn something from itabout the weaknesses and strengths of women alone). In short, it's awonderful, thought-stuffed, gentle yet stimulating book that says it allabout modern Scottish fiction. If Galloway isn't appreciated at home, maybeshe should to the States!

Friendship overcomes tensions and is superior to sexual love
Galloway has been compared to Virginia Woolf and in the first few chapters of this novel is equally opaque.Where is the reader ?Who are these two women, which, if not both of them, is the psychiatric case ?Is there ahorrible history hiding there ?In truth, the book rambles from scene toscene with a minimalist plot and is often tedious.It is enlightened byclever use of language, sharp observations and occasional humour.Shemakes frequentuse of metaphor - the frustrated boxer dog, the frog etc. -to demonstrate that men are shallow creatures and that women have betterlives when they stick together.She laments the power of sexualattraction, however residual, that men still possess.

For a male readerit is a bleak read - are we that shallow ? - tarnished by generalisationswhich if written by a male writer (John Updike ?) would have led to criesof misogyny, but the book becomes stronger the longer it proceeds and inthe end proves a worthwhile read. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Clara's grappling with the rigidities of historical character and its conjuring of a totally alien milieu--the German music scene of the mid-19th century--are all the more impressive given that Janice Galloway's previous prize-winning novels, The Trick Is to Keep Breathing and Foreign Parts, were much less ambitious in scope, dealing with contemporary lives.

Reaching her prime before the dawn of recorded sound, Clara Schumann, an acclaimed virtuoso pianist who had her own international career in European concert halls in the latter half of the 19th century, is now, sadly, only known by report as the perfect champion of her husband Robert's music. However, the bare bones of her biography hint at hidden depths: the mother, Marianne Tromlitz, who left her husband and daughter for another man; the father, Friedrich Wieck, who nurtured her career single-mindedly; the marriage, violently opposed by her father, to Robert Schumann, who soon fell into depression and whose short life ended in an asylum. Janice Galloway has taken full advantage of the raw materials of the first half of this extraordinary saga to produce a rich and compelling fictional life.

There's also a deep understanding of the social politics of Clara's background, most impressively done through her father's social climbing, hidden behind an apparently classless artistry. Galloway renders all this in an indulgent, exquisitely limpid prose: the end result is an outstanding novel, the most ambitious and most impressive of her career to date. --Alan Stewart, Amazon.co.uk Book Description
With "some of the greatest words ever written on thwarted love since Romeo and Juliet" (The Times, London), Clara reignites, from between the lines of history, the great love of Robert and Clara Schumann.

This impassioned novel gives voice to Clara Wieck Schumann, one of the most celebrated pianists of the nineteenth century, who today is best remembered not for her music but for her marriage. "How often you must purchase my songs with invisibility and silence, little Clara," says Robert, and, for Clara, the price of his love is dear. Shrouded in alternate layers of music and silence, the Schumann union was anything but a lullaby, marked by her valiant struggle for self-expression and his tortuous descent into madness.

With Clara, a deeply moving fugue of love, solitude, and artistic creation, Janice Galloway "has taken a melodic line and scored it for an orchestra" (The New York Times Book Review). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Lovely and Amazing
This is quite a gorgeous book -- but difficult! It takes a particular kind of reader to enjoy the stream of consciousness and perception that constructs this book. The narrative takes the form of images and perceptions of the main characters, rather than straightforward facts and dialogue. Taken on their own, particular sentences can be quite confusing, but interwoven as they are with each other, the finished manuscript is quite an effective symphony!

There has been wonderful fiction from the UK of late, I also recommend Never Let Me Go and Cloud Atlas: A Novel

A wonderful book
This is, quite simply, a wonderful book.Janice Galloway has written a masterwork.Galloway has struck a very difficult balance between historical fact -- which much of the book details -- and its interpretation through the mind of one of the most remarkable women of the nineteenth century.For those interested in the subject, I recommend also another fine novel about the Schumanns, "Longing" by J.D. Landis; but Galloway's book towers above it in its depth of feeling and understanding of -- to quote the title of Schumann's song cycle which Galloway has used as a template for her book -- a woman's life and love.Highly recommended.

Appreciate the book
I appreciated this well-structured novel but did not prefer it to another novel with the same subject, Longing by J.D. Landis.The author makes some interesting choices, such as writing in an impressionistic matter. However, I definitely feel that although the book is alive with detail of 19th century musical life, the book loses some appeal b/c it completely seems to characterize Clara as a victim of both her father and Robert.Both men are presented as villians in most points of the book.Even though you could argue that the book is balanced (b/c we are shown how life is like through Robert's eyes) there seems to clear agenda of showing how Clara was forced to give up her musical career, when in fact she did not completely give it up in real life.

But that is just one flaw in the book that I found, whcih does not diminsh the book's strengths, especially its detailed portrait of an era and what it is like to be a musical genius. I actually preferred the portion of the book devoted to Clara'schildhood-Fascinating stuff!

Wish the book has gone on to describw what Clara's life was like after Robert's death. But if you enjoymusic and love stories this is a good novel.

Devotion
Unlike some other reviewers, I found the idiosyncratic style of this book rather tiresome, and it is possibly a little on the long side. But there is no doubt that at the end one is left by the unforgettable image of a terrible situation. Bullied by her monstrous father in childhood and young womanhood into becoming a great musician in her own right, Clara Wieck does at last escapes him into marriage with Robert Schumann. He adores her and she is devoted to him. As Robert's mental condition deteriorates to the point where he has to go into an asylum, Clara's devotion never falters. If he says the most terrible things about her, she is convinced that he does not mean them (and in a way that is true, since Robert is in desperate need of her love and support), while at the same time she refuses to accept the severity of his mental illness. Though others can visit Robert in the asylum, doctors refuse Clara access to her husband until he is at the point of death. There is of course much more to the story, including a brilliant career as a pianist and seven children. But the painful story of her childhood and marriage holds centre stage

A Novel of Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann's (1819-1896)life continues to fascinate and inspire.I recently saw the world-premiere of an opera, also titled "Clara" at the University of Maryland by the American composer Robert Convery.Clara Schumann is the subject of an excellent website and of recent biographies, including "Clara Schumann: the Artist and the Woman" by Nancy Reich. Clara Schumann's compositional output consists of only about 60 works, but it continues to be recorded and performed.

Janice Galloway's novel, "Clara" (2002), introduces the reader to a remarkable woman and to her times.Clara was the daughter of Frederick Wieck, a notable piano teacher, and of a woman who left Wieck to marry another man when Clara was young.Clara Wieck was a child prodigy with virtuosic ability at the piano.At the time, the role of piano virtuoso was just coming into its own.

Clara fell in love with the great romantic composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), ten years her senior, when Schumann was a student of Wieck.Her father bitterly opposed the marriage, but the couple persevered and were married with permission from the German courts.The marriage was difficult, as Robert needed absolute quiet in order to compose and was moody and tempramental to say the least.The couple had eight children, and Clara proved determined to pursue her calling as a concert artist.Schumann's instability gradually lead to insanity and he was institutionalized for the last years of his life following a failed suicide attempt.The novel covers Clara's life up through the death of Robert Schumann with only brief allusions to her life as a concert pianist following his death.Clara outlived Robert by 40 years.

This book presents a complelling picture of lives filed with the love of music. Robert was a highly gifted composer while Clara devoted her great talents to the art of interpretation. Ms. Galloway shows well the vicissitudes of the creative life, both for the composer and the interpreter.The book is love story, rarer than might be supposed in today's world, presenting a picture of a gifted couple's devotion to each other. In particular, it presents a compelling portrait of Clara Schumann with her devotion to a difficult individual through his descent into psychosis.

Ms. Galloway stays close to the facts of her story, gets inside her characters, and avoids the temptation to judge or to editorialize based upon the values of another age.She presents balanced portraits of the characters in her story and allows the reader to see the nuances and ambiguities inherent in all human conduct.For example, Ms. Galloway lets the reader see that Wieck had a point, after all, in his doubts about the marriage and about Robert's mental instability which was surely visible over the years. Ms. Galloway also points out Clara's growing devotion to what she was born to do -- play the piano -- and how her independence sometimes rested uneasily with her love and commitment to Robert.Her love for Robert was surely the most important force in her life.

The novel moves slowly at times, but it builds as it progresses in both writing style and in depth of understanding. The novel does an outstanding job in linking the events of Clara and Robert's lives into their music.I enjoyed the treatment of Robert Schumann's "Carnaval", a great work for the solo piano and a favorite of mine, his song cycles, piano concerto, symphonies, and other compositions which receive thoughtful attention in the book.

The paperback edition of this book includes some good questions suitable for book groups together with a revealing interview with Ms. Galloway. The book shows how music and creativity enable people to reach the best of what is in them and to transcend the pain of sorrow and suffering and the banalities of the everyday. I found this book a moving presentation of the love of a woman and a man for each other and of the love of both for music. I was both inspired by the story of Clara's life and also moved to revisit Clara's music and the music of her tormented but gifted husband. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Janice Galloway, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 2818 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Book Description

"VALENTINE'S DAY MAKES ME EMBARRASSED," writes Janice Galloway in the opening lines of Where You Find It. The collection deals with love in its many guises -- the way relationships suddenly turn; how a look, a gesture, a word can heal or hurt. Love in Galloway's world is more likely to resemble a heart-shaped ham sandwich than the flowers and chocolates that bear the standard in more traditional "love stories."

In the manner of Lorrie Moore and Raymond Carver, Galloway's tales explore the psychological aspects of love and the overpowering yearning to communicate. Whether it's the title piece, which tells of a prostitute's passion for her pimp's kisses, or "Valentine," in which a celebratory evening is undermined by minor disappointments and misunderstandings, the stories that comprise Where You Find It assume that powerful feelings always contain a dimension of disturbance.

Upon the collection's much-lauded publication in the United Kingdom, one reviewer was moved to predict that Janice Galloway "will certainly end up in anthologies: not Best Scottish Writers or Best Women Writers, but, quite simply, best." ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on September 22, 1999. The length of the article is 2561 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Bad Times.(purpose of art and literature)
Author: Janice Galloway
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1999
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 19Issue: 3Page: 147

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on March 22, 1996. The length of the article is 2550 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: One of the ways the dominant right silences those who oppose it is through the concept of the marketplace where money, power and worth are conflated. In order for Art to be accepted within this sphere, it must serve the marketplace. It must 'edify,' rather than disturb; civilize or present civilization, not question that civilization; and it must not forget that it does not make profit; business, the real thing, does. However, Art has to question, has to disturb, has to shake the world out of its complacency. It may not gain state support, but continue it must.

Citation Details
Title: Bad times. (censorship and the marketplace)(The Future of Fiction: A Forum)
Author: Janice Galloway
Publication: The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1996
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: v16Issue: n1Page: p39(5)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book 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