Unlikely Stories, Mostly

Fülszöveg

Too clever for its own good in parts, but otherwise a damned good read."
COL. SEBASTIAN MOR./\N, THE SIMLA TIMES
"This anthology may be likened to a vast architectural folly imblending the idioms of the Greek, Gothic, Oriental, Baroque, Scottish Baronial and Bauhaus schools. Like one who, absently sauntering the streets of Barcelona, suddenly beholds the breathtaking ^^deur of Gaudi's Fatnilia Sagrada^ I am compelled to admire a display of power and intricacy whose precise purpose evades me. Is the structure haunted by a truth too exalted and ghostiy to dwell in a plainer edifice.' Perhaps. I wonder. I doubt."
LADY NICOLA STEWART, COUNTESS OF DUNFERM LINE, THE CELTIC NEEDLEWOMAN.
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UNLIKELY STORIES, MOSTLY
"Short stories, I know, are a problem. It is difficult enough at times to sell good novels without their litde ones elbowing for attention.... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Too clever for its own good in parts, but otherwise a damned good read."
COL. SEBASTIAN MOR./\N, THE SIMLA TIMES
"This anthology may be likened to a vast architectural folly imblending the idioms of the Greek, Gothic, Oriental, Baroque, Scottish Baronial and Bauhaus schools. Like one who, absently sauntering the streets of Barcelona, suddenly beholds the breathtaking ^^deur of Gaudi's Fatnilia Sagrada^ I am compelled to admire a display of power and intricacy whose precise purpose evades me. Is the structure haunted by a truth too exalted and ghostiy to dwell in a plainer edifice.' Perhaps. I wonder. I doubt."
LADY NICOLA STEWART, COUNTESS OF DUNFERM LINE, THE CELTIC NEEDLEWOMAN.
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I ¦ t \
¦ ¦ ' t ¦ ¦ ¦ f 1-
• t't :¦ it . i
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mm'.'.':^
UNLIKELY STORIES, MOSTLY
"Short stories, I know, are a problem. It is difficult enough at times to sell good novels without their litde ones elbowing for attention. But there is no ignoring Alasdair Gray's UNLIKELY STORIES,MOSTLY. It is a playful tide, but a magnificent collection.
Some stories are long, a few very short, and one has only five lines. Some are set in everyday life, some are fantasy or parable, and a few have the quality of myth. Their themes are many. Alasdair Gray's is an extravagant imagination. He can be satirical, tragic, comic, ironic. He is sometimes whimsical, oft:en deeply moving, always subversive, always supremely entertaining. It is a hugely enjoyable book.
Five Letters from an Eastern Empire travels back in time to the Travels oj Marco Polo. The letters are those written by the emperor's tragic poet to his parents and they describe the empire in all its richness, beauty, cruelty and sterility. It is a parable of any oppressive government; 'imnecessary people' and 'authorised rumours' lurk in its pages. It is cruelly ironic and the victim is truth.
Other stories are, quite simply, hilarious. 77ii Problem is about the sun (forget the Greeks, this sun is feminine) who visits the narrator and worries about her spots. While reading The Crank that Made the Revolution — a sort of Gray's History oj the Industrial Revolution — I disturbed the household with uncontainable laughter.
Some people seem oppressed by literature, as if it is something they are obliged to swallow like a dose of medicine. Alasdair Gray is one of the remedies. Expect to be thoroughly entertained, but don't expect to be left feeling comfortable."
Fiona FuUerton, The Bookseller Vissza