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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's like if "a portrait of the artist as a young man" and "The Trial" had a Scottish child, really interesting format that contributed to the themes of the book. very funny but also philosophical. Fun to read having recently been in Glasgow and the nearby highlands
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have been thinking about what to write in this very review since book two of Lanark. I imagine the small feeling of stress I feel trying to put into words the sheer impact this book has had on stretching my mind is just a proportion of the ambition Alasdair Gray felt when writing and planning Lanark. I have frequently read in book reviews “this is a well thought out book” and this phrase has often confused me. I now understand what it means to think out a book. Alasdair Gray weaves together multiverses in a book that both stretch and condense the mind through the tide that is appreciating a book for its technical inventions and gut wrenching profoundness. For its length and complexity Lanark bears the quality of a profound epic. With its unwavering socialism it inspires readers to reflect on the empire that dictates our lives and though unthank seems like a distant dystopian future one only has to look at the headlines for today which tells us that we are wiping our feet on the doormat of the capitalist apocalypse.
Gray’s decision to keep the stories of Thaw and Lanark together was perhaps my most favorite choice of his as Thaw’s humanity informs the hellscape of Lanark’s absurdity. In many ways the entire book is set in Hell for it seems Thaw was always trapped in the hellscape of his own mental attitudes. Thaw was a passenger to the love that entered his life (both familial, platonic, and romantic) and the reader is given the impression that Lanark is a second chance. However, the cycles of pattern that dominate human history and individuals’ habits prove that even different circumstances or settings do not prevent one from making the same mistakes and successes. That is where I find the success of the strong religious and socialist themes of the book.
One should not read Lanark searching for an answer to our grueling reality, but the comfort of knowing that the world we live in has been burning since Gray first conceived it in print is a warm reminder that we are not the first generation to invent rebellion, grief, remorse, or (most importantly) hope. Above it all Thaw and Lanark hope for difference even if the difference is not an improvement. I was first confused by the description of this book. It was so vague in describing a plot as “humankind’s inability to love and yet our compulsion to go on trying”, but if the Christian doctrine has anything to say in the book it is this very point from the minister figure, “I am fortunate to be rescued from a dying universe at the moment of finding myself menaced by it”. In junction with the wise words of Lanark’s son “the world is only improved by people who do ordinary jobs and refuse to be bullied”, Gray proliferates the message of the importance of makers to our very being. Whether they be the makers of all or the makers of labor, creation is of the utmost necessity to the world of Lanark and to the readers of Lanark. In producing this epic, Alasdair Gray has ensured his position as a maker and I am ever the most glad that he is at his core, a creator.
Gray’s decision to keep the stories of Thaw and Lanark together was perhaps my most favorite choice of his as Thaw’s humanity informs the hellscape of Lanark’s absurdity. In many ways the entire book is set in Hell for it seems Thaw was always trapped in the hellscape of his own mental attitudes. Thaw was a passenger to the love that entered his life (both familial, platonic, and romantic) and the reader is given the impression that Lanark is a second chance. However, the cycles of pattern that dominate human history and individuals’ habits prove that even different circumstances or settings do not prevent one from making the same mistakes and successes. That is where I find the success of the strong religious and socialist themes of the book.
One should not read Lanark searching for an answer to our grueling reality, but the comfort of knowing that the world we live in has been burning since Gray first conceived it in print is a warm reminder that we are not the first generation to invent rebellion, grief, remorse, or (most importantly) hope. Above it all Thaw and Lanark hope for difference even if the difference is not an improvement. I was first confused by the description of this book. It was so vague in describing a plot as “humankind’s inability to love and yet our compulsion to go on trying”, but if the Christian doctrine has anything to say in the book it is this very point from the minister figure, “I am fortunate to be rescued from a dying universe at the moment of finding myself menaced by it”. In junction with the wise words of Lanark’s son “the world is only improved by people who do ordinary jobs and refuse to be bullied”, Gray proliferates the message of the importance of makers to our very being. Whether they be the makers of all or the makers of labor, creation is of the utmost necessity to the world of Lanark and to the readers of Lanark. In producing this epic, Alasdair Gray has ensured his position as a maker and I am ever the most glad that he is at his core, a creator.
Damn what an intercalandrical wave this was to ride.
Alasdair I would love to buy you pints.
Alasdair I would love to buy you pints.
Lanark is a story (or two) told in the wrong (but really quite right) order, a dystopian take on all the things that so readily lend themselves to the dystopian treatment: capitalism, power, love, etc. There are funny bits, fantastical bits, postmodern bits, and depressing bits, and Alasdair Gray is beyond smooth at weaving them all together.
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Een leven in vier boeken, zo luidt de ondertitel, maar Lanark is meer dan dat. Ten eerste bestaat het niet alleen uit die vier boeken, maar bevat het ook een proloog, een intermezzo, een werkelijk geniale epiloog en een 'tail piece'. Ten tweede zou je met net zoveel recht van spreken kunnen zeggen dat het een leven voor en na de dood in vier boeken is. Of misschien wel een dood voor de dood, een hel na de hel?
Lanark is een verrassend boek en niet alleen omdat het begint met boek drie, gevolgd door de proloog, waarna boek een en twee volgen en uiteindelijk boek vier. Boek vier wordt vier hoofdstukken voor het einde onderbroken door (of voor) de epiloog. Nu hoort een epiloog zich normaal gesproken aan het eind van een boek te bevinden, maar in dit geval zou dat niet passend zijn, omdat [the epilogue] is too important to go there. Though not essential to the plot it provides some comic distraction at a moment when the narrative sorely needs it. Ik kan hier niet veel meer over de epiloog vertellen, want dan zou ik teveel verraden, maar één ding wil ik er nog wel over kwijt.
Tijdens het lezen heb ik me een aantal keren enigszins geërgerd aan personages die 'uitbarsten' in - op mij als belerend overkomende - maatschappijkritische of artistieke bijna-verhandelingen. Ik vond dat jammer en totaal overbodig. Voetnoot 6 in de epiloog maakte dat echter helemaal goed. Nee, niet zomaar goed, het maakte niet alleen de epiloog, maar het hele boek geniaal.
Is er geen enkel kritiekpuntje? Nee of misschien toch deze:
"[...] it's difficult. Metaphor is one of thought's most essential tools. It illuminates what would otherwise be totally obscure. But the illumination is sometimes so bright that it dazzles instead of revealing."
Er zit niets anders op dan dit boek niet op te bergen als 'gelezen', maar weer tussen de nog te lezen boeken terug te leggen. Ik verheug me er nu al op om het dan in een andere volgorde te lezen. Beginnen met de prachtige, realistische bildungsboeken een en twee over Duncan Thaw opgroeiend in Riddrie, Glasgow, voorafgegaan door de proloog en daarna de dystopische boeken drie en vier waarin Lanark wordt gevolgd op zijn zoektocht naar liefde en de zon. Wat een heerlijk vooruitzicht!
Lanark is een verrassend boek en niet alleen omdat het begint met boek drie, gevolgd door de proloog, waarna boek een en twee volgen en uiteindelijk boek vier. Boek vier wordt vier hoofdstukken voor het einde onderbroken door (of voor) de epiloog. Nu hoort een epiloog zich normaal gesproken aan het eind van een boek te bevinden, maar in dit geval zou dat niet passend zijn, omdat [the epilogue] is too important to go there. Though not essential to the plot it provides some comic distraction at a moment when the narrative sorely needs it. Ik kan hier niet veel meer over de epiloog vertellen, want dan zou ik teveel verraden, maar één ding wil ik er nog wel over kwijt.
Tijdens het lezen heb ik me een aantal keren enigszins geërgerd aan personages die 'uitbarsten' in - op mij als belerend overkomende - maatschappijkritische of artistieke bijna-verhandelingen. Ik vond dat jammer en totaal overbodig. Voetnoot 6 in de epiloog maakte dat echter helemaal goed. Nee, niet zomaar goed, het maakte niet alleen de epiloog, maar het hele boek geniaal.
Is er geen enkel kritiekpuntje? Nee of misschien toch deze:
"[...] it's difficult. Metaphor is one of thought's most essential tools. It illuminates what would otherwise be totally obscure. But the illumination is sometimes so bright that it dazzles instead of revealing."
Er zit niets anders op dan dit boek niet op te bergen als 'gelezen', maar weer tussen de nog te lezen boeken terug te leggen. Ik verheug me er nu al op om het dan in een andere volgorde te lezen. Beginnen met de prachtige, realistische bildungsboeken een en twee over Duncan Thaw opgroeiend in Riddrie, Glasgow, voorafgegaan door de proloog en daarna de dystopische boeken drie en vier waarin Lanark wordt gevolgd op zijn zoektocht naar liefde en de zon. Wat een heerlijk vooruitzicht!
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Truly one of the most deeply strange novels I have ever read, but I did enjoy it. I do think it is too long; some parts, especially in book 2, do drag a bit (in that particular case, I started to get impatient for Thaw's story to wrap up so we could get back to Lanark's). It could have done with some more editing, however this was Gray's first novel and he spent a couple of decades working on it, so I'm willing to cut him some slack for over-indulging.
The novel succeeds along three main dimensions. First, as a delightfully bonkers depiction of what can be construed as the afterlife or a reincarnated life in an alternate dimension (books 3 and 4). Second, as a grounded, emotionally affecting coming-of-age tale (books 1 and 2, which are actually presented wedged in between books 3 and 4). Thirdly, as a pointed leftist critique of society under late capitalism. This being the third of Gray's books I've read, I was certainly expecting the postmodernist weirdness and the left-wing anti-capitalist stuff, but the essentially conventional coming-of-age bit (books 1-2, Thaw's story) surprised me (in a good way).
In their own ways, both Thaw and Lanark are difficult to like, however Gray convincingly sketches them as individuals being molded by grotesque systems beyond their control and so they remain sympathetic. Thaw in particular represents what tends to happen to neurodivergent, nonconformist people in a bourgeois liberal capitalist social structure which is actively hostile to such qualities. Hisdescent is to psychosis at the end of book 2 was a harrowing and haunting reading experience that will stay with me for a long time.
Book 4 really leans into the absurdist and surrealist elements, culminating in an epilogue (placed 4 chapters before the actual end of the book) where Lanarkmeets and has a long conversation with the author himself. This was, again, delightfully strange. In what I now consider to be typical Gray fashion, this epilogue includes footnotes and a "list of plagiarisms" that are informative, snarky, and self-effacing; in fact, several entries in the list of plagiarisms are for chapters that don't even exist and the whole epilogue has the effect of somewhat undermining his own text. This is similar to the effect of the framing device that he wraps around the main narrative in Poor Things.
This novel will challenge and sometimes frustrate you as a reader, but if you approach it with an open mind and a healthy dose of patience, you'll be rewarded. Although this is his first novel, I'd probably suggest doing what I did (mostly by accident) and read a later, arguably more mature, product of his like Poor Things first. Gray is also a highly political writer, so it's important to be aware of the left-wing and Scottish Nationalist perspectives that he had and infused into his works, otherwise they probably won't click for you.
The novel succeeds along three main dimensions. First, as a delightfully bonkers depiction of what can be construed as the afterlife or a reincarnated life in an alternate dimension (books 3 and 4). Second, as a grounded, emotionally affecting coming-of-age tale (books 1 and 2, which are actually presented wedged in between books 3 and 4). Thirdly, as a pointed leftist critique of society under late capitalism. This being the third of Gray's books I've read, I was certainly expecting the postmodernist weirdness and the left-wing anti-capitalist stuff, but the essentially conventional coming-of-age bit (books 1-2, Thaw's story) surprised me (in a good way).
In their own ways, both Thaw and Lanark are difficult to like, however Gray convincingly sketches them as individuals being molded by grotesque systems beyond their control and so they remain sympathetic. Thaw in particular represents what tends to happen to neurodivergent, nonconformist people in a bourgeois liberal capitalist social structure which is actively hostile to such qualities. His
Book 4 really leans into the absurdist and surrealist elements, culminating in an epilogue (placed 4 chapters before the actual end of the book) where Lanark
This novel will challenge and sometimes frustrate you as a reader, but if you approach it with an open mind and a healthy dose of patience, you'll be rewarded. Although this is his first novel, I'd probably suggest doing what I did (mostly by accident) and read a later, arguably more mature, product of his like Poor Things first. Gray is also a highly political writer, so it's important to be aware of the left-wing and Scottish Nationalist perspectives that he had and infused into his works, otherwise they probably won't click for you.