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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.