yjb1778 's review for:

Lanark: A Life In Four Books by Alasdair Gray

5.0

adventurous challenging dark funny lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

---

This is an almost perfect book for me. It is massive yet still satisfying. It is coherent but wildly imaginative. The book plays with structure in the disorder of the numbered books, introductions, and not-quite-epilogue epilogue AND in the construction of the typography on the page. The plagiarism revelations, the potent tragedy of Thaws earthly life and the whimsical, magical hell of the after life make this one of the most unique and filling reads of my life.