Reviews for Modern Scottish short stories

The average rating for Modern Scottish short stories based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-11-08 00:00:00 Paul Keating Not much cop, governor. I don't have time for Kelman's raw punctuationless obscurity'to me, it's not an effective representation of his characters, nor his Glasgow. Like Gray's Lanark, it places him outside his homeland, but in a bad way, since Lanark is freaking awesome. Agnes Owens I always have time for, and her stories here are largely impressive, barring a few fabulist flops. And Gray, oh dear Mr. Gray, once again proves his incompetence at the story form. One gets the impression he writes whatever he pleases, stands back and allows people to congratulate him on his originality of form. These pieces are dry, autobiographical bores, told in Gray's arch schoolmaster style, and his two portraits belong in newspapers, not a storybook, being articles, not stories. After Lanark, Gray was enshrined in the pantheon of Scottish greats. He got away with murder from then on: Unlikely Stories, A History Maker and Old Men in Love being three examples. I think our love affair has reached cessation.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-02-17 00:00:00 Cynthia St-Pierre whoo hoo, this is not only 18 James Kelman stories, but also 9 from Agnes Owens and some short stories and essays? from Alasdair Gray. Kelman's stories here are mostly very short, like snapshots on lives on the edge, or invisible. Homeless, drunks, crazies, beggars, most all take place inside the head of one of these characters, with some little dialog with civilians they run up against. Sad, fevered, clear-eyed independents?, living rough is one of the hardest ways to "make a living" there is. Owens' stories here are from mostly "Gentlemen of the West", i think. Gray's stores are true masterpieces, its hard to tell if they are fiction or not though. hah.