Christine Macrae: The good book guide 3
Discuss my book selection in the Forum - and add you own recommendations.
Reviews.
Glasgow's Other River. Alex Matheson, Fort Publishing Ltd.
This first full-length account of the Kelvin moves effortlessly through history and architecture, geography, literature, and archaeology. A river makes a good story, and here, from meandering stream down, is the beautiful Kelvin we know and love in the West End. We learn of the main tributaries, the Glazert, the Luggie and the Allander and communities along its banks: from Kirkintilloch to Kelvingrove, Kilsyth to Kelvinside, and Milngavie to Maryhill. Famous people abound: Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Red Comyn, Thomas Muir, Lord Lister and the great Lord Kelvin himself.
Find it at Amazon:
Glasgow's Other River: Exploring the...
New Writing 11. ed Andrew O'Hagan and Colm Toibin. Picador.
The enigmatic introduction about a glass box monument to Picasso and the imagination in Barcelona prepares the reader for the editors* choices of fact, fiction and poetry. Jenny Diski's Strangers on a train is a lovely account of travelling alone in Savannah and the southern states of the US. Scots writers are well represented, Maggie Graham*s interesting extract from work in progress, Precious Little, is super. Bill Duncan has a literally dark story, Nightwalk, and Jackie Kay tackles identity head on with Not the Queen. Spinal Tap fans will enjoy Michael Faber in characteristically light-hearted mood when Morpheus, the drummer in Ayrshire's top death metal band, falls sick in Budapest. Ildiko, the girlfriend, is his most real woman so far. "I never asked for nothing" is a taut novella from Glaswegian Thomas Healy, about boxing, the underworld and the vulnerability of love. An excellent sampler of current writing.
Jonathan Franzen. The Corrections. Fourth Estate.
The author famously shut himself away for three years to write this, after dismal sales of his earlier abstruse novels. It marks a return to description, detail and digression, is a challenge to minimalists and well worth reading though it*s not in the Wolfe or De Lillo class. Although Gary, Chip and Denise, the Lambert children live in real cities of the East Coast of the US in 2001, the Corrections takes place in different levels of reality. Communication between the grown up children and their parents in the imaginary St. Jude is problematic. Enid, the mother, constantly mishears and misinterprets her offspring, filling in gaps with hollow hope. Franzen darts around the family history to show us Chip trying to finish his liver and Denise's affair with her father*s assistant, then we*re back on a farcical present-day cruise when Alfred, the ailing father, hallucinates a vengeful turd. Like a thriller, it*s packed with information, from financial markets to neurological disease, restaurant management and imaginary Lithuanian political parties. But as we*re bounced from one Lambert to the next, we pick up less reliable information, of personality, motives and why this family, the US, and the world became so badly damaged. The corrections metaphor to markets, hopes, lives and systems is rather overdone.
Find it at Amazon: The Corrections
Some books on Scottish film.
Screening Scotland Duncan Petrie. BFI publishing
An overview of developments in Scottish filmmaking and a look at the context within which successes like "Regeneration," "Trainspotting," "Carla's Song," and "Mrs Brown" have been made. It also examines the history of Scottish film production. This book focuses on the inspirational work of "auteurs" like Bill Douglas and Bill Forsyth and a new wave of creative film-making, drawing upon both popular genres and the more personal concerns of European art cinema. It also features plenty on Lynn Ramsey's excellent "The Ratcatcher" with a careful look at the style and why it is so Scottish.
Find it at Amazon: Screening Scotland
Scotland - The Movie. David Bruce. Polygon
This informal gazetteer, a great account of film in Scotland, is not just essential reading for film buffs but is for anyone with an interest in the country's relationship with the most important medium of the twentieth century. Taking the form of a reference work in alphabetical order it covers, definitively so far, locations that are connected with Scottish film. Within this loose framework the present state of affairs, individuals, trends, and institutions is described. Nobody would be disappointed, especially with the photos, of the expected places, which illustrate this fascinating book.
I tried to trace some others. "Whisky Galore and the Maggie" by Colin McArthur from I B Taurus. The classic, "Scotch Reels" by Colin McArthur BFI 1982 seems to be out of print, as does "From Limelight to Satellite" by Eddie Dick BFI 1990. They*re in the Scottish Film library.
"100 Years of Glasgow's Amazing Cinemas" by Bruce Peter from Polygon looks interesting, as does Forsyth Hardy "Scotland in Film" EUP. The Royal Museum, Scotland's Past in Action Series has "Going to the Pictures - Scottish Memories of Cinema" by Andrew Martin.
Find it at Amazon: Scotland - the Movie
Recommendations.
A Bairn's Sang. William Soutar ed Tom Hubbard. Mercat Press.
The Soutar classic "Seeds in the Wind" is long out of print and has to be chased up second hand, but this nicely illustrated little book is a fair substitute. There is revived interest in spoken Scots in schools and where better to begin than here with Wee Wullie Todd and A Penny to Spend? It's clear that Soutar revelled in traditional ballads and language and hoped to encourage children to do the same. With the informative glossary kids can solve the riddles and grasp just how scary Bawsy Broon is. The introduction suggests that children put together a Soutar Show, an excellent idea.
Find it at Amazon: "A Bairn's Sang" and Other Poems
Lanark. Alasdair Gray. Canongate.
A special 4-volume hardback limited edition of 2000 copies.
From the moment it first appeared, Lanark was hailed as the most influential Scottish novel of the second half of the twentieth century. A work of extraordinary imagination and wide range, its playful narrative techniques convey a profound message, both personal and political, about humankinds inability to love, and yet our compulsion to go on trying.
The four books within Lanark are bound separately and presented in a boxed set. Each edition is numbered and signed by the author and there is some additional material.
Find it at Amazon: 184195120X
Scottish Art 1460- 2000. Duncan Macmillan. Mainstream.
This new edition of the definitive work reprints the original text and plates and adds two chapters, one on the 90s and a postscript exploring how its story changes our understanding of the wider history of European art. An ambitious study with 369 illustrations and 440 pages of authoritative text covering over five centuries it examines " with intelligence, wit and imagination the Scottishness of Scottish art." The historical theme, how indigenous originality infiltrates tradition, is superbly illustrated. Everyone is here, from Ramsay, Raeburn and Wilkie, to Peploe, MacTaggart, Currie and Howson. A discounted price is not hard to find, essential reading for an understanding of Scottish art.
Find it at Amazon: Scottish Art, 1460-2000
Archive: Book Guide 2
Discuss my book selection in the Forum - and add you own recommendations.
Art Prints shop | Flathunting | Business Listings | Property Listings | Classified Ads | Pinboard
