Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books

The best Sci-Fi of all time - Lanark: A Life in Four Books (Canongate Classics)

Reviews
 

For those who haven't yet read 'Lanark', do it soon. A fascinating and visionary work of fiction, this 'time-slip', dystopian tale set in central Scotland is part autobiography and part political allegory.
Jimmy Miller

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Having been an 'avid' reader since I first picked up a "William" book over fifty years ago, I must have read countless hundreds of novels over that time, 'Classic' or otherwise. "Lanark" sits easily in my top ten favourite novels ever. It is now rightly regarded as one of the most important Scottish novels of all time, and contributes mightily to English Literature in general. Each and every time that I have recommended this novel to a 'reading' friend, they have thereafter warmly cherished this book and continue to hold it in the highest affection. But, so much for my meagre recommendations.
To properly 'review' "Lanark" would take me the rest of the day, and at least twenty-five pages of exegesis.
Just in passing then, I have heard this opus described as 'dense', 'opaque and 'difficult'- it isn't! You only have to read the opening paragraph to see that the prose is straightforward, if not downright dead-pan. Sentence structure is generally simple, and even honed-down, as the author seeks to convey his meaning as directly as possible. Having said that, "Lanark" is a vivid and luminous work, and is at times gut-wrenching and immensely sad. Indeed, Sadness seems to be at the absolute core of this book, and to inhabit every page.
We also note in passing the title of this novel: "Lanark - A Life in 4 Books". The novel deals with the Life of One Single Person only (with, of course, the concomintant cast of characters). Lanark and Thaw are the same person in other words, as so much seems obvious. We have the 'literal' life of Thaw (quite clearly semi-autobiographical with regard to its author, and quite apart from its merit as Art, very informative about Gray's development as an artist), and we have the 'imaginary' life of Lanark, who is still steadfastly Thaw, but in some other surrealistic parallel dimension.
Gray's organisation of his material in "Lanark" is sublime/apt/meticulous, such that we are never in doubt about 'where we are' in the story, and we are not left metaphorically wandering about and lost.
Lanark is of course wandering about and lost, much like the rest of us. Lanark is just an ordinary person, a central theme of the novel. And as for the novel's main theme, that is surely Love.
Love found, love lost, unrequited love .... this theme is best summed up by a quote: "I ought to have more love before I die. I've not had enough."
I first read this novel in October 1982, and my Granada paperback edition has literally fallen to pieces.
Luckily, I also possess a signed and limited-edition of "Lanark" in solemn hardback. A true and forever treasure, until I sadly have to die, like everyone else.
James Morton

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To review this book properly, I have to make two things totally clear first of all. One, this is probably my favourite book of all time; I've read it four times, studied it extensively at school and university, and written two dissertations on it. Secondly, it's a difficult book. it's opaque, occasionally frustrating, diverse to the point of fragmentation, and bloody massive.

The difficult elements of Lanark are tied in inextricable with the manner of conception. Gray began writing the novel in 1954, and finished it in 1976. Over the course of these twenty two years, the book went through a tremendous amount of redrafting, editing, scrapping and resurrecting. The negative side to this extraordinarily long genesis is that the book does at times seem overly divergent in prose style, and can even feel disjointed. The plus side is, of course, that the final result is an allegorical novel covering over twenty years of ideas, events, arguments and revelations from Gray's life, Scotland and the world in general.

The plot of the novel is half fantastical, half semi-autobiographical. The novel is split into four books, with 1& 2 mapping the life of Duncan Thaw, a Glasgow man based on Gray himself; Book 3&4 focus on Lanark, an amnesiac lost in the bizarre city of Unthank.

Gray makes use of many experimental techniques in the novel, including his own illustrations and creative typesetting, extensive use of pastiche, self-referential jokes, fake scholarly footnotes, references to imaginary chapters and various other devices. Take note; if extensive experimentation with text, language and the elements of construction of fiction do not appeal to you, you will probably find large sections of this book not to your taste, if not unreadable.

However, if you are interested in writers who are openly technical, and choose to foreground the constructed nature of their work, or you're a fan of Iain Banks, David Mitchell, AL Kennedy or other popular writers influenced by Alasdair Gray, this book will probably appeal hugely to you. In terms of predecessors and debts owed, Lanark is a novel self- consciously in the tradition of James Joyce, Cervantes and Lawrence Stern, taking in Huxley and Swift to boot. Lanark is genuinely a powerful, funny, important book. It thoroughly deserves its lofty academic reputation.

A. Glen

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As a fan of "experimental fiction" who loves the work of the likes of BS Johnson and Mark Z Danielewski, I decided to read "Lanark" on holiday this year. Sadly it wasn't really my cup of tea.

First of all, it has to be said that the book looks and feels lovely - lavish illustrations (albeit a little explicit on the front, which provoked a few looks around the swimming pool!) on the cover and the title page of each "book", plus the covers are made of a slightly floppy paper so it's actually quite nice to hold for a big book, which makes reading a little easier.

But what of the novel? The four books essentially cover two stories, that of Duncan Thaw (set in Glasgow), and secondly the story of Lanark (set in the fictitious Unthank). When you open the book you'll probably think there has been a binding error as it starts with book three, but this is intentional. Books three and four deal with Lanark, whereas one and two focus on Duncan Thaw, so you effectively have one story within the other. Personally I quite enjoyed the Thaw sections, but I really couldn't warm to the Lanark sections, and sadly these form the greater part of the book. There are parallels between the two narratives, some obvious, some obscure, and maybe I was expecting some triumphant conclusion where it all came together, but sadly this didn't come. Yes, it was very well written, but sadly as a whole it just didn't appeal to me.
Peter Lee

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I bought this book after trawling the internet for a copy of Gray's 'Unlikely Stories, Mostly' collection and coming up fruitless. I'm glad I got this instead. I don't like to get into the plot or try to summarise a book too much in recommending it to others, and try to avoid cliches like 'social commentary', 'vivid imagery' and 'imaginitive', but Lanark is all of these and alot more (another cliche, sorry). I'm sure some people wouldn't like the odd separation of the four books that make up the titular 'life', but it's worth getting past this. I can't recommend this book highly enough.
Peter J. Fleming

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