A Writer Well Worth Reading
Last year I discovered, or I should say, rediscovered the Scottish author James Kelman. I first read his novel The Chancer in 1987 or 1988, not long after the first paperback edition was published. I then read his novel Dirt Road when it was first published in 2016 but had forgotten The Chancer and didn’t link the author to these two books. In 2021, in the midst of the various lockdowns, I took the opportunity to read a few more books by Kelman and I think that he is a very interesting author well worth reading.
The Glasgow Dialect – James Kelman’s Voice
A lot of Kelman’s work is written in Glaswegian patois or dialect and, if you’re not a reader of the Scots language, it can be difficult at times. I remember some time ago advising a friend who was struggling with James Joyce to read it aloud with a Dublin accent and then the written words would start to make sense. Sometimes when I read Kelman, I do so with a Glaswegian accent in my mind. Of course, this imagined accent is not so thick that I can’t understand the words in my head, but sort of posh Glaswegian, a little like the actor Kelly Macdonald who has the most wonderful Glaswegian accent.
Most of the characters in Kelman’s work wouldn’t actually sound like Kelly Macdonald. Kelman writes a lot of working-class characters just trying to get by in a seemingly hostile world and, in many cases, they are the angels of their own misfortune.
James Kelman’s Best Known Novels
Probably the two best known novels by Kelman are A Disaffection (1989) and How Late it Was, How Late (1994), which won the Booker Prize in the year that it was published. Reading these two brilliant novels in the last couple of years, I was impressed at how well they have stood the test of time and compare well to the 2020 Booker Prize winner Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart which is also an exquisitely drawn portrait of working-class Glasgow. A Disaffection is a story of unrequited love against a background of working in a job that grinds you down.
Like a lot of us, the main character has more or less fallen into his post-university career without thinking too much about it (in his case it is as a school teacher) and, fuelled by alcohol, rebels against his lot. If anything, How Late it Was, How Late is the much darker of the two books but it is still infused with lots of black humour in the bleak setting of a man perhaps blinded as a result of a police beating. Given that the main character is blind throughout much of the book, there is a lovely use of the other senses by the protagonist as he navigates his way around Glasgow seeking answers and seeking help.
Other Works by James Kelman
Another two of Kelman’s books that I really enjoyed were What I Do (Memoirs) and Tales of Here and There. Both of these books were published by Thi Wurd, a small independent Glasgow based publishing house. Their website is well worth checking out www.thi-wurd.com for both the books on sale and the blog. What I Do (Memoirs) is the closest that Kelman has come to writing an autobiography and each of its chapters are about people who been influential in his journey as a writer and, in some cases, they were written as obituaries and epitaphs.
Tales of Here and There is a collection of short fiction with many of the pieces being just a paragraph long and. What makes them so enjoyable, is that notwithstanding the brevity, the pieces are perfect little poems in prose. If you’re interested in contemporary Scottish writing, you should seek out James Kelman. Of course, if it’s good Scottish crime writing in the Tartan Noir school, you should be reading Ian Rankin’s Rebus series if you haven’t already.