![]() ![]() He serves as a blank canvas onto which Gray paints the joy, misery and sheer absurdity of life, and his ‘out-of-placeness’ shows how surreal so-called normal life is: It all comes from wanting to be superior to ordinary life.” But this lack of personality and weirdness is the point, I suppose. ![]() The things you say arenae altogether sane. ![]() As another friend says: “You scare me sometimes, Duncan. His companion, Rima, says: “I like you, Lanark, and of course I depend on you, but you aren’t very inspiring, are you?” Despite, or because of, this deficiency he is a strange and screwed up individual. For the ‘hero’ of such an ambitious book, he’s surprisingly lacking in any real character. The life in question is that of Duncan Thaw/Lanark (again, I’ll not ruin it for you). This wouldn’t do it justice and would lessen the ambiguity that is central to the book. The plot? One man’s life – if I go any further it’ll sound like some kind of sci-fi/mystery novel written by the twisted spawn of Kafka and Homer. This is a new 40th anniversary commemorative hardback edition of Alasdair Gray’s much-admired first novel, which was first published in 1981. ![]()
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