- Hardcover: 345 pages
- Publisher: Viking Pr; 1st Edition edition (Oct 1984)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670513873
- ISBN-13: 978-0670513871
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,483,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
1982, Janine (Canongate Classics)
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Product Description
Review
'1982, Janine has a verbal energy, an intensity of vision that has mostly been missing from the English novel since D. H. Lawrence.' New York Times
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
An unforgettably challenging book about power and powerlessness, men and women, masters and servants, small countries and big countries, Alasdair Gray's exploration of the politics of pornography has lost none of its power to shock. Disliked by some and praised by others, 1982 Janine is a searing portrait of male need and inadequacy, as explored via the lonely sexual fantasies of Jock McLeish, failed husband, lover and business man. Yet there is hope here, too, and the humour (if black) and the imaginative and textual energy of the narrative achieves its own kind of redemption in the end.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This inventive novel takes place over one difficult night in the life of Jock McLeish, security systems engineer: a night which brings him to the brink of suicide. It is an evocative mosaic, mingling the sadistic fantasies that fail to distract Jock from the bitter memories of his own life - poor decisions, casual cruelties, ill-judged liaisons - and his musings on the failings of his beloved Scotland. Eventually, a kind of resolution is reached.
It is all done in Gray's fluent and adventurous style. Fans of his other works should not hesitate; newcomers to his dark, Gothic fictions could happily(?) start here.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Gray's great second book is much better than the famous Lanark; though quite similar in some of its themes it is tighter, funnier and works more effectively. It concerns an aging security operative, desperately lonely and alcoholic, who is reviewing his life in a small Scottish hotel room. Without spoiling the book for anyone (I hope), he "finds himself" when, despairing at all the missed chances in his life he tries to kill himself and enters a dialogue with God. As an atheist this surprises him! A beautiful vignette of what it is to be Scottish, politically and sexually repressed. Replete with pretend literary notes like Lanark (one of several references to Flann O'Brien which Gray acknowledges), this is by far the better book. Sad though.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
...up there with Sunset Song, in my humble opinion (and I should say that the latter, read when I was 14, was the novel for me which made fiction seemt he greatest thing in the world). Far better than Lanark - tighter, more humane, funnier and more serious. A wonder.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A genius at work...
Alasdair Gray confirmed his reputation as one of Scotland's most exciting literary talents with 1982, Janine, the bold and blistering novel which followed on from the success of... Read more
Published 20 months ago by BobbyJay
Misunderstood
It is interesting to how much criticism there is about the author of this book rather than a discussion of what it contains. Read more
Published on 17 May 2010 by Al
A searingly honest, fabulous book
Rightly or wrongly, I was hesitant about beginning this book despite being a fan of Alasdair Gray's other work. My fears were totally misplaced. Read more
Published on 13 July 2009 by D. Heales
It's repulsive
Potential readers should know that large parts of this book consist of extremely nasty and unpleasant pornographic sexual fantasies. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2009 by Baby Blue
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