- Paperback: 384 pages
- Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited (31 Aug 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1904598099
- ISBN-13: 978-1904598091
- Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.8 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 311,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Scotland on Sunday
An ambitious and interesting new voice.
Product Description
It is August 1893. Alexander Auchmuty Kininmonth, optimistic railway engineer, works on the construction of a railway line between Garve and Lochinver, expecting that the railway will both transform the economy of that lonely corner of Scotland and bring him riches and personal comfort. Over the course of time, however, he finds that his dreams are slowly and inexorably sacrificed to the aspirations of others, and to events into which he finds himself stumbling head-first. Eventually, the fiscal incompetence of the railway company drives Kininmonth to seek employment in the Scottish borders, where he becomes involved in a bizarre relationship with two survivors of a community abandoned on a sub-Antarctic island. Extraordinary events necessitate a rapid escape by all three to the remote island of Jura, before Kininmonth returns to the north-west, where work continues on the railway. He is caught up in a 'revolution' in Ullapool in 1897, where a 'Citadel of the Elect' has been founded by a millenarian preacher. Historical events - factual or fictional - threaten to obliterate his schemes, but Kininmonth refuses to bow to the inevitable, always hoping, as the worst of scenarios persistently unfold before him, that everything will turn out for the best. And indeed his railway is finally completed - or is it? This is an astonishingly assured first novel. Written with great realism and sense of time and place, Andy Drummond creates a haunting and hallucinatory world where nothing is as it seems and in which the utopian dreams of its hero and his age are seen as the delusions they came to be.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Deadpan Masterpiece,
By jannert "jannert" (Hamilton Scotland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: An Abridged History (Paperback)
I've planned to review this novel ever since I first read it last year, but have worried about 'giving the game away' in my review. Which would spoil the fun, wouldn't it?Suffice it to say, all you REALLY need to know before reading this book is that the 'railroad' referred to in the subtitle does not—and never has—existed! Except, perhaps, on paper in some dim archive somewhere. People familiar with Ullapool and environs will know this fact right away, and will probably start chuckling right away too. Folks from elsewhere could be initially fooled by the relentless authenticity of the novel's tone, cover illustrations and blurbs, as well as the appendices, etc—as were two bookstores in Inverness which both displayed the novel under local history categories! This unique novel is as much fun—and every bit as sly—as Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker, but a LOT less work! You will learn something worthwhile as you read this book, but I assure you, the experience is painless, hilarious and unforgettable. I can hardly wait for Mr Drummond's next novel to appear. I'm afraid his brain is a sticky quagmire of possibilities.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read,
By
This review is from: An Abridged History (Paperback)
There are few reviews of this book, which is a shame, because it is really a fantastic work of fiction. The scene in which the station house is blown away by a gale, leaving the narrator "naked" is worth the price of the book alone
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