- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Viking (27 Mar 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670917435
- ISBN-13: 978-0670917433
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 831,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'The Ossians is a gripping, compelling, roadtrip around modern Scotland in the company of a drug-ravaged, arrogant, untamed visionary' Niall Griffiths
A powerful and moving commentary on the country and its defining myths (Ian Rankin )
A rock odyssey so exhilaratingly authentic, you can hear the chords and smell the vomit (Christopher Brookmyre )
This is Spinal Tap for Scotland's lost generation. Johnstone has taken a small story of a small band lost in a small country and created an epic (Ewan Morrison, Author Of Swung )
Packed with seedy, sticky bars, sullen punters and morose reflections in deteriorating weather, there is an atmospheric beauty to The Ossians (The Independent on Sunday )
The authentic ring of a man who's been there (Guardian )
Johnstone is good at describing the excitement, boredom, sniping and bonhomie of a touring band at the transit-van end of the career arc (The Times )
Doug Johnstone has got the tone of this just right...One for the young hipsters and the old rockers (Scott Pack The Friday Project )
Entertains in the uncharted corners of an unseen Scotland (List )
A Blast (Scotland on Sunday )
A powerful and moving commentary on the country and its defining myths (Ian Rankin )
A rock odyssey so exhilaratingly authentic, you can hear the chords and smell the vomit (Christopher Brookmyre )
This is Spinal Tap for Scotland's lost generation. Johnstone has taken a small story of a small band lost in a small country and created an epic (Ewan Morrison, Author Of Swung )
Packed with seedy, sticky bars, sullen punters and morose reflections in deteriorating weather, there is an atmospheric beauty to The Ossians (The Independent on Sunday )
The authentic ring of a man who's been there (Guardian )
Johnstone is good at describing the excitement, boredom, sniping and bonhomie of a touring band at the transit-van end of the career arc (The Times )
Doug Johnstone has got the tone of this just right...One for the young hipsters and the old rockers (Scott Pack The Friday Project )
Entertains in the uncharted corners of an unseen Scotland (List )
A Blast (Scotland on Sunday )
Product Description
A rollicking and hugely enjoyable contemporary novel describing the outrageous mid-winter tour around Scotland of a group of musicians called 'The Ossians'. The band's driving force is twenty-four-year-old lead singer, Connor – intelligent but self-destructive, pretentious but charismatic, gloriously opinionated and with an extraordinary ability to get beaten up.
The band is on the verge of signing a major record deal before setting off on a two-week tour of the cities and hinterland of Scotland, a tour expected to culminate triumphantly in a defining Glasgow gig. On their travels there is a seagull massacre, hapless drug deals, a mysterious stalker, a radioactive beach, a bomb-testing range, an epileptic fit, a town full of riotous Russian submariners, deadly snowstorms, epiphanies, regular beatings and random shootings.
The Ossians is both hilariously readable and satirically astute, a story of rock'n'roll obsession as well as a search for identity and a sense of community, written with delicious insight, pace and brio.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
'Connor, I don't know why I let you drag me to the stupidest places.' Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
'Connor, I don't know why I let you drag me to the stupidest places.' Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great fun,
By
This review is from: The Ossians (Paperback)
Indie guitar band The Ossians are on the verge of signing a major record deal and their lead singer Connor decides that now would be a good time to tour Scotland, going to some of the dreariest, bleakest places - in winter. Connor - self-destructive and full of himself - spends most of the tour drunk or high on a cocktail of drugs. But this is definitely not what you would typically consider a rock and roll lifestyle with its series of tedious gigs in seedy venues. And, unlike most tours (I would hope!) the tension mounts with drug dealers, stalkers and gun-toting Russian sub-mariners. I didn't like Connor at all - he's got a chip on his shoulder the size of a bag of King Edwards - but I really loved reading about him and wanted to know what would happen to him. Connor has led a pampered, rather empty, middle-class life and the tour seems to be a search for the holy grail of his own identity, as well as that of Scotland. A thought-provoking and fascinating read. And really good fun. I will definitely be looking out for more from this author.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scottish Odyssey,
By
This review is from: The Ossians (Paperback)
I can't tell from personal experience whether this is an accurate portrayal of life on the road with a rock band, but it's written with great energy and the author uses the band's tour to explore aspects of modern Scotland and Scottish identity. It deals with serious themes in a very unserious manner and it manages to be both entertaining and thought-provoking. This is exactly the kind of thing popular fiction shoud be doing.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good story,
By
This review is from: The Ossians (Paperback)
I liked this story and it's well written and easy to read. I liked the author's other novel - Tombstoning - too. For anybody who has not read this guy's work then I would recommend it to you.
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