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Lanark: A Life in 4 Books
 
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Lanark: A Life in 4 Books (Paperback)

by Alasdair Gray (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 576 pages
  • Publisher: Picador; New edition edition (23 Aug 1991)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330319655
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330319652
  • Product Dimensions: 19 x 13 x 4.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 313,133 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #9 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > G > Gray, Alasdair
    #10 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Gray, Alasdair

Product Description

Review
Bulk alone - 560 or so pages - signals Scottish first-novelist Gray's determination: he means to make a detailed, leisurely analogue to today, to set it in a future-world city much like Glasgow called Unthank (where there is no natural light), and to place the whole thing around an historical mystery man named Lanark. Lanark, suffering from a throwback skin disease called "dragonhide," is sent for treatment to the Institute, a hospital/research-center/university where human ecology has been strictly perfected: cured patients in turn become doctors; selective cannibalism un-kinks the food chain. But Lanark, along with pregnant girlfriend Rima, can't abide the strictures (which resemble an exaggerated modern-day British social-welfare bureaucracy); they escape and wander the "intracalendrical zones" where time and space are askew. True, Gray pulls up short for the next two or three hundred pages and interjects the autobiographical travails of an asthmatic, unhappy Glasgow art student named Duncan Thaw; and then, still later, there's a disarming intermezzo in which Gray cheerfully acknowledges and catalogues the writers and books from whom he is borrowing and lifting. But apart from these genial emperor's-new-clothes, the main of Gray's big metaphorical structure is built on fantasy. And though this construct has its moments - Lanark's and Rima's relationship is more rancorously realistic than usual in the genre, and some of the speculation (like a time credit-card that substitutes for money by simply deducting from the cardholder's life span) is diverting - it never even comes close to cohering. The eye (unlike Wyndham Lewis' in The Human Age), instead of being scathing, is more simply chafed; there's a sharp edge here, but it glints only once in a long while. Some appeal for fanciers of grand-scale sociological futurescapes, then, with more ambition than real imagination or power. (Kirkus Reviews)

Product Description
Duncan Thaw, the narrator, has to cope with a loveless family and the drudgery of growing to maturity in Glasgow. Elsewhere the author moves Thaw into fantasy when he sends him to Unthank, a city he is condemned to after his death. From the author of "Something Leather".

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Customer Reviews

9 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (9 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, 13 Aug 2001
By A Customer
Lanark is, in so many ways, a straight forward tale of two people-who may or may not be one and the same- struggling through their difficult lives. Gray, however, has taken these two tales and twisted them mesmerically together and in doing so has undoubtedly produced one of the most original and exciting novels ever. Lanark, under the pen of any other author, would be two fairly regular stories, but Gray's wit and skill has turned it into something breath-taking. His epilogue in particular showcases his intelligence and arrogance as a writer. A real must-read.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A life in one book, 22 April 2000
By A Customer
Quite simple really - my favourite book of all time. Nothing pretentious about my praise: a stunning, complex, irritatingly-difficult and brilliant book. I first read it in October 1982 and have worn out my copy by over ten readings. But enough of reading my rubbish - read it!
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting And Bleak, 4 Sep 2001
'Lanark' clearly has some moments of greatness (namely the 'Epilogue'), but I couldn't help but have a niggling feeling that there was something I just wasn't getting. I'm sure it probably is a great book, I just don't think I took the time to get it. Why am I writing a review then? Well, everyone else seems to love it so I thought I'd show some difference of opinion. Duncan Thaw is good, but no Prentice McHoan!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars A dire novel. Simple as that.
I feel compelled to write this review as, after reading "Lanark", I completely fail to understand why this novel is held in such high regard. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Peter M

3.0 out of 5 stars self important
I have read Gray before and he is obviously a man of intelligence and talent BUT, all the way through Lanark i had the feeling that the book is not as good as he thinks it is. Read more
Published 12 months ago by C. Nicklin

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a book that quite literally changed my life.
A book that is an exemplar of anti-realist fiction - more importantly, it overturns all what you would expect a conventional novel to be. Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books ever
Gray somehow manages to handle the most difficult aspects of life in a hugely entertaining form. As life (and death) mock Lanark the reader enters a world of frustration, dispair... Read more
Published on 22 May 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly divine comedy - in every sense
This incredible book tells the story of Duncan Thaw (lanark after his first death) and his struggle in his life and indeed his death to be loved. Read more
Published on 15 Nov 1999 by clare.roy@nl.abnamro.com

5.0 out of 5 stars The artist in Hell
Astonishing debut novel from Scottish author Alasdair Gray. Its twin narratives follow Duncan Thaw, an angst-ridden asthmatic Glaswegian art student, and the same character,... Read more
Published on 2 April 1999

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