Immagine dell'autore.

Kevin MacNeil

Autore di The Stornoway Way

11+ opere 222 membri 8 recensioni

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Comprende il nome: Kevin MacNeil

Fonte dell'immagine: From Wikipedia page of Author

Opere di Kevin MacNeil

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Perverted by Language: Fiction Inspired by The Fall (2007) — Collaboratore — 39 copie

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“The Brilliant and Forever” by Kevin McNeil is sadly neglected in this day and age. It is indeed brilliant (whether it is forever is more questionable but I hope it is around for a very long while.) McNeil started out as a poet and then published “The Stornoway Way”. I thought that a bit of a "poets novel"; there was some excellent writing and he described a Stornoway recognisable to me (entirely unromantacised which makes a change) but I did not think it was entirely satisfying as a story. “The Brilliant and Forever” goes up several gears. A truly brilliant bit of writing that is quite unlike anything else. That is something in itself but it is a really fun, inventive, clever, thought provoking story. Or rather stories because it is a sort of nest containing numerous short stories, none of which much resemble any others. “The Brilliant and Forever” of the title being a writing competition and all the entries in that are part of the book. There are also nods to Italo Calvino. However, the nearest thing I have read to it is probably Flann O'Brien's “The Third Policeman”. Apart from the... well, I am not sure if you would call it Magic Realism or Absurdist elements, there is something in the tone - it manages to be ridiculous (in a good way) and menacing at the same time, which is quite a trick to pull off. And quite different to The “Stornoway Way” which is grimly realistic.

It isn't perfect. I don't want to caste doubt on its quality by my nit-picking hypercritical ways (and to do so would involve spoilers) - but I think he could get even better yet, he is still a young guy. And it is good indeed.
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antao | 1 altra recensione | Sep 5, 2020 |
“If you are easily offended, consign this book to the flames immediately, or return it to the shop from which you stole it.” So begins The Stornoway Way, but not the novel of that name contained within this book. The conceit is that the embedded novel is a manuscript sent to our author Kevin MacNeil by one R Stornoway (yes, the schoolboy joke is acknowledged) whose real identity - the town of the surname being one where everyone knows everyone else; and their business – MacNeil has sworn to keep secret. I doubt we are supposed to be taken in by any of this. In any case there is not really too much to be offended by; except I suppose if you are one of those determined killjoys for whom “the Old Testament was a good start, but it didn’t go far enough” with which the Western Isles and Scotland generally have historically been saddled.

The cover is a work of genius, by the way, invoking both Whisky Galore and the island obsession, also shared by much of the mainland, with alcohol. The cartoon figure, blotto, with bottle still in hand, is a particularly apposite touch. Unlike in Compton MacKenzie’s book though, the dark side of alcohol dependency gets an airing here. In case this sounds gloomy I should say that in many ways The Stornoway Way is an amusing book, but while at times comedic it is never light, and always serious. (The recitation entitled “The Neighbours We Could Have Had” might not find favour in southern parts of these islands though.) And it has copious footnotes!!!! Who doesn’t love footnotes? Admittedly a lot of these are translations of various Gaelic terms – some of which aren’t even in the text - but better footnotes than a glossary. In them for example we find the Gaelic Sasanach has no pejorative connotations, unlike its Scots/English borrowing.

Before the internal novel begins we are presented with a map of Scotland upside down compared to the usual occidentation*. This helps to illustrate the point that in Stornoway, “We do not live in the back of beyond, we live in the very heart of beyond, “Our blood relatives in Scandinavia to the left, our blood relatives in Ireland to the right.” Though “R Stornoway” perhaps overdoes it when he says, “The Western Islander’s response to our diminishing way of life is that of the oppressed the world over, from Native American to Australian aborigine: a powerful urge to drink oneself underground.” The Western Islanders - and the Scots - have been drinking themselves underground for centuries.

When the novel proper starts, poverty has brought would-be artist “R Stornoway” back to Lewis and his childhood home, which he had been avid to leave as soon as possible. From there we range over various incidents from his life, his first experience with alcohol being a seminal moment. In all of these, even his relationship with Eva, a student from Hungary, alcohol plays a significant part - as it does for Stornoway the town.

An example of the narrator’s sardonic humour occurs when he is accused of being uncaring - and an alky. He replies, ‘Some people will believe anything if you tell them it’s a rumour.’

His existential crisis comes when he wakes up beside a beautiful woman and, due to the booze, cannot remember who she is, how she came to be there, nor exactly what happened between them the night before. His decision to fetch the ingredients for breakfast without waking her backfires when he returns to find her gone. At this point there is still a substantial part of the novel to come though. Eventually he comes to terms with himself and his relationship with alcohol. “Drink doesn’t give you a better sense of who you are, it gives you a nonsense of who you are.”

The latter part of the novel has a more downbeat nature than the delicious early chapters, concomitant with the cumulative effects of alcohol on the individual personality, but even with that The Stornoway Way is overall brilliant stuff.

*One of MacNeil’s coinages, see also gloominous clouds, muselicious.
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jackdeighton | 3 altre recensioni | Aug 18, 2017 |
Enjoyable but in the end disappointing. The device of a literary festival gives the author the opportunity to write a short story collection rather than the chapters of a novel. The linking narrative is surreal and amusing but an idea that is thrown away and undeveloped. Potential unrealised unfortunately.
 
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Steve38 | 1 altra recensione | May 24, 2016 |

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