Unlikely Stories, Mostly

Lurking betwixt the whacky covers which feature gray Gray art, are these brilliantly witty little tales which explode between your ears. Think of Vonnegut, Kafka, even Philip Dick, or the late great Robert Altman's shock/horror movie,'Images'. No, this is not the comfort zone, but the stimulation zone, the traveller's tonic...the world re-mapped in Surrealist vent and the colonisers' grasp in all the wrong places. Powers are misplaced and misappropriated. Vasco Pyjama(thank you Michael Leunig) is out there at the far edge of consciousness. Start anywhere in the collection (though they're arranged chronologically for those so fixed on 'development'). Anyway, I'd start with'The Spread of Ian Nichol' as a primier and don't draw breath until you've finished,'The Axel Tree' with its Swiftian swipe at Modernism. Go Alisdair! This is my grey pick since its advent to my shelves during a bitter mid 1990s winter.

1982 Janine is Gray's best book (and his own favourite) but is difficult to get hold of, Lanark is his most important but difficult to get through, Poor Things is his most successful but not weighty enough. Unlikely Stories, Mostly is just right -- like Little Bear's porridge.This book is more an anthology of Gray's early works than a collection of stories. One was written when he was 15, others were written when he was at Art College. Considering he was 46 when it was published, there's hope for all of us. Highlights are Five Letters From an Eastern Empire, a masterful portayal of censorship in art and the control a dictatorship can have on creative minds; the Tale of the White Dog, after reading it you'll be more enquiring about your potential in-laws; and The Cause of Some Recent Changes.Some dislike the long central story Logopandocy. However if, before reading it, you know it is about a real person and the high-falutin' dense, sometimes willfully obscure, language accurately reflects Urqhuart's own writing (in fact, tones it down considerably) you may enjoy it more.But despite the writing itself, the book would be a joy to own just for the way it looks. The paperback is a poor substitute for the original hardback, but is still one of the most beautiful mainstream publications you can own. The original had a slip inserted, which said "Erratum: This slip has been inserted by mistake". The whole is smothered in Gray's own wicked illustrations, inspired by Blake, Eric Gill and Stanley Spencer. I can't really recommend this highly enough.

and he said "whiskey" and I said "with what" and he said "just whiskey, I'm scottish."this book is an irreplacable companion to any trip to Scotland. this book is neat. oh, and so much more.as with all of Alasdair's work it is a lyrico-poetic journey through a scots writer's personal Scottish playland. and it is also a mini-history of his literary efforts, something not all of us can be proud of, but Alasdair's talent is such that he has been producing gems since infancy.why four stars? the big long story in the middle. logopoan -- something. thoroughly unsatisfying and makes you ask, "Alasdair, Alasdair, what were you thinking?" Maybe I'd like it more if I was Scottish. I'm not. But Prometheus. . . wow. Please read this story. Writer or artist or rocket surgeon. . . it'll change the way you look at things. Isn't that why we read books??