Such a powerful little book this one - I really enjoyed it.
I liked controversial reads - something which I'm not so keen about now although now and then that little spark does rear it's head and i'll buy something a bit risque.Alexander Trocchi was a Scottish novelist. Young Adam pushes the unreliable narrator device close to the breaking point, absolutely refusing to tip off the reader when protagonist Joe is lying and when he's telling the truth. Here, the narrator who is working on a barge going down a Scottish canal falls for the skipper's wife. The result is a strange blend of arid psychology and full-blooded lust that doesn't really have any peers in contemporary literature.I didn't have a chance to review this when I finished it yesterday as I was on a train. The premise suggested a straightforward murder mystery book, so reading this, I was surprised when it became against the love life of the main protagonist, Joe.A short, powerful novel of 1954 from controversial writer, Alexander Trocchi,, set on the gloomy, almost redundant, canals of Scotland which certainly pulls no punches with the raw realities of post-war working-class life in an era of inevitable economic & social austerity.The main characters are all troubled & searching for an unattainable ideal life suited to their rather banal individual personalities. I loved it.Dark, compelling and generally very good indeed, apart from a tendency to overuse the word 'haunches' (I'm not even joking, it crops up every couple of pages! Over the next seven seasons, Adam would be motivated primarily by jealousy, undermining the professional successes of his brother Steven and brother-in-law Jeff, in an attempt to curry favor with his parents, especially his father. So just a few comments here.After reading what some prominent critics have said about this book, perhaps I have underrated it. and because this is the sort of novel that romanticises the life of being a writer-drifter figure (albeit in a sexier way in the film version) and so embroils me in its web of wrongness in ways that probably would cause lesser mortals to pack in their lives and take to bobbing around barges on the Clyde seducing the boss’s wife after murdering their pregnant ex-girlfriends in error and not feeling too contrite when an innocent plumber is prosecuted instead of you in a trial that you watch from the wings before drifting off back into the depressing drifter’s life as the book by this lesser-known Scottish experimentalist ends. We rarely get the confession or questionable non-confession with the ring of truth though.This book deserves more credit- I didn’t learn of it ‘til i was searching specifically for Scottish authors. A simple, direct prose and candid tone of voice belies a rich texture of ethical quandaries.A brilliantly crafted novel, with a creeping sense of dread from the first page to the last. Joe, the eponymous protagonist & reliable? Adam Alexander Carrington is a fictional character from the ABC prime time soap opera Dynasty, created by Richard and Esther Shapiro. 0802139779 Written fifty years ago, the simple story is told by Joe, an itinerant worker who works on a barge that hauls coal and other loads between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Adam also flirts with Three years later, Adam is still working for Alexis, having sold out Denver-Carrington to a foreign cartel while Blake was in jail.
But I have given one star for each of the things Scottish novels so frequently have: murder, lots of drinking, and casual, mechanical sex. A great short story with many themes and aspects to keep me thinking for a long while yet.
He lives on board with tThe Pete Best of the Beat generation, Trocchi ran with Ginsberg, Burroughs, et al, but never achieved their lasting fame. Everything got in the way the faces, the voices, the grease-spAfter reading what some prominent critics have said about this book, perhaps I have underrated it. Was it an accident? narrator, is a man with many unresolved personal conflicts, particularly his promiscuous sexual shenanigans with several easily-available women, including the drudge-like Ella, the drunken bargee Leslie's wife & Cathie, a mildly romantic foil, whose nearly-naked body is unceremoniously fished-out of the foul water by Joe himself. The things that speak to each of us usually differ, so I hope you read this for yourself and find something too.I'm not that selfish, but plenty of people seem to have the protagonist's worldview. I was tired and distraught and it did not strike me then that her escorts were even farther than I from the thing for which I felt an acute sense of loss, infinitely farther from it, because it did not exist for them - their laughter, the swing of her hips, the ribbon, their familiarity, all that.