Review:
"A set of strange tales that both frustrate and delight...[Kelman] is certainly more experimental, as this...collection shows, and he's also a lot funnier. As well as being a keen observer of society's underclasses and disenfranchised, Kelman also has a great eye for the absurdity of everyday life, something which comes to the fore in this collection...His impeccable command of language continues to make him an easy writer to admire." --"The Independent"
"As always, [Kelman's] at his best when transforming a fairly narrow spectrum of underclass experience into something uniquely pitched between Beckett and vernacular realism." --"The Guardian
""A masterful composer, Kelman makes writing look easy, and then infuses it with a sense of gravitas that can be, at times, breathtaking, in his own modest way." --"Booklist" (starred review)
"This stuff is bloody brutal, and absolutely perfect." --"New City Lit
"
"In Kelman's hands, words are deployed so seemingly realistically but, of course, so artfully, they feel closer to reality than hard truth. This collection is teeming with life, and with death, or worse, and, as the title indicates, it is our lives he is writing about, ours all. It is a tour de force from a writer who treats language as carefully as if it were gold, and ends up turning it into something even more precious." --"The Herald (Scotland)"
"Feisty and poetic." "--The Boston Globe"
"A set of strange tales that both frustrate and delight...[Kelman] is certainly more experimental, as this...collection shows, and he's also a lot funnier. As well as being a keen observer of society's underclasses and disenfranchised, Kelman also has a great eye for the absurdity of everyday life, something which comes to the fore in this collection...His impeccable command of language continues to make him an easy writer to admire." --"The Independent"
"As always, [Kelman's] at his best when transforming a fairly narrow spectrum of underclass experience into something uniquely pitched between Beckett and vernacular realism." --"The Guardian
""A masterful composer, Kelman makes writing look easy, and then infuses it with a sense of gravitas that can be, at times, breathtaking, in his own modest way." --"Booklist" (starred review)
"This stuff is bloody brutal, and absolutely perfect." --"New City Lit
"
"In Kelman's hands, words are deployed so seemingly realistically but, of course, so artfully, they feel closer to reality than hard truth. This collection is teeming with life, and with death, or worse, and, as the title indicates, it is our lives he is writing about, ours all. It is a tour de force from a writer who treats language as carefully as if it were gold, and ends up turning it into something even more precious." --"The Herald (Scotland)"
"Kelman's language is immediately exciting; like a musician, he uses repetition and rhythm to build structures out of short flights and circular meanderings. The working-class Glaswegian author knows exactly how his words will scathe delicate skins; he has a fine sense of attack." --"The New Yorker
"
"Feisty and poetic." "--The Boston Globe"
"A set of strange tales that both frustrate and delight...[Kelman] is certainly more experimental, as this...collection shows, and he's also a lot funnier. As well as being a keen observer of society's underclasses and disenfranchised, Kelman also has a great eye for the absurdity of everyday life, something which comes to the fore in this collection...His impeccable command of language continues to make him an easy writer to admire." --"The Independent"
"As always, [Kelman's] at his best when transforming a fairly narrow spectrum of underclass experience into something uniquely pitched between Beckett and vernacular realism." --"The Guardian
""A masterful composer, Kelman makes writing look easy, and then infuses it with a sense of gravitas that can be, at times, breathtaking, in his own modest way." --"Booklist" (starred review)
"This stuff is bloody brutal, and absolutely perfect." --"New City Lit
"
"In Kelman's hands, words are deployed so seemingly realistically but, of course, so artfully, they feel closer to reality than hard truth. This collection is teeming with life, and with death, or worse, and, as the title indicates, it is our lives he is writing about, ours all. It is a tour de force from a writer who treats language as carefully as if it were gold, and ends up turning it into something even more precious." --"The Herald (Scotland)"
About the Author:
James Kelman was born in Glasgow. His story collections include Greyhound for Breakfast, Not not while the giro and The Good Times; his novels include A Disaffection, How late it was, how late, which won the 1994 Booker Prize, Translated Accounts and You Have to be Careful in the Land of the Free. His most recent novel, Kieron Smith, boy, was awarded the 2009 Aye Write Prize, the Saltire Society's Scottish Book of the Year, and the Scottish Arts Council's Book of the Year. In the same year James Kelman was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.