Just when you think a book/author has disappeared from your reading life they show up again— even 30+ years later. Such is the case with the Scottish writer Alasdair Gray (1934-2019) who is riding a revival wave because of Poor Things, the movie starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe. Based on Gray's 1992 novel. Poor Things has already won several Golden Globes awards and is up for the Best Picture in the Oscars race. I am currently reading the book in hopes of finishing it before I see the movie.
Historically, I go back a ways with Gray. My second published book review was about his book Something Leather (1991) and then there is this anecdote that appeared in this blog's name sake The Book Shopper: A Life in Review (2008). Here's an excerpt:
"I am not the only one who admires Alasdair Gray. National Book Award finalist Madison Smartt Bell, in his acknowledges for his novel Doctor Sleep (1991), recognized Gray as one of the people who contributed to his book. However , Bell quipped, 'Gray will hardly be expecting it.' For years after I read the acknowledgement, I wondered what it meant. At the Nashville Book Festival I saw Bell on a panel, but I was too shy to quiz him in front of a packed house. Still, it confused me how these two seemingly disconnected writers were linked—Gray, an off the wall writer and illustrator from Scotland, and Bell, a novelist whose trilogy of books about the slave revolt in Haiti is an incredible work of history and imagination.
Finally I had an opportunity to hear Bell give another reading, this time at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. A writer friend of mine was doing the handling of Bell and invited me to attend. After the reading, Bell graciously answered all the standard writing student questions: Where do you get your inspiration? What is your workday like? How do you get a goddamn agent? Since the discourse in the half-filled auditorium was lagging and I did really want to know, I decided to ask my question. Bell didn't miss a beat in answering that Gray's bawdy book 1982, Janine (1984) had influenced him while he was writing Doctor Sleep. Bell and my friend were pleased enough by the odd question to invite me to join them for the post-lecture beer and literary chat. Thank you Alasdair Gray."
Library Book Sale
If you like the possibility of finding great books for a couple of dollars or less, check out the Decatur Friends of the Library Book Sale on Saturday, February 2nd, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Decatur Public Library, on 215 Sycamore Street, Decatur. Denise and I will be working Saturday morning. Stop by, say hello, quiz me, but please only ask me questions that I can answer.
