Product Description

James Kelman has long been regarded as one of the finest writers of fiction in the world. In this brilliant collection of essays he deals with matters literary, artistic, political and philosophical. In the essay ' "And the Judges Said..." ' Kelman outlines some of the influences that led him to create literary art, from the music he heard as a teenager to American and Russian writers, to the lives of the Impressionists. Elsewhere he looks at the role of elitism in literature, the central importance of Chomsky's work in twentieth-century thought and the work of the Caribbean Artists Movement. There are essays on the struggle to save the steel industry in Scotland and on the situation of the Kurds in Turkey; at the core of the collection is an extended essay on Franz Kafka.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #102597 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
"Kelman is simply incomparable." -- "Independent"
"A writer of vast and original talent." -- "Sunday Times"

Sunday Times
‘A writer of vast and original talent’

Herald
'A committed crusader for the underdog who won’t take anything at face value’

Customer Reviews

Shots From the Hard Shoulder
After 'Some Recent Attacks'(1992), this is another collection of Kelman's non-fiction work featuring political/literary essays, newspaper articles, speeches and other bits and bobs including a section on Noam Chomsky, and 'A Look at Franz Kafka's Three Novels' which, in dissertation-style, dissects the eccentric's masterworks with a fine toothpick.

Kelman, an old-school hard-left activist and fierce anti-authoritarian, is a man who knows his stuff and is not frightened to tell it like it is. Here is somebody equipped with that most feared of weapons - the pen. And boy, does he use it. At times you feel you're receiving a sermon from a particularly indignant preacher; at other times maybe you're in a low-lit pub with a well-read (but whisky-fuelled) bar-room philosopher as he humourousy recounts the trials and tribulations of his life and the world around him. But that's Kelman for you - hard-hitting AND intimate, sometimes both at once. And whether you like it or not, you're gonna LISTEN.

Unearthing the lid on many a hidden truth and injustice, Kelman covers subjects that range from elitism in Literature (it should be FOR and BY everybody), to the UK government's reluctance to properly address the issue of asbestos-related death, through to the Kurdish war in Turkey (something you won't read about in the holiday brochures - or ANYWHERE according to Kelman). However, it's not all doom and gloom. Some of the esays give insights into Kelman's origins as a writer - grafting hard or on the dole reading his way through Zola and Dostoyevsky - and his choice to use "the language of the gutter". And a fine choice it was.

Stunning
Excellent collection of essays fuelled by Kelmans enormous and inquisitive intellect. Sometimes it just shouldn't make sense, but somehow it works perfectly.

Wonderful introduction to Noam Chomski was a highlight for me, going off at bizarre tangents and still managing to shine light on the subject matter. Great book. Nice cover too.