Product Description

"Not Not While The Giro" is James Kelman's first major collection of short stories - originally published by Polygon in 1983. The reader follows the lives of young men, social misfits, whose lives are spent waiting - waiting for their next giro or menial job - in the pub, the dole office, the snooker table and the greyhound track. This collection, written with irony and great tenderness, confirmed James Kelman's status as one of the most significant writers in the UK, and remains as powerful, relevant and truthful as it was in the early 1980s.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37623 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
James Kelman was born in Glasgow in 1946. After leaving school at 15 he worked in the printing industry and as a bus driver. In 1971 he attended creative writing night classes and in 1973 an American company published his first collection of short stories, An Old Pub Near The Angel. Greyhound for Breakfast won the 1987 Cheltenham Prize; A Disaffection won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; How late it was, how late won the 1994 Booker Prize amidst a storm of controversy. He has also written many plays for stage and radio. He lives in Glasgow with his wife and family.

Customer Reviews

title story a CLASSIC!
A collection of superb short stories "Not Not While The Giro" is a classic in its field ."Jim Dandy" and "No Longer the warehouseman" similary describe the angst undergone by what the Tories and new labour might class as the Sub Species of Society.Brilliant Kafkaesque despair beneeath the humour.

Great introduction from a future Booker Prize winner
As short story collections go, this one is way better than average, because the young author sticks to the world he knows and does not pretend to have any great new ideas, or literary pretentions. This is simply street writing by someone we can easily believe has been there himself. The language is very fresh and completely unpolished, although the way it's written, especially in the excellent title story, achieves poetry. It was no surprise the author later went on to win the Booker prize.