I wrote:
"How about How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman?"
Neil replied:
"I've heard it called "apocalyptic". Thing about these Scot
writers now
(Kelman, Alan Warner, Welsh), very very hardboiled attitudes,
very dark, very noir, obviously influenced by HB, but in a
category all it's own."
Okay, I agree with you on Warner and Welsh, as good as they
are (man, I love Warner's books), they don't really qualify
here.
However, Kelman's "How Late It Was, How Late" is very
down-to-earth. It chronicle's a few days in the life of a
smalltime thief/scam artist, just after he has gone blind
from being hit by a cop while on a drunken binge. It is
extremely colloquial (wasn't there a controversy over this
winning the Booker Prize because of his repeated use of the
"F" word?) and is set in a very realistic milieu. In many
ways, it reminded me of Goodis's non-crime novels.
Mark
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