Items related to If it is Your Life
Giving voice to the dispossessed and crafting stories of lives on the edge, lives almost lost, lives held in the balance, James Kelman writes about the things that touch us all. With honesty, toughness and humour, he confronts the issues of language, class, politics, gender and age - identity in all its forms - with a sympathetic pen and a sharp and observant eye. No other British writer today penetrates so deeply into the hearts, minds and desperation of his characters, and this collection is as uncompromising, and as beautiful, as anything he has ever written.
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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.
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“Bangs & a Full Moon”
A fine Full Moon from the third storey through the red r from the city lights: this was the view. I gazed at it, lying outstretched on the bed-settee. I was thinking arrogant thoughts of that, Full Moons, and all those awful fucking writers who present nice images in the presupposition of universal fellowship under the western Stars when all of a sudden: BANG, an object hurtling out through the window facing mine across the street.
The windows on this side had been in total blackness; the building was soon to be demolished and formally uninhabited.
BANG. An object hurtled through another window. No lights came on. Nothing could be seen. Nobody was heard. Down below the street was deserted; broken glass glinted. I returned to the bed-settee and when I had rolled the smoke, found I already had one smouldering in the ashtray. I got back up again and closed the curtains. I was writing in pen & ink so not to waken the kids and wife with the banging of this machine I am now using.
A fine Full Moon from the third storey through the red r from the city lights: this was the view. I gazed at it, lying outstretched on the bed-settee. I was thinking arrogant thoughts of that, Full Moons, and all those awful fucking writers who present nice images in the presupposition of universal fellowship under the western Stars when all of a sudden: BANG, an object hurtling out through the window facing mine across the street.
The windows on this side had been in total blackness; the building was soon to be demolished and formally uninhabited.
BANG. An object hurtled through another window. No lights came on. Nothing could be seen. Nobody was heard. Down below the street was deserted; broken glass glinted. I returned to the bed-settee and when I had rolled the smoke, found I already had one smouldering in the ashtray. I got back up again and closed the curtains. I was writing in pen & ink so not to waken the kids and wife with the banging of this machine I am now using.
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- PublisherHamish Hamilton
- Publication date2010
- ISBN 10 0241142423
- ISBN 13 9780241142424
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages279
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If it is Your Life
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Hamish Hamilton
(2010)
ISBN 10: 0241142423
ISBN 13: 9780241142424
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