Product Description
Best known for his fiction and non-fiction, the Scottish writer Duncan McLean also writes plays which have been produced throughout Scottland. ... Read more

Product Description
A wickedly offbeat look at a Scottish Holden Caulfield trying to make his way out of his small, native village even as he pursues sex, laughs, and a witches' Sabbath. Duncan McLean has been called "Scotland's answer to Roddy Doyle" (Cosmopolitan), but he has his own unique, scruffy voice full of quirky humor and surreal images. In the highland town of Blackden, things have gotten overheated despite being overtaken by the chill of winter. Inside the head of eighteen-year-old Patrick Hunter, an auctioneer's assistant, the blood is boiling. Fueled by a potent mix of yankee doodle pie and beer, Patrick spends a November weekend on his own when his off-balanced mother goes to the city. Racing around the hills and dens of his hometown, he is half in escape from worn-out friends, drudging work, and painful memories, and half in pursuit of a girl, his father's ghost, and a new life.Amazon.com Review
As part of the wave of new Scottish writing, Duncan McLean made a splash in the literary world withBucket of Tongues andBunker Man. Hissecond novel,Blackden, is full of humor and beauty, a true find. It is the story of aweekend in the life of an 18-year-old. Paddy Hunter's mom is outof town, his mates are getting drunk, and all he can think about is girls,girls, girls. Paddy wants out of Blackden, the tiny highland village wherehe has lived his entire life, but sometimes the idea seems like a pipedream. He's poor, his dad is dead, andhis grandparents need him to deliver their dinner, as well as to makesure the heat has not gone out in their tiny shack. Dropping by onFriday night, Paddy hopes to get away quickly and get drunk, but insteadhis grandfather sits him down and tells him about the day aGerman plane crashed into the nearby hillside during the war:

A big red hand of fire reaching up into the darkness, that's what itlooked like. And then it came down. The hand came reaching down towardsus, the fingers of the fire stretching out over the woods in alldirections towards Ballogie, and setting the timber ablaze wherever ittouched.... And nearer it came, nearer, the hand was closing in about us,your granny and me, it was closing its fingers tighter, tighter.

Customer Reviews (3)

There is no place like home
Duncan McLean is an important Scottish writer who lives in Orkney, in the northeast end of Scotland where most of his fiction takes place. He is known in America for his novel Bunker Man. He is also the author of an intense book of short stories, Bucket of Tongues. Irvine Welsh spoke of McLean's early work: "It's very hard to think of a better short story writer in Britain today." Much of McLean's work is a perfect voice for what it's like to grow up in Scotland.

Even though Blackden is actually Duncan McLean's first novel, it is only now being published in America. Blackden is the story of Patrick Hunter, an 18-year-old auctioneer's apprentice, and his life over a three-day lost weekend. He rides his bicycle around the village, he meets people, loses his bicycle, and his comic and dark experiences become the bulk of the book. Blackden is a somewhat bleak, but also a tender, gentle and realistic novel. Patrick reminds me of Stephen Dedalus at the end of Portrait of an Artist fleeing from Ireland so he could become a writer, instead of becoming a drunk like his father. Patrick sees people in his village leading lives that go nowhere, and at the end he sees an image of the wall of death.

While Patrick Hunter may choose to leave Blackden someday, and ride away on a missing bike, Duncan McLean has definitely found his own voice as a writer. He seems fit to write and to work on a small island with waves washing over. Over the past few years he has created an impressive body of work.

Another Great Piece of Scottish Fiction
From the author of the totally creepy Bunker Man comes another finely honed short novel set in the slightly askew world of northeast Scotland. The teenager on his own for the weekend has a fine tradition in modernfiction, and McLean adds to it with his tale of Patrick, an 18-year old inthe tiny town of Blackden. Many familiar elements are present in his story:comic misadventure, unrequited admiration of an older woman, a somewhatmanic personality, and alienation from his ostensible peers. He a hardworker and yet gentler and far more thoughtful than those around him. It'sa truly affectionate portrait of a boy grappling with his place in theworld. McLean's writing is both economical and evocative, as he vividlydisplays Patrick's life and surroundings.

A Wonderfully Engaging Voice
Once acclimatized to the lovely, amusing and lyrical Scottish vernacular of the first few paragraphs (the vernacular becomes actually addictive) I couldn't stop reading this book, staying up till 3 A.M. or so each nightand grabbing for it first thing on waking.As the book is written in 'realtime' (over the span of a single weekend) it felt like I'd spent theweekend with the brilliant and sweet and lusty Paddy Hunter himself, in hishome town (somewhere outside Aberdeen?) and left me wondering about hisnext day, Monday - then would he switch jobs? Would he recant hisdisaffected barbs or would he take pains to get on better with his friends? Will he go on to London or New York and once there, will he feel better orwhat will happen? I want to know where Paddy will end up, I want to hearwhat he thinks about;wherever he lands himself, will his disquiet abateitself? How will he deal with what he feels? When I was finished, I turnedto page one and began again.The press reviews invoke Holden Caulfield,but I feel that is doing a disservice to McLean's originality andingenuous, articulate, and chirpy wisdom.He's a guy who finds he islonging for a place to feel at home, or people to feel at home with, butnever does the narrative sink to any annoying or whining admission of this;instead, it depicts the uninvited rumblings that disrupt the complacenciesand denial that shield us all from the truth of what or where we findourselves. ... Read more

Product Description
From the author of Lone Star Swing, this winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, is "lean, maggoty writing. More: it's subversively funny" (Janice Galloway). In this extraordinary collection of short stories, Duncan McLean shows us real life --and real death --in all its many guises. Equally adept at black farce, brutal rants, or tender epiphanies, McLean plunges us headlong into the lives of his characters: partying, and all it entails, with soccer enthusiasts; shivering inside the butcher's man-sized fridge; stumbling bloody-footed along the cliff-top path at midnight, lost in a liver'n'onions-fueled fantasy of sex and violence. The men and women in these stories are mostly unemployed or in dead-end jobs, often on the edge of madness or destruction; but just as often they are on the brink of simply leaving: walking away from relationships, responsibilities, and the reassurance of alcohol and aggression. Told with enormous skill, fierce humor, and a dark emotional drive, these stories are as various as the characters themselves. Their commonality derives from a merciless realism, and an almost fanatical adherence to the rhythms and cadences of spoken language.Amazon.com Review
Nobody can accuse writer Duncan McLean of having a limited range. Hisfirst novel, Bunker Man, was a horrific saga ofviolence and madness played out against a bleak coastal community inScotland. But just when you thought it was safe to classify McLean withthose other Scottish enfants terribles Irvine Welsh andJames Kelman,he turned around and produced the charming LoneStar Swing, a fey and fascinating travelogue through the Texascountry-music scene. Now he's back with a collection of short storiesthat veer off in yet another direction, one that mixes savage humor andthe occasional tender moment into the endlessly brutal business ofliving that occupies most of his on-the-fringe characters.

Sporting titles such as "A/deen Soccer Thugs Kill All Visiting Fans,""Loaves and Fishes, Nah," or "The Druids Shite It, Fail to Show,"McLean's stories range from a few paragraphs to many pages.What theyall share is a bleak outlook, a ferocious rage, and language that wouldmake a longshoreman blush. In "Bod Is Dead," for example, McLean givesus Buzby, described as "a hot-and-cold cunt" who's "quick to rouse,quick to freeze, he'd punch some bugger's lights out or give them afucking hug depending on his mood, how his feelings felt that day, thatminute, and all for nothing at all." In this particular instance, Buzbyfeels homicidal after watching his drunken mother seduce his buddy rightin front of him. Butchers, workers on North Sea oil rigs, unemployed andunderemployed alcoholics, drug addicts, and losers--these are the peoplewho populate the world of Duncan McLean's making, and readers ofBucket of Tongues had better have the stomach to face them.--Alix Wilber ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Solid shorts
Good, solid, slice-of-life type of stories. Reads quickly.

Perfect Introduction to McLean's Range
From the author of the totally creepy Bunker Man and the deftly delightful Blackden comes this collection of 23 short stories ranging in length from a half-page to 42 pages. McLean's voice and fine writing is as evident in these short works as in his two novels. If one placed each of his novels at the end of a spectrum of creepiness and wholesomeness, the stories in this collection would fill the gap between them. Indeed, the longest story, "Hours of Darkness" shares many of the creepy and ultimately nasty characteristics of Bunker Man, while others such as "Tongue" or "The Druids S***e It and Fail To Show" hearken to Blackden. As a whole, the collection is a great example of the new Scottish writing, and a perfect introduction to McLean.

well written if underwhelming
These stories describe the antics of contemporary Scottish pond life. Butthey do so in a flat, affectless voice. The experience is akin to halfwatching other people whilst waiting in a bus station. Only slightly morediverting than watching dry leaves being blown about on a crisp autumn day.

Snippets of misery...
Although I enjoyed reading this book, I wouldn't say there was anything truly ground-breaking or special about it. Just small slices of ordinary Scottish lives told, mainly, in the local tongue. Enjoyable, sometimesnasty, decent read.

delightful
The painful truths told by McLean are bearable because of the humor that they are told with.If you liked the movie trainspotting, you will love this book, as I did. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume brings together and updates the classic work of thelate Scottish political economist Duncan Black. It contains a revisionof both The Theory of Committees and Elections and CommitteeDecisions with Complementary Valuation (with R.A. Newing)based on the notes and annotations of Duncan Black before his death in1991. The work is then extended by the addition of five relatedmanuscripts and a complete bibliography of this work. By publishing this work in one single volume, one can witness thetremendous contributions made by Duncan Black to public choice andsocial choice. This includes the median voter theory, `cyclicalmajorities', voting rules and strategic behavior, multidimensionalspatial theory, and determining preferences from ballots. This volumeshould be required reading for all scholars and students of formalpolitical science, public choice or social choice theory. `[I express] my great satisfaction at the publication of Black'swritings... thus affording scholars the opportunity of studying DuncanBlack's Work.' from the Foreword by Ronald H. Coase ... Read more

Product Description
High Fidelity meets Blue Highways in this gloriously offbeat quest for the true roots of Texas Swing. Using the prize money from his Somerset Maugham Award, Duncan McLean traveled from Orkney, Scotland, to Texas in search of the extraordinary mix of jazz, blues, country, and mariachi that is Western Swing. This account of his travels takes in barbed-wire museums, onion festivals, hoe-downs, ghost-towns, dead dogs, and ten thousand miles of driving through the Lone Star State. A constant soundtrack of vintage music from bands like the Texas Top Hands, The Lightcrust Doughboys, and the Modern Mountaineers cheers McLean as he tries, with great difficulty, to track down any trace of his greatest heroes: Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.Both a quest for a musical grail and a wildly funny travelogue, Lone Star Swing captures the singular wonders of Texas and its maverick inhabitants, its staggering 100-in-the-shade heat, its mouth-blistering chilies. . . . Above all it captures the spirit of the glorious mongrel music--once incredibly popular, now all but forgotten--that he crossed the world to hear.Amazon.com Review
Duncan McLean has a dilemma. He's head over heels for a music that's not only going out of style, but is found most prevalently in Texas--a long way from his home in the Orkney Islands of Scotland. After exhausting Scotland's supply of western swing, in 1995 McLean travels to America, rents a Chevy Cavalier, and heads west to explore the birthplace, meet the makers, and dig up the roots of the sounds with which he's fallen in love. As he describes it:

"This is the hottering chili-pot of New Orleans Jazz, old country fiddling, big-band swing, ragtime, blues, pop, mariachi and conjunto that dominated Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and beyond--all the way to San Francisco in the west, Memphis in the east--from the mid-Thirties till mid-Elvis. This is western swing."

Lone Star Swing is both musical pilgrimage and witty travelogue. As McLean trails his favorite music over the back roads of Texas, his adventures make for interesting reading. He has a way of makingyou feel you're riding along in the passenger seat as he finds the top 10 things to do in Turkey, Texas, on Bob Wills Day (Bob is McLean's western-swing hero), learns how to nibble an onion cooked up sunflowerstyle at the Presidio Onion Festival, gets lectured for cussing in front of ladies after his Chevy gets its doors rehung by a hit-and-run driver, and suffers the wrath of Gulf Coast prawns eaten too far from their home waters. And although he's far away from the Orkney Islands, McLean has a way of making himself at home in just about every place the music takes him. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Quite a ride
One of the funnest books I've read in a long time, and educational too. I was drawn to this book because of the Bob Wills kick I've been on because of a boxed CD set and biography of him, but this book let me know how much more this is to Western Swing music than Bob Wills, so now I'm encouraged to further pursue this music thanks to the author.
I'm also amazed at how these people who write great travel books seem to have such great travel experiences along the way, when I'm usually bored to tears when I hit the road. Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough and don't have the proper attitude, but I think another thing you can take out of this book is how enriching the travel experience can be if you're in the proper frame of mind.

Laugh-out-loud travelogue . . .
This is a five-star book for readers who enjoy fish-out-of-water accounts of travel, where the writer's eye (ear, nose and throat, for that matter) seems to encounter only the completely incongruous and absurd. The jokes go both ways, of course - on the inhabitants of the place traveled through as well as the credulous author, whose expectations are wildly different. Paul Theroux does this in (to me) a cranky and irritating way ("Kingdom by the Sea"), but Duncan McLean, a Scotsman from little Orkney, plays it for belly laughs, and there's a lot of fun to be had along the way.

A caveat or two. Texans may find his jaundiced view of Texas grating, and lovers of Bob Wills and western swing may find the book something of a hodgepodge on those two subjects. Onion festivals, scary encounters with border patrol, and his opinion of Rush Limbaugh will seem beside the point. Likewise, readers not into western swing will find his enthusiasms, knowledge of music trivia, and references to musicians and songs a bit of a yawn.

But if you've read Charles Townsend's biography of Bob Wills and love the music, this slaphappy mix of travel writing and musicology can put a big smile on your face. Also, McLean's difficulties in finding and interviewing the old-timers who once played with Wills will give you an appreciation for the monumental effort of research that went into the writing of the biography. Best advice: Read Townsend first, then pick up McLean and be prepared to laugh.

Texas! Music!
McLean, a Scottish writer, discovered an old, scratchy LP of Bob Wills and was instantly became a fanatic for western swing, a music that dominated popular radio in the '30s and '40s and is now close to forgotten. After winning the Somerset Maugham Prize for his book of short stories, he decides to spend the money on a tour of Texas tracking down the surviving musicians who played western swing. On his journeys, he finds the Texas Wills and his associates sang about (in small towns) and a Texas overwhelmed by newer Trends (Austin, Fort Worth, etc.). An interesting tale of another guy obsessed with music.

All you get is an empty trail!
A poorly planned book about a poorly planned trip through Texas. The writer has a great love for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, but comes up empty on his search and in his book. I read everything I can find on Bob and His Texas Playboys, and this book was the most disappointing.

The only two great books are: San Antonio Rose (by Charles Townsend) and My Years With Bob Wills (by that ol' piano pounder, Al Stricklin)

Skip this one. Save your money for the Bear Records box set.

A pleasure
Some people, judging from their reviews, just didn't "get" the book.That's okay, I can understand it.It's probably best for people like myself, folks too young to have heard Wills' music any normal way, but who somehow stumbled across it and fell in love.If you're a long-term fan of the music, or have never heard it at all, well, I can imagine the book may seem lacking - though personally, I liked the tales of McLean's efforts not to seem too alien to his surroundings, and his disappointment in finding that mid-1990's Texas is not quite the wonderland of Western Swing he'd hoped.That reviewers point out the book seems to be too much about McLean is rather the point - it's a lonely journey and he only catches a few faint echoes of the subject of his search.

The part where McLean attempts a phone interview with an absolutely befuddled Floyd Tillman is fabulous.Tillman's importance to country music is huge, but the peak of his career is several decades past.Tillman can't seem to wrap his head around the idea that some guy from Scotland would even want to interview him - told the title of the book, Tillman thinks it's "Lone Star Swig", which he assumes will be a book about beer!

The question isn't asked too directly, but the book really does make one wonder about how much we appreciate the heroes of our past and the innovators and originators of our cultural history.That the book is written by a Scottish guy looking for the answers to questions most of the "native" people in his book seem to care not a whit about really drives the concept home.

It's a well-written book with a lot of cool tales and McLean comes across as the sort of guy you wouldn't mind joining on a road trip.On that basis, this book works for me. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Gud Stuff
Clocktower Press should enter the annals of literature as one of the foremost incubators of new Scottish literature. Under the stewardship of Duncan McLean, the semi-collective published ten booklets from 1990-96. All but one were 16-20 pages long and the print runs were 300-500. While many of the writers who appeared in the booklets are now well-known, including Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, James Meek, Gordon Legge, and editor McLean, Clocktower published them when they were still struggling to find their own voice and language. This anthology is broken into two halves, the first contains material that appeared in the ten booklets and has mostly not appeared elsewhere, and the second contains newer material both by past Clocktower contributors and those McLean hasn't been able to present until now. If you've never encountered modern Scottish literature, it's an OK place to test the waters, but a bit more haphazard than something like Children of Albion Rovers or parts of The Vintage Book of Contemporary Scottish Fiction. The pieces here tend to be much briefer then one is used to, many are the half page little sketches that seem to be so popular with the modern Scots.

In the first half Meek, McLean, Legge, and Warner provide high-quality pieces ranging from the aforementioned half-pagers, which Legge in particular is fond of, to McLean's 20 page story, "The Druids Shite It and Fail to Show" (which appears in his collection Bucket of Tongues). Brent Hodgson and John Aberdein were new to me, and to be honest didn't do much for me, nor did the except from Janice Galloway's novel Foreign Parts. Alison Kermack's poetry, on the other hand, managed to captivate this poetry-hater with its fierce humor. The same can be said of Alison Flett's poetry in the second section, which shared many of the same qualities. Meek, Welsh, McLean, and James Kelman all have solid contributions in the second part. Ali Smith and Leila Aboulela's pieces I could take or leave, but Shug Hanlan's poetry and short stories were excellent and will have me tracking down his debut, Hi Bonnybrig. So, if you already know the major Scots writers, this won't show you anything new about them, but it's a good way to check out some of their lesser-known peers. ... Read more

Product Description
`This is a book about a well-known writer, Lewis Carroll,and about a little-known subject, the theory of voting' (fromthe Editors' Introduction). This book has been edited from the manuscripts of the late Scottisheconomist Duncan Black. Shortly after the publication of The Theoryof Committees and Elections Black started to collect materialfor papers and a book on Lewis Carroll's theory of proportionalrepresentation. Black's chapter plans made it clear that the book wasto be in three parts, written by himself, followed by a reprint ofCarroll's Principles of Parliamentary Representation and itsmain sources. Part I is biographical, introducing Lewis Carroll andgiving relevant details of his life. Part II is Black's alreadypublished work on Lewis Carroll. Part III comprises the more detailedarguments about Carroll's reasoning, and Part IV contains reprints ofrare original material on proportional representation by Carroll,James Garth Marshall, and Walter Baily. Taken together, the editorshave provided a complete reference source for the theory of voting andproportionalrepresentation. ... Read more

Product Description
A powerful novel of psychological suspense by a young writer hailed as "Scotland's answer to Roddy Doyle."--Cosmopolitan. Rob and Karen Catto are a newly married young couple settling into their lives together on the northeast coast of Scotland. Rob's job as a janitor at the local school involves him in both the lives of his students and issues of security. So he takes sharp notice of a hulking figure in a parka lurking around the edges of the school, leering through windows, and squatting in an abandoned concrete bunker. As unpleasant and unsettling incidents multiply, Rob's suspicions tilt into obsession. It is time for a showdown. Time to confront Bunker Man . . . A powerful, terrifying tale of horror and breakdown from an extraordinarily gifted young writer a smashing American debut. Amazon.com Review
The head janitor at a school in coastal Scotland seems to bedoing well: he's got a good job and a new wife who enjoys making loveto him. But she earns twice as much money as he does, and his thoughtsabout filth and danger and sex are making a racket like bees in hishead. He sees a strange man in a hooded parka hanging out in the woodsnear the school and he catches a 14-year-old girl with a pornmagazine. He worries about these things. He knows he's the schoolkids' "guardian angel," and soon he's going to have to makea stand. "Everybody kens there's bad things going on, but noone'll face up to them. Everyone says, Not my business, nothing to dowith me. While evil rules everywhere!" Bunker Man is askillfully fashioned horror tale, rich with Scottish slang. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

Creepy & Disturbing... and I mean that in a good way
This is a wonderfully written book that does what really good fiction should do:it stays with you and makes you rethink itscharacters' motives and actions over and over.

I write this in response to the reviews which call this book irresponsible and/or perverse and/or glorying in immoral behavior.I find this critique to be without basis.If reading books or watching plays about immoral activities is immoral, then let's start with banning Macbeth and move on from there.

Yes, this book is creepy, but that's the point.It is extremely effective creepiness.

A hard book to finish
This was a hard book. It's well-written technically, and the Scottish dialect gives it a certain charm. The first third, at least, was pretty enjoyable. But the subject, this apparently well-adjusted man's descent into madness and jealous brutality, makes it hard to recommend. I tend to try and encourage my wife to read books I've finished and enjoyed, but not this one.

One thing that bothers me about the book is that there's no investigation as to what causes Robbie to descend into this madness: apparently he hasn't always been this way, or at least no one else has noticed it, but he sinks deeper and deeper into this ghastly, inexorable schizophrenia. It sort of has the feel of a play in that regard, something from Tennesee Williams or Ibsen.

As an aside, I saw the author at a reading shortly after the book came out, and he certainly didn't seem like the sort of person who would have crafted a book so bleak and brutal.

A Waste of Paper
Painful to read (mentally, physically, and Psychologically), Bunker Man is one of those novels you keep reading in hopes it willget better only to have your hopes battered mercilessly. Rob's disregard for everyone, thestudents he is supposed to protect, and even for his own wife makes him avery unsympathetic character. You almost wish he would be institutionalizedif not killed by Bunker Man, as the novel's cover sets you up for. Despitebeing the title character, Bunker Man is barely present in the novel. Thisis one of the most offensive novels I've ever read. It overflows withcrudity that sinks the weak almost non exsistant plot. It seems at manytimes that MacLean doesn't care about any of his characters which I findlacks discernment. I fail to see how anyone could praise this fault laddennovel, yet alone publish it. If you could rate this book for what itdeserves, I would rate it a black hole.

If you're literate, you're too sophisticated for this book.
Bunker's a clunker, and even one star is too generous.

As literature (and I have to use the term loosely to apply it to this text) this book stinks out loud. Bunker Man is offensive on many levels, and poorwriting is definitely one. The plot is pathetically predictable (a flawMcLean couldn't mask even by breaking up the story's continuity withincoherent, unnecessary scenes promoting random acts of violence) and thecharacters are so flat they function more like pawns than people.

Perhaps the only interesting thing about this book (and this is a stretch)was the characters use of Scottish words (but since the author is actuallyfrom Scotland, this can hardly be hailed as a feat of technical genius.) And, unfortunately, the brief pleasure of learning that to "ken" somethingwas to "know" it, soon faded as I discovered that crossing the `languagebarrier' had brought me to the appalling place where I "kenned" far moreabout certain things than was necessary.

To say this book isunsettling would be somewhat misleading.As horrific as I found the storyand language, I was sickened less by the graphic, perverted content than bythe realization that not only is there a person in the world who wouldchoose to write something like this, there are people who would agree topublish it because (perhaps most disturbing of all) they thought therewould be a market for it.

Don't waste your time.
This was the most appaling piece of literature that I've ever read.Rob, the main character, is never presented as remotely likeable or sympathetic due to the terrible and unremorseful ways in which he acts.Ultimately,Rob hurts every other character in this book (especially the females) bothphysically and mentally. The worst part for me was that never once does theprose stop to consider the consequences of his actions on the rest of thecharacters. I realize that creating such a mentally ill character such asRob so craftily may be viewed as a real literary feat on the author's part. On the other hand, I don't feel as if the plot and the repercussions ofthe character's actions were dealt with responsibly by McLean. It was astruggle to get through the entirity of this novel due to Mr. McLean'ssadistic and misogynist imagination.I felt as if it all went from bad toworse.I would also give Bunker Man the negative star rating if it was anoption. ... Read more

Product Description
Lee Mellon believes he is the descendent of the only Confederate General to have come from Big Sur and is himself a seeker after truth in his own modern-day war against the status quo and the state of the Union. This novel is set in 1957, and was the late Richard Brautigan's first to be published. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Into the Rabbit Hole
Brautigan's excellent novel is definately worth the quick read, and then worth a second read to catch all his language play. Having grown up near Big Sur, this book was particularly funny as I believe Lee Mellon is still in residence there.

Brautigan's description of drugs, drinks, frogs and the commas of Ecclesiastes are all done in a straight forward style that made me laugh out loud.

One of my favorite paragraphs: "He broke the seal on the bottle, unscrewed the cap and poured a big slug of whiskey into his mouth. He swallowed it down with a hairy gulp. Strange, for as I said before: he was bald." A great read.

lee MELLON as iCON hell
BRAUTIGAN AT HIS BEST, in his use of humor IN an ABSURDIST NEO NINETENTH NERVOUS CENTURY VENTURE INTO THE TWENTETH CENTURY COINAGE SQUALOUR,in an ARCADIANIAN LIKE GARBAGE HEEP HANG OUT FOR SQUATTERS, everwhere 1950sARSONIST guierilla condederate idealist/relic, confronts conspires aghast in stumble bumble berry bush brambble,ICON AS HELL STALLION MELON DEAD DRUNK eXpire hearFIRE TILT TIRE echo, footsteps leading back past fast,TREADMUTATED SURREAL.ABSOLUTE ABOMINATIONTHE GHOHSTS OF THE PASS MERGE WITH THE REGRET OF THE NEAR AND DIRECT PRESENT IN FOLKLORE, LEGEND IN PROISE by the ocean in BIG sur,

Rollicking Good Fun!
If there's one thing the world lacks, it's a good supply of well-written, funny-as-heck books. Luckily, aside from A Confederacy Of Dunces, we have this little gem. The characters are drunks, druggies, skanks, prostitutes & nutzoids. The pace is brisk and the imagry vivid. Most of it seemed to be part of my own life, but just where do you find weed that's so potent that 4 people smoking 5 joints stay high for well over 2 hours?! If you want to spend a day or night having a good laugh over a great book, pick this one up. You'll laugh out loud. And as Martha Stewart says...."It's a good thing".

Frogs, Dynamite, and Prostitutes - Brautigan at his finest
If you read nothing else by Richard Brautigan, read "A Confederate General From Big Sur."Mere words are inadequate to properly describe this book, and the majesty contained within. Brautigan, master of thesimile, is at his finest as he spins an off-beat tale containing (thoughnot restricted to): frogs, dynamite, prostitutes, booze, and a man namedLee Mellon.Forsaking all possessions and the amenities of"civilized" life (a notion nearly inconceivable these days), LeeMellon and the narrator, Jesse, embark upon an adventure in a place calledBig Sur.An adventure not only in the physial sense, but in themetaphysical as well.Reading Brautigan in the context of our times, it ishard to imagine how the audience of the 1960's embraced his work.Whilehis works may, to us, appear strange at times, we have grown accustomed tosuch eccentricities.But in the 60's it was fresh and new.One can onlyspeculate if we have somehow missed out on some aspect of Brautigan byhaving read his books 30 years after they were written.But the mere factthat his work stands the test of time is a testament not only to his books,but to the man himself.But, alas, i stray from the topic of this missive. You want my review?It's a damn good book.Now go and read it.

Hard-core entertainment for one and all!!!
Where to begin?Despite the foreshadowing of brautigan's abandoning ofmodern American society (He's out in the mountains of Idaho as we speak,putting his mack on some female hikers or else shivering alone in a bear'scave), this book also is funny.I like it.There's some aligators inthere and that made me laugh because i think that aligators are funny. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is part of a new and exciting photography series in which Scotland's finest photographers have sought out the quirky, the curious, and the unknown as they capture the country's most beautiful scenery. Moberg's collection on Orkney reflects these ideals, and her photography gets to the heart of both landscape and its human component. ... Read more

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This digital document, covering the life and work of Duncan McLean, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 910 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

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Set in Oslo, this is a compelling trip into the mind of a young writer, driven by starvation to extremes of euphoria and despair. Whilst never quite falling into the abyss of suicide, Hamsun's narrator is forever on the verge of losing it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (90)

Hunger by Knut Hamsun
I just purchased a copy of what purports to be Knut Hamsun's classic book, "Hunger".I say "purports" because there is no progeny on the book, no name given for the writing of the introduction to the work.The publication and printing appear to be one off,computer generated, listed as being printed on October 19, 2010 in Lexington Kentucky.The Publisher, Seven Treasures Publications, is not the one listed on the Amazon Sales page

I was led to believe (by Amazon) that this was a translation by Per Lyngvyst, but there is no information whatsoever on the book as to who translated it.

This company also claims the Copyright on this book (2008), which seems fraudulent.If this publisher has purchased the rights, I suppose that is possible, but the likelihood is that the book is in the public domain (written in the 19th century) or renewed by as Estate.

Please explain.

I will be returning the book, but before I spend extensive time criticizing and warning about this company and this method, please send an explanation.

Thanks,

Richard

Maybe a Bit Overrated?
So finally I came across this much praised book by Knut Hamsun. Well in my opinion it is a little bit overrated. I mean it's OK, but it's very repetitive in it's nature. It's the story about this crazy young man running around doing crazy things in Norway's capital, at that time called Christania. There is actually no development in the novel, we just witness these crazy excesses of the principal, things like saying weird things to coincidental people on the streets etc. I think Hamsun envisioned the book as a comedy depicting the craziness and idiosyncrasies of the young artist. People who liked this book should proceed with Sigurd Hoel's "Meeting at the Milestone". That's another good Norwegian book. I think you'll like it!

I wish I had writtten this
The writing may not seem vagrant in regards to other in its genre. I thank Hamsun for that at best. The book seemingly turns the pages itself. It reads like a hurricane, simply lending its hand to our minds eye and lets us into the jaded world of the protagonist and that is what glues the text together, his emotions.

While I don't share the accolades of it being stark reality and frighteningly stark and realistic, in fact I don't believe it to be worded harshly at all, in fact it makes hunger and the struggle for success in absolute poverty all the more appealing, and even more poetic as such.

This was a recommendation from my Harvard Creative writing teacher, who said pay particular attention to who translates it, as it is the key to really understanding Knut's true feelings.

Gripping
Hunger is a psychologically accurate portrait of a hungry man, in this case an artist. Hamsun himself suffered greatly from poverty during several phases of his early life and must have experienced a bit of what our wanderer in the book went through - his genius was able to extrapolate on that to produce this gripping realistic work.

The Scandanavians Were Always Existenalist
I'm reviewing the Dover edition- I've read a couple of these editions, and while they tend to be affordable and readable, the introductions tend to be less interesting then what you see in the Oxford World Classics line.

This is yet another book I read simply because it was in the "1001 Books to Read Before You Die" list- ha!Wasn't dissapointed, it was a quick and fun read.Loved his descriptions of ennui... and hunger! ... Read more