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ANNE DONOVAN
Glaswegian with a feel for her fellow flawed humans
It's been a whirlwind year for Anne Donovan. Not only was her first novel, Buddha Da, celebrated with exploding bottles of Buckfast by the critics, but was then nominated for the prestigious Orange Prize, shooting her name among such luminaries as Carol Shields, Zadie Smith and Donna Tartt. Glasgow hailed a new voice, and a beautifully tuneful one at that.
Buddha Da flows with the sounds of her Glaswegian heroes, Jimmy, Liz and Anne Marie aka Da, Ma and the wean. The rhythms draw you into their lives in which stable domesticity is put under strain from a new presence in the house: Buddha. lnnocuous enough, you may think; peace-loving, vegetarian, Nirvana-seeker, but the little guy changes everything. Jimmy, a painter and decorator, starts to prefer the space of Buddha to those of his usual routines: TV, pub, and, eventually, the bedroom - the last straw for Liz.
It is this disruption, challenge and growth that provides Buddha Da’s dynamic, written by Donovan with a wicked humour and deep compassion. ‘The initial qualities that Jimmy has are very typical of a certain type of male in the sense that he's so outgoing, it‘s as if he lives all his life outside of himself,‘ she says. ‘But it gave me that chance to explore what‘s going on with this guy. There's more to him than this and I'm also interested in relationships. Liz and Jimmy's relationship is typical because people get into patterns and routines,
and even though they basically love each other, they can get themselves into a
position where they can get stuck; it’s about trying to find a way out of getting stuck.‘
A sensitive observer of the big and small, then, Anne's talent lies in tuning into, and imagining herself in the hearts and minds of, her fellow flawed humans. But she still loves them. Perhaps like an all-knowing Buddha, she is forgiving and seeks to understand. I wondered if she was Buddhist herself.
‘About ten years ago, I did go to meditation classes but it was more to do with
wanting to be a bit more calm. I think that the actual process of meditation has a lot of benefits for people in our culture; it forces people to be calm and still and listen.‘ You might be wise to go and do the same to her. This modest, intuitive writer has a lot to say and she‘s funnier than Buddha. (Ruth Hedges) .A/lllt.‘ Dommn 8 Swan 8:13;). .75 Aug. 7 743'“. EU“ '1‘?) j l’“.’.‘".\‘."‘:.‘-..' ' .‘tP’f? ""- Aug. 5.30pm. free newts.
Clive James
The Writing Business '
Paul Bailey & Clive Sinclair
Surveillance Society
William Dalrymple '- .- ~~ .- '
MJ Simpson on Douglas Adams
Alexandra Tolstoy -» : '- .-
Irvine Welsh ' : " .---
Funnler than Buddha
LAST WORDS
‘I sit down and try not to think that I've spent so many hours of my life here, working inside the space my work made for me, inside the vocation which has now closed with me outside. I don’t know what to do.’
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-. THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 13