want to do the Carthness accent. I'd have to go up there wrth a tape recorder and put an ad rn the local paper. and say could some young men corne rn to the pub wrth a tape reCOrder. If you want to do It properly that's what you've got to do. Unless you're rn the language strearn. you can't really do rt,
Welsh I've Just put thrs book rn: rt's got ten stones rn and one rs set rn Frfe: that's the only one that's set rn Scotland. It's krnd of sernr-dralect. There's one set rn France. one set rn the Canary Islands. one rn Nevada. and one rn San FranCrsco. There's notnrng rn Edrnburgh Just one rn We. and I'l. e gone knd of hyper-Frfe. but rt's not Frfe as Frfers would rec‘Ognrse rt. whrch agarn rs gOrng to be contentrous. l'n‘ (rust \vartrng for the flack.
Self I've got thrs obseSSron wrth the rdea that you've got to have an rnternal map of a place oeto'e you can set anythrng. Do you t'nrnk that's rmponant"? Welsh Yes. I thrnk so. I thrnk you've got to understand at least rn yOur own terms that . . . l
'WIII Celt (pictured) plays linguistic and literary war games with Irvine Welsh at a meeting in London
mean. my Condenbeath rsnt necessarrly the real Cowdenbeath. but rt krnd of makes sense to me. It's leSI a naerrd thrng that can Just trrgger rt off, I stayed rn Dunferrnrrne for a r.‘.hlle_ and when l was gOrng past on the traln. | used to see thrs pub called The Nev. 30th. t goes may back. and you used to have all these- old Goth taverns. ‘.'.llll the drrnkmg laws that used to come from Gother‘burg. And you thrnk. thrs is a Goth pub that's rn Conadenbeath. but of course as not. rt's a pub that's got old guys that drrrtk therr beer and nahrsky and yOung guys that play pool. 80 | carne :nto the ton-.n \.-.rth my head all strrred up \'.'lfh thrs nonsense that's nothlng to do ‘.'.’lIl‘ the town at all. I ilke that krnd of lnterplay. corhrng from. rn‘. r“ ftrckzng crap. and tryan to reconclle the real and gettrrig SO'l‘etl‘ll'TQ out of rt.
ASIA MAJOR
Tom Bissell first journeyed to Uzbekistan as part of the peace corps. Doug Johnstone discovers that the guy just can‘t stop writing about that region.
As tar as the- \“amtern news rnerlra r;
«t resernerl. Central Aura lz. ‘.§(ll‘rl! 'llllllt] at;
black hole. no rnt rre so when rt l‘tllllt‘13 to trctlon set rn t're regrr n. Most l)t:()[rlr' probably haven't even Ill-art of the former 3% met reptlbllctl ol llxbeklstan. Ka.~'aklr:;tarr, l31]!l\l‘3l£lll£lll(l l<‘,«rg\,/5:tar‘.. let (:lf .lrr: lrrlrt they be able to place them on a map l-lut lorn Brssell can. lhe /\'ll(?rl(,‘71ll author llélf; wntten tv.o books) set rn the regron. a travel rnernorr. Chas/ht; t re Sea. about the ongornt; envrronnrr>nta| catastrophe of the Aral Sea, and most recently (:Ior/ [ we; to S? Hftt3/slrl/rg. a breathtakrng collectron ot short stones.
Brssell frrs;t encountered Central Aura when he spent trrhe rrr U/bekrstan vxrth the peace corps. and the rrnpact of the place was clearly huge. ‘lhrts 2‘; a part of the world that has the abrlrty to completely affect what's gozng on everywhere else, desprte the fact that everyNhere else barely pays any attentron to rt.' he says. 'Hrstorrcally. It's been the centre of two erhprres. that ran the "."J()l'I(I at rlrfferent tlrnes: ()enghrs; Khan's and Tarnerlahe's. These days rt's a fascrnatrhg place. Will] the whole Sovret experrence and the Muslrrh rnfluence. I found rt an arna/rhg place to thrnk about on the page. and | feel lrke l wa‘, grven a great grft havrng been theref
Brssell's stones are prtclr-r.)erfect. porgnant tales; set rn rnorlern Central Asla whrch blend the extrg’tordrnary socral and geographrc backdrop of the place Wrth the rntrrrrate tales of a nurnber of outsrder characters. A wrrter of both frctron and non-frctron, Brssell sees lrttle to rlrlr’err,:rrtrate bet noon the two. 'Sorne people clarrn they're rlrfferertt ’ll‘/,ll)llllQS. but I see them both as lust tellrrrg a story rn what rs ll<,\_r‘>efrrll\,»' beautrt’lri prose. wrlt=ng wrth the sarr'e texture rn botn.'
Brssell ls not one for restrng or} hrs laurels. A former book e/lzfor. he know, enough to keep busy. ccrztrrbutzr l',‘ regularly to "/arrous niagames and farrzrnes. :rrc‘rrdrrrg Dave Eggers' :ntarrrous f/tc‘Sweeney and Harper rnaga/rne who recently sent hrrn to report on Iraq. As well as all that. he's about to publrsh a book ab0ut a wsrt to Vretnarrr mth hrs father. a yetera'l of the war there. and he's currently .‘flltlrlg two rrlore books. a novel and another tame! .‘JOfk about the tombs of the 12 apostles. Pe’pie rr‘rrgltt not knO‘.'.l much aboot Central Asra. but They'll surel/ soon know a whole lot lr‘ore about Tom Brssell.
I 75 Aug r’wrth Peter Hobbs; 70. 758m, E7 (E5).
THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 15