list.co.uk/books Reviews | BOOKS
SHORT STORIES CHRIS MCQUEER Hings (404 Ink) ●●●●●
You’ll be hard pressed to find a short story collection that starts with more of a bang than Chris McQueer’s Hings. ‘Sammy’s Bag of Whelks’ is one of the shorter tales in the book, but it sets the jarring, surreal tone for the remainder: don’t assume you know where any story is going, because you don’t. McQueer is painted, according to the cover
blurb, as ‘Limmy meets Irvine Welsh’, and there are definitely shades of both in his writing. The snaking courses his stories follow obviously take inspiration from the former’s Daft Wee Stories, while his depictions of working class people and places do for Glasgow what Welsh does for Edinburgh. But McQueer is entirely his own storyteller. As a collection, Hings reads like a TV series, exhibiting snapshots of absurd and ludicrous lives. We return to Sammy again and again like a weird commercial break, and follow a murderous pair of lawn bowl fans like a soap opera. While the spotlight is on oddballs and outsiders, McQueer deals strongly in social commentary when he’s not inventing half-human, half-sea creature stalkers. Toxic masculinity and misogyny is explored in ‘Bowls’, the non-linear spectrum of sexuality in ‘Lads’, while in ‘Is it Art?’, the snobs and civilians of the art world are exposed.
The comparisons to such big names in the writing and comedy worlds could have led to Hings being unable to live up to such luminaries. Luckily, McQueer is talented enough to hold his own, and this first collection is hopefully the start of something really weird. (Kirstyn Smith) ■ Out now.
POETRY LEMN SISSAY Gold from the Stone (Canongate) ●●●●●
NON-FICTION PETER ROSS The Passion of Harry Bingo (Sandstone) ●●●●● SCRIPTS MARK THOMAS The Liar’s Quartet (September Publishing) ●●●●●
Lemn Sissay’s poetry is ingrained in the fabric of British culture, his words appearing regularly on our TV screens and airwaves, buildings and pavements, meant for widespread public – and not just elite – consumption. Gold from the Stone is a collection of new
and old works, detailing his incredible and heartbreaking journey from a childhood of loneliness, abandonment and abuse in care homes to becoming one of the country’s finest and most cherished voices.
There is a sense of otherness that runs through many of the poems selected from his earlier publications, with clear anger and passion attached to his discussions of family, home and identity, as seen in the touching ‘Suitcases and Muddy Parks’. Elsewhere, hope and messages of resolve shine through, for example in ‘Belong’ and ‘Adventure Flight’, the latter written for the 2015 FA Cup Final. The performative element to his poetry is evident but no vibrancy or emotion is lost on paper, where his honesty, charm and humour prevail.
Gold from the Stone maps Sissay’s development
as a poet and writer but also his many personal triumphs, even when the odds were stacked against him. (Arusa Qureshi) ■ Out now.
Even the introduction to this new collection of writing is a joy to read in its own right, a manifesto for journalism which is simply intrigued by the lives of other humans for the sake of their stories being told, rather than obsessed with the obfuscatingly sensational and the grindingly political.
Ross cites Orwell as an inspiration, not surprisingly, but it’s for his warmth and humanity, rather than the more tub-thumping reasons readily adopted by others. Yet Ross starts with politics here, as if to get it out of the way. ‘The whole day felt diseased. Stillborn, diseased, a thing of smirr and haar, hard words and soured dreams.’ He’s talking of the first day ‘After the Referendum’ in 2014, taking the temperature of a hangover of a day in a manner which represents all concerned with crisp honesty; such balance isn’t dispassionate, it simply funnels the passion of others without getting swept up in their fervour.
More typical subjects for Ross are the men who
take part in the Clavie fire ritual on the Moray coast; Stephen Gough, the Naked Rambler, who Ross goes hiking with on his release from prison; or 97-year- old Partick Thistle fan Henry Calderhead, the ‘Harry Bingo’ of the title. There are forty-two such stories in the book, each meticulous yet fiercely readable, and possessed of a sense of urging to discover the stories which live all around us. (David Pollock) ■ Out now.
When Stewart Lee took a step back from the stand- up scene ito co-write a controversial modern opera, it seemed to give his comedy career a kick-start. Similarly, had Mark Thomas kept plugging away at the politically driven stand-up which helped forge his name in the late 80s / early 90s, he may have slipped off the cultural radar. Instead, his work has become more theatrical, layered and personal. The fruits of that professional gear-change can be vividly witnessed on the pages of The Liar’s Quartet, ‘playscripts, notes and commentary’ of his last three stage works, Bravo Figaro!, Cuckooed and The Red Shed. While, there’s certainly a lot of politics in all three tales, it’s the personal slant of family, betrayal and memory which makes them so compelling.
Bravo Figaro! tells of his attempts to stage an opera
in his dying father’s home. In Cuckooed, his friend, a longstanding activist in Campaign Against Arms Trade, turns out to be an undercover cop, while The Red Shed verges on a nostalgic romp through the world of Labour clubs. Though not as emotionally stirring as the two other pieces, its narrative thrust is skilfully maintained with the dark suggestion that memory can be a powerful and deceptive function, especially when we continue to believe facts and situations are true when they may be nothing more than tricks of the mind. (Brian Donaldson) ■ Out now.
1 Sep–31 Oct 2017 THE LIST 47