Louise Welsh made her name as an author of quality with a Gothic touch when her excellent first novel The Cutting Room was published back in 2002. She followed this with Tamberlaine Must Die in 2005 and The Bullet Trick in 2007, both of which books left her readers hooked on this innovative writer with a distinctive voice. It was with a keen sense of anticipation that I downloaded Naming the Bones to my Kindle and began to read and I am pleased to say I was not disappointed.
Doctor Murray Watson is a professor of English literature at Glasgow University. A single man, rather unfulfilled man in his thirties, he is writing an autobiography of Archie Lunan, a Scottish poet with a small but acclaimed body of work. Archie Lunan died thirty years previously while sailing in a storm off a small island and nobody seemed to be sure whether his death was suicidal or merely an unfortunate sailing accident.
As Watson investigates the life of Lunan he attempts to get as close to the source of his subject as possible. The archive is small. He has a small box of papers, a slim volume of poetry and a couple of contacts with now-elderly people who worked with him. The elderly professor who he interviews seems to be reluctant to tell other than half a story, and when Watson goes on to contact Lunan’s now-elderly ex-lover, he is warned off the story with the threat of legal action.
Undeterred, Watson decides to travel to the island of Lismore where Lunan was living before he died. He encounters a bleak and damp landscape, riven by gales and with an inhospitable population. At this point Louise Welsh racks up the drama with shocking revelations set among dark and stormy nights.
Apart from the complex plotting, Naming the Bones contains a great deal of interest in telling Watson’s back-story, with his vaguely disreputable friends and contacts, a failing affair, and an insightful perspective on Glasgow’s love-life. I would say this is the classic “good read”. It held my interest throughout and successfully combines elements of a classic thriller with some fascinating literary detective work.
Dame Beryl Bainbridge
Beryl Bainbridge – a posthumous award
Beryl Bainbridge died last July after a productive literary career during which she wrote some sparkling books which took historical characters and fictionalised their stories in a convincing and entertaining way. She was short-listed for the Booker Prize five times, but never won.
The consensus seems to be in retrospect, that this was an unfair outcome and that she should have been rewarded by a Booker somewhere along the line (the same could be said about William Trevor but he at least survives to be entered again). Now the Booker Prize people have decided to award a special prize, The Best of Beryl, and readers are encouraged to vote online for one of her five short-listed books.”
The only problem with this as far as I’m concerned is that so prolific an author is not necessarily represented by the five books which happened to be short-listed. My own vote would be for According to Queeney 2001, based on episodes in the life of Dr Samuel Johnson. Alas, this book was never selected and so is not eligible for a vote.
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Thanks for your review of the Louise Welsh book. I read her debut back in 2002 and remember really enjoying it, but for some reason her other books have passed me by. Perhaps it’s time to rediscover her, as it were.
Oh, and isn’t it fantastic that you can simply download a book to your Kindle in a matter of seconds? It’s also very dangerous. I spent most of the last two months sitting on a sun-deck in Australia and downloading stuff as and when I felt like it. I am yet to check my credit card bill!
As to Beryl Bainbridge, I think it’s terribly sad that she had to die before someone decided she should be honoured like this. I’ve not read any of her stuff before, but have a couple in the TBR.
Kim – thanks for visiting. The Kindle is a beguiling thing. In an idle moment you can turn it on and be surprised by how much is available and then with a press of a button there it is. I’m trying to concentrate on free books at the moment and am rediscovering old favourites – H G Wells, Chesterton, Belloc – plus those countless numbers of classics. I ‘m sure I have enough on there now for several years of reading – but no doubt will find more essentials later this week.
I’ve not heard of this author but this sounds like a wonderful book. I love books that have an element of research or academia, so this seems like it would be exactly the kind of thing I would enjoy.
Nice review tom new name to me ,this is my female writers blindspot ,as for Bainbridge award due but William Trevor must wonder what he must do to get booker to die by sounds of it he been shortlisted five times to and longlist a few apart from that ,all the best stu
Steph – thanks for visiting. It sounds like this would be just up your street.
Stu – I didn’t know W Trevor had been shortlisted five time! Phew! Hope he makes it eventually as he’s a fine writer
[...] from A Common Reader reviews Naming the Bones by Louise Welch saying it, “successfully combines elements of a [...]
I keep meaning to read some Welsh, but have so much else on the pile already waiting for my attention.
The Kindle can be dangerous on the download front. I’ve consciously stopped getting new books onto it until I’ve read some of those I’ve already got. It’s too easy to spend a fair bit buying books that I won’t have time to read for ages. Since I could download them then, why pay now?