GENERAL INFORMATION
TITLE: UNLIKELY STORIES, MOSTLY
AUTHOR: ALASDAIR GRAY
PAGES: 253
PUBLISHER: CANONGATE BOOKS
YEAR: 1983
GENRE: SHORT FICTION
COVER TYPE: HARD BACK
www.lanark1982.co.uk/unlikely.html
BLURB FROM THE COVER
Alasdair Gray’s first book of short stories is a masterful collection that further established him as one of Scotland’s most original and important
writers when it first appeared in 1983. This new edition, includes a new unlikely story, “Inches in a Column”, that was lost at the time of original publication.
THE OPENING LINE
A star had fallen beyond the horizon, in Canada maybe (THE STAR).
REVIEW
I became a fan of Gray’s when I read his novel Lanark about a year ago after a friend and fellow book worm gave me a spare copy and badgered me to read it. I didn’t think it was my thing and was proven wrong. In my humble opinion Lanark is one of the greatest novels ever written. It blew me away. I’ve wanted to read more of Gray since then.
The stories in Unlikely Stories, Mostly remind me of the best bits of Lanark. This is a good thing believe me. Gray’s imagination, skill and style as a writer are quite unlike anything I’ve ever come across before. I’m sort of in awe of him. The collection contains many of Gray’s own impressive illustrations.
The Star is a charming fable about a young boy who sees what he believes to be a star fall to earth and land in his back garden. He finds it and hides it in his pocket. A teacher finds it and tells the boy he can’t bring marbles to school to play with. Gray leaves us wondering if the boy found a star or just a marble. The Star is an unusual choice for a collection of stories aimed at adults but is so well written and charming it doesn’t matter.
The Spread of Ian Nicol is about a man, Ian Nicol, who discovers he’s splitting in half one day. He sees strange marks on the back of his head that look like a face. His doctor confirms this. Ian splits in half, creating two thin versions of himself who get into a fist fight. I found this story hilarious.
The Cause of Recent Changes is part fantasy part fable about a bored art student who suggests digging an escape tunnel into the foundations of the art college. This is meant to be sarcasm but other students take this literally and the tunnel becomes a reality and a focus of obsession for other students and staff. I thought this story was also very funny.
A Unique Case is about an elderly man who is hospitalised after a serious road traffic accident. The doctors discover he has hundreds of tiny people inside his head gradually repairing his injuries and helping him heal. I thought the story was great and really liked the illustrations.
The Comedy of the White Dog is my favourite story from the collection. The story is steeped in myth. A house party is interrupted by the appearance of a strange large white dog that causes havoc and kidnaps a female house guest. The guest turns up later looking very happy and more attractive. A man plans to wed the woman who threw the party and researches the strange dog. He uncovers a legend about a strange white dog mating with frigid women. The night before the wedding he finds his bridegroom in bed with the dog, post-coital. He flies into a rage and transforms into another white dog himself. I thought this was a great and very original story.
The Answer is about a young man who’s concerned by his girlfriend’s cold attitude toward him on the phone. He goes to visit her and discovers their brief relationship is over and she isn’t interested in him any longer. I liked this story but felt it was too ordinary compared to others in the collection.
The Problem is also steeped in myth and fantasy. A man has relationship with the sun that appears in the form of a beautiful woman. The sun becomes jealous when the man mentions seeing the moon every night. The lovers have a spat. I thought this was a funny, clever story.
The Crank that Made the Revolution is a funny fable about a crack-pot inventor’s experiments with boats, crankshifts and ducks. This story was hilarious. I have no idea if Gray based this on actual events but I sort of hope he did.
The Great Bear Cult is part myth, part fable and party fantasy and written in a very experimental style. A filmmaker attempts to get a documentary made outlining Britain’s obsession and affection for bears in Victorian times that included people walking about in public dressed as bears. The cult ended following a series of killings committed by a real bear. I thought this story was great even though the structure didn’t completely work.
The Start of the Axletree is part myth and is the first of a two part parable. Gray offers us his version of a creation myth steeped in the world and rituals of Ancient Egypt. I also thought this story was great. I’m fascinated by mythology especially Greek and Egyptian so this story delighted me.
Five letters from an Eastern Empire is an impressive tale I enjoyed reading. It’s much more complex than other stories in the collection. The story deals with a wide range of themes including etiquette, government, irrigation, education, clogs, kites, rumour, poetry, justice, massage, town-planning, sex and ventriloquism in an obsolete nation and comprises of a series of letters from the poet Bohu concerning his journey to and arrival in the capital and his task – one which he has been raised from birth to accomplish – of writing a poem exalting the Emperor.
Logopandocy didn’t work for me on any level. I hated it. Gray uses a very experimental style and writes in columns and various text sizes. The story is a parody of an actual person, Thomas Urquhart, a Scottish writer and translator. I hated the formal language used and found the whole story very long and tedious.
Prometheus is Gray’s version of the famous myth and includes loud echoes of Shelley’s magnum opus, Prometheus Unbound, in stagey blank verse. I enjoyed this story but not as much as some other tales in the collection. It was a bit too much to read after struggling through Logopandocy. I would have preferred a larger break between both stories.
The End of the Axletree is the concluding part of two part parable that opened with The Start of the Axletree. I enjoyed this as well but thought part one was a better story. The illustrations impressed me.
The concluding stories, A Likely Story Outside a Domestic Setting and A Likely Story within a Domestic Setting are comedy stories that mirror each other. The stories are farcical and offer alternative viewpoints of a lover’s argument. The stories are one paragraph long and most of each page is taken up with an illustration. I thought the stories were funny and realistic.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I was impressed by Gray’s first collection of stories, Unlikely Stories, Mostly. I thought they were all impressive, some more than others. The thing that stood out about all of these stories is the startling scope of Gray’s imagination. Where did he come up with this crazy shit? I really like the illustrations. I like everything. I might need to read Lanark soon.
RATING
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