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The Day Before Tomorrow
n the fast disappearing slums of the Claggans district of a big Scottish city, only a few tenements still stand. In this strange half-world a small group of men and women live out one hot summer week of their lives. Experience is heightened by the presence of a maniac among them-a man whom some of them at least must know, a sex killer who already has his eye on his next victim and is planning to strike again.
But this is in no way a whodunit. It is a warm and human story of the loves, fears and hopes of simple people: of Mrs Sheehan, feeling lost and useless with her family grown up and gone; of old Pat Brady and his sons in the neglected, womanless apartment opposite, tossed in cross-currents of pity, love and hate; of Eugene Carty, tied to a tyrannical invalid mother, whose problems have an unexpected end; of young Bernadette Sheehan, whose return home after eighteen months working in London, dramatically changes the course of several lives.
Moira Burgess has drawn on her own experience while working as a librarian in Glasgow to create the lives and background of her characters, and her natural powers as a storyteller to weave these into a convincing whole.
Moira Burgess is a novelist, short story writer and literary historian, born in Campbeltown, Argyll, and now living in Glasgow. Writing has been the most important part of her life since childhood and she has published two novels, The Day Before Tomorrow (first published in 1971) and Speak, Adam published as A Rumour of Strangers in 1987 and reprinted in 2009. For some years she worked mainly on non-fiction, publishing The Glasgow Novel: a bibliography (3rd edition 1999) and a book on the same topic, Imagine aCity (1998). Author of Mitchison's Ghosts, a study of the supernatural and mythical elements in the work of Naomi Mitchison, she is now working on an edition of Mitchison's collected prose.
Douglas Gifford is Professor Emeritus of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow.
But this is in no way a whodunit. It is a warm and human story of the loves, fears and hopes of simple people: of Mrs Sheehan, feeling lost and useless with her family grown up and gone; of old Pat Brady and his sons in the neglected, womanless apartment opposite, tossed in cross-currents of pity, love and hate; of Eugene Carty, tied to a tyrannical invalid mother, whose problems have an unexpected end; of young Bernadette Sheehan, whose return home after eighteen months working in London, dramatically changes the course of several lives.
Moira Burgess has drawn on her own experience while working as a librarian in Glasgow to create the lives and background of her characters, and her natural powers as a storyteller to weave these into a convincing whole.
Moira Burgess is a novelist, short story writer and literary historian, born in Campbeltown, Argyll, and now living in Glasgow. Writing has been the most important part of her life since childhood and she has published two novels, The Day Before Tomorrow (first published in 1971) and Speak, Adam published as A Rumour of Strangers in 1987 and reprinted in 2009. For some years she worked mainly on non-fiction, publishing The Glasgow Novel: a bibliography (3rd edition 1999) and a book on the same topic, Imagine aCity (1998). Author of Mitchison's Ghosts, a study of the supernatural and mythical elements in the work of Naomi Mitchison, she is now working on an edition of Mitchison's collected prose.
Douglas Gifford is Professor Emeritus of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow.
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1971
About the author
Moira Burgess
41 books1 followerMoira Burgess is a novelist and literary historian, born in Campbeltown, Argyll, and now living in Glasgow. She has always seen novels and short stories as the heart of her writing.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 9, 2017
This novel by Moira Burgess has as its setting a derelict slum area in a large Scottish city -- presumably Glasgow as the author has ties with the latter (having worked there as a librarian.) At heart the book is a penetrating glimpse into the hopes and fears of a handful of characters who spend their lives against the depressing background of a half-demolished, soon-to-be-gone world of crumbling tenements and heaps of rubble. There is Mrs Sheehan, an elderly widow who is convinced that she has reached the end of her usefulness now that there is no family left to take care of. Across her landing lives the Brady's -- a father and two sons who have gradually drifted into a twilit existence in the wake of Mrs Brady's death. The father Pat Brady has withdrawn into a world of dirt and drunkenness and grief. The sons Kieron and Danny are reliant on each other to keep at least a semblance of normality going. Kieron (in his twenties) is the older brother, desperately trying to hold things together and fiercely protective of the 14-year old Danny -- an amiable, cheerful man-child whom Kieron suspects may be "slow" and thus not able to hold down a job once he leaves school.
These characters -- together with Mrs Sheehan's daughter Bernie who returns home from nursing in London with an unexpected surprise for her mother -- form the core of the novel. But on the periphery other characters are found who all play their part in the development of the narrative. There is the downtrodden Eugene Carty, hungry for love and ready to put his imaginary porn-inspired lovers behind him, but forever unable to fulfill his longings as a result of his crippling obligation to a demanding, contemptuous mother. And then there is the cool, confident salesman Quinn with his neat dress sense and a superior attitude to everybody around him.
The novel observes these diverse people during a week of relentless heat and an ever-present awareness that a killer of young girls is on the loose. Even though the narrative opens with the murder of the second victim and continues on to the discovery of a third body during the week in question, it is important to note that this is not a thriller in which the hunt for the perpetrator takes center stage (and in fact most armchair sleuths will pinpoint the slayer fairly early on.) Ms. Burgess is more concerned with placing her readers in the midst of the social problems faced by her characters so that they may become part of their aspirations and dreams. In this she succeeds with flying colors. Her characters are not mere paper creations, but fully-rounded, flesh-and-blood individuals.
These characters -- together with Mrs Sheehan's daughter Bernie who returns home from nursing in London with an unexpected surprise for her mother -- form the core of the novel. But on the periphery other characters are found who all play their part in the development of the narrative. There is the downtrodden Eugene Carty, hungry for love and ready to put his imaginary porn-inspired lovers behind him, but forever unable to fulfill his longings as a result of his crippling obligation to a demanding, contemptuous mother. And then there is the cool, confident salesman Quinn with his neat dress sense and a superior attitude to everybody around him.
The novel observes these diverse people during a week of relentless heat and an ever-present awareness that a killer of young girls is on the loose. Even though the narrative opens with the murder of the second victim and continues on to the discovery of a third body during the week in question, it is important to note that this is not a thriller in which the hunt for the perpetrator takes center stage (and in fact most armchair sleuths will pinpoint the slayer fairly early on.) Ms. Burgess is more concerned with placing her readers in the midst of the social problems faced by her characters so that they may become part of their aspirations and dreams. In this she succeeds with flying colors. Her characters are not mere paper creations, but fully-rounded, flesh-and-blood individuals.
Displaying 1 of 1 review