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Two Closes and a Referendum
An engaging tale of ordinary people in an extraordinary time, capturing the growing excitement and fervour of the 2014 Independence Referendum that changed Scotland for ever. Set in Glasgow's East End, the novel follows ordinary citizens as they explore their identity and wrestle with the hopes and fears that surround the choice they are asked to make. Mary McCabe has written a compelling novel where human drama meets political activism.
378 pages, Paperback
First published October 2, 2017
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9 people want to read
About the author
Mary McCabe
13 books1 followerMary McCabe is a Scottish author and political activist. She has worked as a secondary school teacher, a researcher of housing conditions, chronicler of community arts, careers advisor (which took her down coalmines and into shipyards and universities) and Researcher/Writer for Glasgow City Council Department of Education.
McCabe's novel Two Closes and a Referendum (2017) explores the impacts of Scotland's 2014 independence referendum on the lives of a dozen households in two Glasgow tenements.
McCabe's novel Two Closes and a Referendum (2017) explores the impacts of Scotland's 2014 independence referendum on the lives of a dozen households in two Glasgow tenements.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 27, 2022
Despite it being a huge political awakening and movement of recent times, I struggled to come across a book about the Scottish independence referendum. So this little known book was one of very few options, and I didn't have high hopes. Thankfully, I found this a very entertaining and grounded read, both as an account of the times and as a novel in its own right.
Told through the experiences of those who live in two closes in Glasgow, one in a more affluent area than the other. A close, for those who don't know (and it appears Google doesn't either) is basically the shared access - the entranceway, stairs and landings - in a building of flats/apartments, but typically in a tenement building. And so the cast of characters is pretty large (and can be confusing, though there is a handy map to refer to), and includes those on both sides of the debate. We spend more time with certain characters than others, as the calendar rolls towards the referendum vote. Most notable is the couple (I forget the men's names) where one is an full-time Yes activist and his boyfriend decides to get involved in the No vote, and two teenagers with difficult home lives.
It was the characters that really made this book for me. They really felt like a cross-section of typical Glaswegians, both those deep-rooted and those newly arrived. For me, one of the best portrayals of modern Glasgow/Scotland I've seen in terms of the people and their lives.
It's a fun and fairly light read, considering the topics covered, and much better written than I'll admit I had feared. This book is political without smacking you round the face with it, or at the cost of a readable story. Though, I do have the same political bias as I think the author does, so it would be interesting to see what someone who is against independence would say.
Told through the experiences of those who live in two closes in Glasgow, one in a more affluent area than the other. A close, for those who don't know (and it appears Google doesn't either) is basically the shared access - the entranceway, stairs and landings - in a building of flats/apartments, but typically in a tenement building. And so the cast of characters is pretty large (and can be confusing, though there is a handy map to refer to), and includes those on both sides of the debate. We spend more time with certain characters than others, as the calendar rolls towards the referendum vote. Most notable is the couple (I forget the men's names) where one is an full-time Yes activist and his boyfriend decides to get involved in the No vote, and two teenagers with difficult home lives.
It was the characters that really made this book for me. They really felt like a cross-section of typical Glaswegians, both those deep-rooted and those newly arrived. For me, one of the best portrayals of modern Glasgow/Scotland I've seen in terms of the people and their lives.
It's a fun and fairly light read, considering the topics covered, and much better written than I'll admit I had feared. This book is political without smacking you round the face with it, or at the cost of a readable story. Though, I do have the same political bias as I think the author does, so it would be interesting to see what someone who is against independence would say.
Displaying 1 of 1 review