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The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute [Aug 08, 1991] Spence, Alan …
416 pages, Paperback
First published May 10, 1990
1 person is currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Alan Spence
57 books33 followersAlan Spence (born 1947) is a Scottish writer and is Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Aberdeen, where he is also artistic director of the annual WORD Festival. He was born in Glasgow, and much of his work is set in the city.
Spence is an award-winning poet and playwright, novelist and short-story writer. His first work was the collection of short stories Its Colours They are Fine, first published in 1977. This was followed by two plays, Sailmaker in 1982 and Space Invaders in 1983. The novel The Magic Flute appeared in 1990 along with his first book of poetry, Glasgow Zen. In 1991, another of his plays, Changed Days, was published before a brief hiatus. He returned in 1996 with Stone Garden, another collection of short stories. In 2006, The Pure Land, a historical novel set in Japan, was published by Canongate Books, and is based on the life of Thomas Blake Glover who is immortalised in the story of Madame Butterfly.
Spence is an award-winning poet and playwright, novelist and short-story writer. His first work was the collection of short stories Its Colours They are Fine, first published in 1977. This was followed by two plays, Sailmaker in 1982 and Space Invaders in 1983. The novel The Magic Flute appeared in 1990 along with his first book of poetry, Glasgow Zen. In 1991, another of his plays, Changed Days, was published before a brief hiatus. He returned in 1996 with Stone Garden, another collection of short stories. In 2006, The Pure Land, a historical novel set in Japan, was published by Canongate Books, and is based on the life of Thomas Blake Glover who is immortalised in the story of Madame Butterfly.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 31, 2017
Starting from the point at which their destinies are about to diverge The Magic Flute chronicles the lives of four pupils from the same Glasgow Primary School, Tam, Brian, George and Eddie, from when they are about to move on to Secondary School at the turn of 1950s/60s up till just after John Lennon’s death in 1980. When the book starts two are shortly to sit the bursary exam for the fee-paying High School, two to progress to the local Junior Secondary. They all make their way to audition for the Orange Flute Band but only one of them manages to get a sound out of the instrument they are given to try and he gets to take it home. (The next week though it is the Mason’s son who has that privilege.) Inspired by music and especially Mozart’s The Magic Flute Tam becomes a musician, Brian sticks to his studies and ends up as a teacher of English, George drifts even after he is inducted into the Masons following his father, and Eddie escapes a life of crime by joining the Army only to be sent to Northern Ireland.
A possible different path for most of them is signposted by an improvised show in which they perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe but only Tam breaks free (set partly on his way by LSD) and even he cannot quite escape the drag such an upbringing imposes. Brian’s aspirations to being a novelist are stunted by that Scottish sense of knowing your place. “Part of him always stood back.... a wee Scottish gremlin that narked in his head. Ach away ye go. I know fine what you really are. He supposed it was a variant of the old put-down. Him? A writer? He couldnae be. I kent his faither. Only this was more insidious, was the end result of such programming, and the form it took was Me? Ach, naw, no me. I couldnae.
Life in the West of Scotland at that time is conveyed well enough, the setting of paths and narrowing of opportunities caused by educational apartheid (long since gone in the main,) the background of sectarianism and the strains it causes (not gone - at least in certain spheres,) the hidebound nature of the older generation, the attraction for some of radical politics.
The initial prose is a touch diagrammatic and the characterisation a little perfunctory so that the boys are not sufficiently distinguished from one another. Also, too many of the scenes in the book start in the middle before flashing back. Spence’s jokes are more intrusive and less integrated than in Way to Go and that signalling of the story’s thrust by the initial scenes is something of a misdirection. For those of sensitive dispositions I note use of the “n” word plus the “d” word and the “P” word.
It’s a good enough read. One of the 100 best, though?
A possible different path for most of them is signposted by an improvised show in which they perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe but only Tam breaks free (set partly on his way by LSD) and even he cannot quite escape the drag such an upbringing imposes. Brian’s aspirations to being a novelist are stunted by that Scottish sense of knowing your place. “Part of him always stood back.... a wee Scottish gremlin that narked in his head. Ach away ye go. I know fine what you really are. He supposed it was a variant of the old put-down. Him? A writer? He couldnae be. I kent his faither. Only this was more insidious, was the end result of such programming, and the form it took was Me? Ach, naw, no me. I couldnae.
Life in the West of Scotland at that time is conveyed well enough, the setting of paths and narrowing of opportunities caused by educational apartheid (long since gone in the main,) the background of sectarianism and the strains it causes (not gone - at least in certain spheres,) the hidebound nature of the older generation, the attraction for some of radical politics.
The initial prose is a touch diagrammatic and the characterisation a little perfunctory so that the boys are not sufficiently distinguished from one another. Also, too many of the scenes in the book start in the middle before flashing back. Spence’s jokes are more intrusive and less integrated than in Way to Go and that signalling of the story’s thrust by the initial scenes is something of a misdirection. For those of sensitive dispositions I note use of the “n” word plus the “d” word and the “P” word.
It’s a good enough read. One of the 100 best, though?
July 29, 2011
Picked this up because Spence was the writer-in-residence when I was at Aberdeen Uni.
Think this is a novel more about rites of passage and snapshots of an era because I never really got a handle on who the characters were, rather than what they did. But then, a dominant theme was that they boys became predestined products of their respective upbringings, so maybe that's to be expected. In that respect, I suppose Malcolm, who follows his own chaotic path, is something of a barometer against whom we can compare the others.
It's a pity that Tam seems to be the author's favoured character because I preferred Brian's story, and George almost disappears completely.
Still, there were lots of wee points of recognition that made me smile. For example, I'd forgotten that Lucozade (that magic cure for all ills) used to come in glass bottles wrapped in yellow cellophane. And tasted all the better for it too.
Think this is a novel more about rites of passage and snapshots of an era because I never really got a handle on who the characters were, rather than what they did. But then, a dominant theme was that they boys became predestined products of their respective upbringings, so maybe that's to be expected. In that respect, I suppose Malcolm, who follows his own chaotic path, is something of a barometer against whom we can compare the others.
It's a pity that Tam seems to be the author's favoured character because I preferred Brian's story, and George almost disappears completely.
Still, there were lots of wee points of recognition that made me smile. For example, I'd forgotten that Lucozade (that magic cure for all ills) used to come in glass bottles wrapped in yellow cellophane. And tasted all the better for it too.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews