The Stornoway Way

by Kevin MacNeil

‘Fuck everyone from Holden Caulfield to Bridget Jones, fuck all the American and English phoney fictions that claim to speak for us; they don’t know the likes of us exist and they never did. We are who we are because we grew up the Stornoway way. We do not live in the back of beyond, we live in the very heart of beyond …’

Meet R Stornoway, drink-addled misfit, inhabitant of the Hebridean Isle of Lewis, and meandering man fighting to break free of an island he just can’t seem to let go of…

Genres: Fiction, Scotland, Novels, Contemporary, British Literature

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2005

About the author

Kevin MacNeil is a Scottish novelist, poet, and playwright. He is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Stirling. His books include Robert Louis Stevenson: An Anthology Selected by Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Diary of Archie the Alpaca and The Brilliant & Forever. He lives in Edinburgh.

Reviews

[Jaslo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could give this a raving review but alas I cannot. It started off nice enough-- with a snappy, 'I'm gonna tell it like it is' feel and a lot of Scottish Gaelic footnotes. As I read I felt a lack of narrative momentum and instead felt distracted by the narrator (who seems more focused on displaying his prowess as a man, rather than telling a story.) I lost interest in everything but who could've written such arrogant jabber. I started speculating on his looks-- how he managed to get published.
I read this book while on the ferry from Stornoway to Ullapool and even the proximity of location and environment couldn't make me care about the narrator. A first person narrative which is more like a drunken diary or a diary of drunkeness...drunk mess. I usually like such things but this narrator rubbed me the wrong way. He didn't seem to have any focus for the book. Is it about the death of culture, the ways in which a culture dies, the death of an individual, the ability for human growth, the inability of human growth??? I have no clue. MacNeil introduces many characters with poetic bangs (yes, he has some beautiful lines-- I mean he is a Gael) but lets them fall by the wayside of the narrator's flip flopping perspective. Did he ever really care for them? Why'd he introduce them at all? Who or what should we care about in this story? I couldn't latch on to anything except my editorial decision that this shouldn't be called a novel but a series of prose poetry which is incomplete and needs work. Still, five stars for his use of gaelic!!!

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

very good until the last fifty pages when a teenager appears to takeover writing duties.

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

An antidote to the coming-of-age novel, this unflinching portrait of a chronic cock-up artist (R. Stornoway, or “arse-torn-away”) returning to the titular town on the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, is a witty, whisky-sodden novel told in various episodic chapters with hilarious spurious Gaelic or Stornowegian terms of the author’s invention in footnotes. The novel’s tone switches from drunken childhood nostalgia to tortured self-examination with skill, keeping the reader on-side with strong LOLs and smart observations, and in spite of the questionable framing device used, makes for an acidic and compassionate read. (And Michael Palin toots the novel on the back cover. Is Michael Palin ever wrong?)

[An IncandescentFirefly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I read this in public, people stared at me for laughing out loud. I think I actually fell in love with R. Stornoway and could envision us having a very intensely rocky co-dependent relationship. The Outer Hebrides are some of the most beautiful places I've ever seen... the book was amazing for me because I've seen so much of it first hand. Go there and then read this book. Now!

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

No plot, meandering, aimless. But I was engaged and drawn in by the witty writing. You will find yourself drawn into the mind of a completely nihilistic, cynical, drunken protagonist. And just when you think you can take no more you will find yourself laughing out loud from the hilarity of the writing. The somewhat pointless story line (and surprisingly sober ending) is made endurable only by the great writing and moments of humor.

[Ape · Rating 4 out of 5]

My bookcrossing review:

I really enjoyed this book.

It was a very Scottish story, dealing with alcoholism and (sub)conscious self-destruction, although this book really only looked at the way his soul was destroyed by alcohol abuse, whereas another Scottish writer, AL Kennedy, will scare you with the full story (very depressing it is too). Music played a role too - him mentioning CDs he was listening to and groups he liked which reminded me a bit of Alan Warner (most famous for Morvern Callar, although I prefer his book These Demented Lands). MacNeil's style of writting is really imaginative and keeps you hooked - perhaps not as crazy as Warner's but certainly down the same road.

Experiencing Scottish life - or at least one side to it - was interesting. I've never been up to Lewis although I would love to go there one day. The footnotes about curious words in Gaelic (just to show us how deep the language really is) and the use of the language with the odd word here and there in the text was fun. Reminded me how I'd like to learn Gaelic one day although I doubt it will be something I will ever get around to doing.

This idea that the alcohol abuse is down to the errosion of tradition and identity was interesting. Did he mention aborigines somewhere in the book? I remember reading an article somewhere about an island off Australia where the rates of alcohol abuse and suicide are soaring in the aboriginal community because there is nothing else for them to do - as if they can't survive in the modern world. Maybe some connection back to the demise of Gaelic. I know over 100 years ago little kids have the language beaten out of them at school if they spoke it instead of English. It's a real shame.

Other Scottish books for the curious....
Alan Warner - Morvern Callar, These Demented Lands (mad writing, alcohol, depression, eccentricity)
A. L. Kennedy - Paradise (although there are other books) (particularly scary tale of what happens to you if you drink too much)
Iain Grant - Small Town Antichrist (Burocracy is the road to Hell... literally)
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory (very twisted, dark little book about isolated Scottish people)

[Meredith M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book. The narrator, a native of the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis, has a love/hate/self-destructive relationship to himself, to alcohol, and his hometown of Stornoway. The novel has interesting things to say about the state of Gaelic culture in Scotland and also the state of Scotland in the world (both as a nation and non-nation). Bits of it are quite dark, so it's not what I would call a summer read, but overall it was thought-provoking and interesting.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

At times the authors sense of humour came out at it's best and I laughed out loud, but for the most part I found him to be self indulgent and I would switch off. His self pity got a bit tedious.

I understand that in real life people swear a lot and goes unnoticed but in a piece of literature it stands out. In this book the swearing was too frequent, lost any impact and in the end got in the way of telling the story.

A rather disappointing book.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any fan of trainspotting will love this tale of life on an island. The particular vices and forboils of Island people and what happens when they leave.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

R Stornoway scheint auf den ersten Blick ein typischer Bewohner von Lewis zu sein: ohne einen Schulabschluß schlägt er sich auf der Hebrideninsel gerade so durch. Der Höhepunkt seines Tages ist der Besuch im Pub oder ein Ceilidh mit Freunden. Er wollte Schriftsteller werden, aber jetzt ist er nur eine weitere gescheiterte Existenz, von der es auf dieser Insel genug gibt... Am Beispiel seiner Freunde erkennt er immer deutlicher, dass sein Weg ihn nur noch abwärts führen wird.

Während der ersten Kapitel konnte ich mit dem Buch nicht viel anfangen. Die Sprache war mir zu derb, die Inhalte zu flach und es gab keine richtige Handlung, nur ein Aneinandereihen von Ereignissen aus R Stornoways Leben, ohne Logik oder vernünftigen zeitlichen Ablauf. Doch nach und nach haben mich die scheinbar beiläufig erzählten Erlebnisse gefangengenommen. Sie erzählen die Geschichte eines Mannes, der schon in der Schule nur den einen Wunsch hatte, Schriftsteller zu werden und seinen trostlosen Geburtsort zu verlassen. Doch weder daheim noch auf dem Festland erfährt er Unterstützung oder Anerkennung und schließlich kommt er als gebrochener Mann nach Hause zurück, in ein Leben, dass nur aus dem Aneinanderreihen von Tagen besteht. Ich habe mit R Stornoway mitgelitten, habe mich mit ihm über seine Freunde geärgert und war genauso wütend wie er, weil jeder Versuch, sein Leben zum Besseren zu wenden, doch wieder gescheitert ist. Aber gerade das macht seine Geschichte so tragisch.

[Rory Weeks · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first section of this book does have something to say about the (drinking) culture on Lewis once the rose-tinted glasses are removed, and, as laid out in the introduction, could be regarded as controversial for peering beneath the surface in that way (at any rate I did not see this book stocked in any shops in Stornoway, which was interesting).

Unfortunately the shorter second and third sections constitute one of the worst endings to a book I can recall reading, hence the one star. The nosedive in quality this took was wild.

Somewhat reminiscent of Morvern Callar, which I also did not like. I think that this subgenre of sad-alcoholic Scottish fiction just isn't for me.

[bowiesbooks]

Would not recommend.

[ghostly_bookish · Rating 2 out of 5]

CAWPILE 4.43
2.5 STARS
Read for the Pages in the Park IRL Book Club- November's Pick.
Now that the book club have discussed this I can actually rate this and leave a review.
At the beginning, I was hopeful that the rare glimpses of humor could save this book but it was just a mess of drunken rambling and fluctuating whinging and utter self pity.
I found the main character unbearable and by the end, intolerable.
Not a single person in our book group enjoyed this book, in fact there was only 3 of us who finished it and given how short this book is, it's somewhat of a damning verdict.
The only reason it rated higher than James Joyce (narrowly higher) is by the fact this book had sentences and punctuation, otherwise- it was equally as much of a waste of time to read.

[Mariele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t a bad read, but it was mostly episodic, without a noteworthy narrative arc, so it felt too idle. It had some very witty writing, and the insularity and inescapability of life in a close-knit community on a remote island was very well conveyed. I spent a few days in Stornoway once, a few summers ago, and I still have very mixed memories about the place. It’s certainly beautiful, but I’m glad I don’t live there. (Too cold, too isolated, too religious.)

I was very intrigued by what the narrator had to say about being Scottish in the early 21st century. Without speaking a single word of Gaelic, I’m very interested in its workings and its status (I met so many Scots who seem to have a sincere aversion to it…), so I enjoyed the occasional use of Gaelic terms in the footnotes. However, it’s of little use if you don’t know how to pronounce it. (And how many of those words were just made-up?)

I wonder, though, what was the point of the story? The death of a culture? The ties that bind you to your home, restrictive though it may be? Or just plain self-destruction?
I wish the story had a bit more to offer than just the alcohol-drenched doom and gloom, that whatever the writer’s point was, he should have made a more significant statement.
The last third of the novel was too jarring. In this part, we find out how his heart was broken in Edinburgh, after he left his home as a very young man. I wish the book had ended a bit more upliftingly. I don’t mind dark or morbid stories, I just thought this book deserved a better, saner ending.

#spoiler alert # Come on, at the age of 30, he decides to kill himself because he can’t get over the fact that back when he was 18 or so, his girlfriend of only a few months decided to have an abortion, without informing him first. Well, I can’t say I took to the male perspective, there was too much self-pity. Sorry, I could not empathize, and suicide seemed like such an over-reaction.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This was brutal. It beats you about the head, as punishing and relentless as the 'Leodhasach' weather. Despite the abuse, you stick with it for the vulnerable moments and the downright hilarious ones. And, as with all fiction, for the moments where you see aspects of your own life or personality reflected right back at you, as though the page was a mirror.



So, the scene in the Pear Tree in Edinburgh brought back nice memories, R Stornoway's frank admissions of drinking to obliteration point, some not so nice memories (or, rather, non-memories). Most spooky of all, though, was the passage about indulging in you own self-pity while listening to Counting Crows, as I've just written a blog entry on precisely the same subject. Weird.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The quote on the front of this book really intruiged me, "the best Scottish book since Trainspotting" it read. I thought it was a mighty bold claim and one it more than lived up to, outside Welsh's own work of course. The book is incredibly well written and features a fantastic mixture humour and sorrow.

[Seonag Paterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this at the time - its darkness, humour, and willingness to reveal a different, warts and all view of island life. Though I have to confess, many years on, not much of the story has stayed with me, more the general sense of some of the darkness, humour and drinking that underpins a lot of island culture.

[Derek Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe 2.5 stars... I liked the prose but where was the story? Does it say something when I am not all that empathic at the end? So, I have many more questions at the end of this novel. I can answer one, though: I won't be reading it again.

[Orla Broderick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just a great read, well written and very memorable.

[Ailish Sinclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this on a holiday to Skye and loved it. Captures the sense of the beautiful and remote islands of Scotland, not to mention the common alcoholism :(

[Ross Cameron · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was about to say there ‘is a lot to like about this book’, but that feels an incorrect sentiment given the subject matter.

This book is a powerful exploration of the challenges of living on Lewis and in particular the way that alcohol and the grip it has on society can lead to a life unravelling. The problems described in Stornoway are particularly acute but could similarly be transposed to a similar or lesser degree to many places across Scotland.

The ‘story’ such as it is is told through the eyes of R Stornoway, a figure struggling with his alcoholism who provided the author with a manuscript. But herein lies one of the many problems. As a vehicle this isn’t developed enough to work. It feels odd when the author chips in. The whole novel feels like a collection of rambling only slightly connected events. In some ways this may reflect the nature of the main characters life and downward spiral but it needs a stronger narrative tying the chapters together.

But it paints a vivid picture and makes excellent use of the Gaelic.

[Craig White · Rating 3 out of 5]

R Stornoway? Ouch!
certain passages of this book are exquisitely written, genuinely heartfelt, thought provoking and evocative! if the whole had been as such, we'd be talking about a winner here - but we're not, the scenarios have little lead up or connection to the general narrative, making it feel very scattered and random in a stop/start fashion. which is a great pity as there is much good about this book. good in that it's informative in providing gaelic translations, and knows at which point this gets old for the reader. good in that it didn't put me in mind of 'trainspotting' even slightly. good for the above mentioned occasional beauty of prose. it feels like a book that is both satisfying and unsatisfying at the same time, passages of which will remain with me for some time, and others i've already forgotten. as i say, a great shame as this could have been 'thar cionn'.

[Rachel Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a book to make you feel everything, this is it.

Kevin MacNeil's The Stornoway Way is indescribable in some ways, from its delightful humor to its stark realism to its heart-wrenching tragedies. When you reach the end, chances are you'll breathe a big sigh (of relief? of sadness? of good riddance?) and reflect on everything that just happened. How could so much be encompassed in so short a story?

It's an easy read, a simple one, and when you pick it up, you don't expect the ending coming from the way it's begun — although each subsequent read reveals more of what you missed the first time through. The Stornoway Way is a man's thoughts and emotions as he struggles through life on a down-and-out, isolated little town and island in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Roman Stornoway, the books pseudonymous narrator, fits right in among the drunkards, burn-outs and depressed people among the island's inhabitants, but you don't get a sense of how bad things are until later in the novel.

Stornoway parties with his friends, gets drunk more than anything else and often spends nights with women he never sees again — it's a cycle of monotony only broken by his previous travels around the world. Now, however, he's back to the Isle of Lewis, and his old life has kicked his butt and brought his friends down with him.

The humor Stornoway possesses in his own life stories and his friends' company is sharp and witty and well executed. There is one scene in which all of the narrator's friends gather together for a party and essentially show off their talents. In the end, it turns out being a match of wits and dirty jokes, as the characters all share stories and make jibes at their humble island living. Later in the novel, Stornoway's own wit comes into a hilarious interaction with Reginald, on a plane, revealing Stornoway's knack for sarcasm — in addition to a little disdain.

At some points the novel seems wheedling, as if MacNeil started writing his character's point of view and then forgetting what exactly the point was; there are long segments when the characters think or say things that are arguably unnecessary to the plot but rather more of a reflection on MacNeil's own ability for language and character building.

Another problem I have with the book is how MacNeil paints the picture of life in Stornoway and Lewis itself. Having never been there, I have no idea of the island's culture. But it sounded like a fairly horrible place to be, and that's without Stornoway's cynicism and glass-completely-empty mindset. Even in general descriptions of the place, it sounds as though everyone tries to escape, which I very much doubt is true in reality. But at the same time, I recognize that the story is told through Stornoway's eyes and perceptions, and if this is how he perceives Stornoway, then that's the impression of it the reader should be getting, based on nothing else.

Studying the characters in this book is where the most telling foreshadowing comes in. My first time reading the book, I suspected in the beginning what might happen at the end, but I still was caught by surprise. Reading it again, I shouldn't have been, not with the symbolism and relevance of every character here.

Stornoway believes he has friends, and he may have at one point. But his drinking and self-loathing had led him into a downward spiral that no one can help him out of, not even Eilidh, who cuts him more slack than he deserves sometimes. She clearly recognizes his problems, as they are hinted of arising in past incidents, and wants to help him. She is concerned when he doesn't communicate, concerned about his drinking, concerned about his disinterest in others. But she fails to do anything about it, much like any of Stornoway's other supposed friends. This is his emptiness. He goes through life without really knowing what to live for, and no one is giving him a reason.

We, the readers, are treated the same as R. Stornoway's friends. We are never told Stornoway's detailed background and what it was that got him to his depressed state. We don't know if his friends have tried to help him, or even if they're going through similar challenges. We have no idea if Stornoway has any family left or how he interacts with the people he's close to. We don't know how he earns money, if at all, since his art and music don't seem to be helping a whole lot. There are so many unknowns in his life that are never answered, and I'm still undecided as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing

Then, the second part of the novel comes in. Everything changes. I won't get into spoilers, but something happens that triggers a life change in Stornoway. It seems small to me, something he overreacted to, given the temporary and unstable state of things in his life at the time; but it's obviously something that stuck with him. And that's what gives his life purpose. Some moment of clarity halfway through the novel, which wakes up and places him back in reality for at least a moment.

That section is the truly sobering and overwhelming thing about the novel. We as humans sometimes don't know what motivates us or why we are attracted to certain things or people, and that's what this book gets down to, in some ways. Stornoway could have found hope in more places than it existed for him, but instead it took something so fleeting for him to change his perspective. That's what's so incredible about this novel. It may be about friendship or culture or home, but more than that, it's about what drives people and what makes them discover the important things in life.

There are few books that leave me breathless. This one was one of them.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this book twice but put it down on the first attempt because it just didn't feel worth the effort: I'd far more engaging books in my 'to read' stack.
When I came across it again a few years later, I managed to get further in and then was hooked. I found it completely different. Although it's funny it's also incredibly sad as I've known boys/ young men just like R. They were my children's contemporaries, growing up in the Highlands (though not the islands) and two of them have died: this could so easily be their story; talented but self destructive.
There were aspects of the writing that I really enjoyed; the descriptions of landscape and people. By the end the book I felt overwhelmed by the sadness of these lives, fictional and real.

[Steve Dempsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

The unstructured illiterate ramblings of a self-appointed comic(or so he believes). The book has clearly not been edited or the author given advice during his ramblings. The author clearly thinks humour is increased by the use of four letter words but he doesn't even construct his sentences so that they are in the right place. I did give up after 100 pages as it was wasting my time. I hope the author has a long successful career in gaelic. Penguin as publishers need to question their processes in selection, editing and publishing novels.

[Alison Cairns · Rating 3 out of 5]

A true, warts and all, account of growing up (or not) on a Scottish island. Lots of laugh out loud moments, and painted some vivid pictures, but underlying it all i couldn't help feeling the self pity, the why me? My thoughts were why does nobody seem to work? How can they have houses and live without a source of income? Where was R Stornoway's family in all this. The final section, the letter to Kevin, packed a punch and hit me between the eyes. - I was not expecting that.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book reads like reading letters, or the diary, written by a friend. This autobiography was an interesting, and at times quite depressing, story of a man who grew up in a small town on a small Scottish island. I, at times, understood what this man was feeling and why. Other times, I wanted to yell at hin to grow up. But, can we all not say that about our own lives.

[Fee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The meandering, rambling, bawdy, funny, whisky-steeped story of R. Stornoway and his life in the Outer Hebrides. Reads like a nineties fever dream. I particularly loved the footnotes offering explanations of Gàidhlig slang. If the last fifty pages of this had been torn out, I would have given it five stars.

[Seonag · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and observant at times (and certainly a good introduction to some below the surface sides of Stornoway) but way too introspective in the second half and large sections I just skimmed right on through. Loved the footnotes though, especially the village names.

[Emma Hendrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read and love the tell it as it is narration. Lot of the negative reviews call it drunken ramblings but I’d say that’s kinda the point of a book about an alcoholic islander? Love the fusion of Gaelic throughout as well