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Unlikely Stories, Mostly
With his first collection of short fiction, Unlikely Stories, Mostly, Scottish artist and author Alasdair Gray perfected the blend of visual and verbal elements which has since characterised his work.
The book’s dust jacket advertises the cocktail of surreal, macabre and mock-historical writing that readers will find between the covers. Title and author’s name are printed in bold roman type. Next to the author’s name is the image of an “improved duck” (a device invented by Vague McMenamy, protagonist of the story “The Crank that Made the Revolution”, to enhance duck mobility). Arranged around the lettering is a grid of black and white squares. In each one, a winged foetus nestles within the cross-section of a skull. A horizontal strip across the bottom shows a recumbent child attached to a kite, floating over a Chinese city in flames – an image echoed in the story “Five Letters from an Eastern Empire”. On the spine, a naked woman is the object of amorous attention from the legendary beast in the tale “The Comedy of the White Dog”.
The book’s dust jacket advertises the cocktail of surreal, macabre and mock-historical writing that readers will find between the covers. Title and author’s name are printed in bold roman type. Next to the author’s name is the image of an “improved duck” (a device invented by Vague McMenamy, protagonist of the story “The Crank that Made the Revolution”, to enhance duck mobility). Arranged around the lettering is a grid of black and white squares. In each one, a winged foetus nestles within the cross-section of a skull. A horizontal strip across the bottom shows a recumbent child attached to a kite, floating over a Chinese city in flames – an image echoed in the story “Five Letters from an Eastern Empire”. On the spine, a naked woman is the object of amorous attention from the legendary beast in the tale “The Comedy of the White Dog”.
240 pages, Paperback
First published October 2, 1984
74 people are currently reading
1361 people want to read
About the author
Alasdair Gray
97 books903 followersAlasdair James Gray was a Scottish writer and artist. His first novel, Lanark (1981), is seen as a landmark of Scottish fiction. He published novels, short stories, plays, poetry and translations, and wrote on politics and the history of English and Scots literature. His works of fiction combine realism, fantasy, and science fiction with the use of his own typography and illustrations, and won several awards.
He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1952 to 1957. As well as his book illustrations, he painted portraits and murals. His artwork has been widely exhibited and is in several important collections. Before Lanark, he had plays performed on radio and TV.
His writing style is postmodern and has been compared with those of Franz Kafka, George Orwell, Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino. It often contains extensive footnotes explaining the works that influenced it. His books inspired many younger Scottish writers, including Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, A.L. Kennedy, Janice Galloway, Chris Kelso and Iain Banks. He was writer-in-residence at the University of Glasgow from 1977 to 1979, and professor of Creative Writing at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities from 2001 to 2003.
Gray was a civic nationalist and a republican, and wrote supporting socialism and Scottish independence. He popularised the epigram "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation" (taken from a poem by Canadian poet Dennis Leigh) which was engraved in the Canongate Wall of the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh when it opened in 2004. He lived almost all his life in Glasgow, married twice, and had one son. On his death The Guardian referred to him as "the father figure of the renaissance in Scottish literature and art".
He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1952 to 1957. As well as his book illustrations, he painted portraits and murals. His artwork has been widely exhibited and is in several important collections. Before Lanark, he had plays performed on radio and TV.
His writing style is postmodern and has been compared with those of Franz Kafka, George Orwell, Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino. It often contains extensive footnotes explaining the works that influenced it. His books inspired many younger Scottish writers, including Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, A.L. Kennedy, Janice Galloway, Chris Kelso and Iain Banks. He was writer-in-residence at the University of Glasgow from 1977 to 1979, and professor of Creative Writing at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities from 2001 to 2003.
Gray was a civic nationalist and a republican, and wrote supporting socialism and Scottish independence. He popularised the epigram "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation" (taken from a poem by Canadian poet Dennis Leigh) which was engraved in the Canongate Wall of the Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh when it opened in 2004. He lived almost all his life in Glasgow, married twice, and had one son. On his death The Guardian referred to him as "the father figure of the renaissance in Scottish literature and art".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews
May 24, 2018
Blending surrealism with absurdist comedy Alasdair Gray manages to create a unique mythology starting from the modern times and all down through the ages…
So in the brilliant Comedy of the White Dog Alasdair Gray boldly and vividly fills this hiatus in the world folklore. He also bravely fills up blank pages of history of empires, destiny of ancient gods and biblical myths…
So emperors have their hard times too… even if it all happens in their dreams.
The serpent was so magnanimous presenting us with a free will, the only thing left to us is to learn how to use it correctly.
“Well known references to the white dog occur in Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’, in Chaucer’s unfinished ‘Cook’s Tale’, in the picaresque novels of the Basque poet Jose Mompou, and in your Scottish Border Ballads. Nonetheless, the white dog is the most neglected of European archetypes, and for that reason perhaps, one of the most significant. I can only account for this neglect by assuming a subconscious resistance in the minds of previous students of folk-lore, a resistance springing from the fact that the white dog is the west-European equivalent of the Oedipus myth.”
So in the brilliant Comedy of the White Dog Alasdair Gray boldly and vividly fills this hiatus in the world folklore. He also bravely fills up blank pages of history of empires, destiny of ancient gods and biblical myths…
…the emperor slept and was assaulted by horrible nightmares. He was among slaves killing each other in the circus to the wild cheering of the citizens. He saw his empire up on edge and bowling like a loose chariot-wheel across a stony plain. Millions of tiny people clung to the hub and to the spokes and he was among them. The wheel turned faster and faster and the tiny people fell to the rim and were whirled up again or flung to the plain where the rim rolled over them. He sobbed aloud, for the only truth in the world seemed to be unending movement, unending pain.
So emperors have their hard times too… even if it all happens in their dreams.
Genesis shows the Satanic snake flattering our first mother with falsely gorgeous hopes until, by the filching of an apple and breaking of a law, sin, sadness and new knowledge all enter the world together, the fall of man being a fall into knowledge of his own wilful divisions from Goodness.
The serpent was so magnanimous presenting us with a free will, the only thing left to us is to learn how to use it correctly.
September 15, 2022
The best of these, such as The Comedy of the White Dog and The Great Bear Cult, are absurdly playful and covertly humorous. This is Gray is at his best. However, many lack that key ingredient, feeling dry and, shall we say, less than entertaining. As with Lanark one gets the sense that Gray wrote these stories exclusively for himself, as a kind of outpouring directly from his mind onto the page with few filters or sense of how it would land with an audience. That can be a great recipe when it works.
October 4, 2008
I'd honestly never heard of Alasdair Gray until recently, when I saw his unique art staring out at me from the shelf of the library. I took it and flipped through; it was filled with Gray's illustrations, and with idiosyncratic typography. Reading the first few stories, I saw that this nicely framed his writing style, which in this collection at least makes the odd and fantastic--sometimes the startlingly, unthinkably weird--seem downright normal. A chance remark made one afternoon that literally shatters the planet; charts comparing a mundane duck with a certain Mr. Vague McMenamy's "Improved Duck"; the startling continuation of a pagan fertility ritual in a modern Scottish suburb; the script of a BBC documentary on the "bear cult" that you may or may not remember sweeping Britain in the early 1930s; these are the sort of things one encounters in Gray's stories.
I ordered a used copy as soon as possible, and took it with me to read on a train trip. That weekend my friends and I spent an entire night reading to each other from the book, taking turns reading a short story aloud, or making attempts at translating "Logopandocy", a text that I can best describe as "oddly shaped" and parts of which claim to have been eaten by mice.
There are books best read by oneself in a comfortable chair while rain pounds on the windows, or by the fireplace in a snowstorm, or on the beach in the heat of summer. Focus on Gray's illustrations and design sensibilities at times like those; the stories, I've found, are best appreciated loudly, while pacing up and down in a performance with friends.
I ordered a used copy as soon as possible, and took it with me to read on a train trip. That weekend my friends and I spent an entire night reading to each other from the book, taking turns reading a short story aloud, or making attempts at translating "Logopandocy", a text that I can best describe as "oddly shaped" and parts of which claim to have been eaten by mice.
There are books best read by oneself in a comfortable chair while rain pounds on the windows, or by the fireplace in a snowstorm, or on the beach in the heat of summer. Focus on Gray's illustrations and design sensibilities at times like those; the stories, I've found, are best appreciated loudly, while pacing up and down in a performance with friends.
July 13, 2010
Unlikely Stories, Mostly is stressfully sandwiched between Lanark & 1982 Janine in the Gray oeuvre, and meets the expectations of neither masterwork. The best stories date from his time in obscurity. In pieces like ‘The Comedy of the White Dog’ and ‘The Great Bear Cult’ his voice is playful and surreal. These are charming little satires and fables, taking up about one quarter of the book. ‘M. Pollard’s Prometheus’ is among the more engaging stories written close to publication.
Unfortunately, the collection is heavily weighed down by ‘Five Letters From an Eastern Empire,’ an attempt at an epistolary socialist fable. Even worse is ‘Sir Thomas’s Logopandocy’ which takes the postmodern typography from Lanark and stretches it to the apex of the mundane. It satirises a historical document and a pre-war Scottish blustering style, but is far too indulgent for even the most patient reader.
This leaves ‘The Origin of the Axletree’ (printed in two parts). This story is similar to his 1994 novel The History Maker with its fabulist, dry-as-dust storytelling. The problem is that Gray rarely blends entertainment with the serious business of building nations and letcuring on politics, and this story fails to match the artwork in terms of content. Having said this, I can think of no other writer who designs his books with the care, attention and dazzle of Mr. Gray. A shame often the books themselves are such a letdown.
Unfortunately, the collection is heavily weighed down by ‘Five Letters From an Eastern Empire,’ an attempt at an epistolary socialist fable. Even worse is ‘Sir Thomas’s Logopandocy’ which takes the postmodern typography from Lanark and stretches it to the apex of the mundane. It satirises a historical document and a pre-war Scottish blustering style, but is far too indulgent for even the most patient reader.
This leaves ‘The Origin of the Axletree’ (printed in two parts). This story is similar to his 1994 novel The History Maker with its fabulist, dry-as-dust storytelling. The problem is that Gray rarely blends entertainment with the serious business of building nations and letcuring on politics, and this story fails to match the artwork in terms of content. Having said this, I can think of no other writer who designs his books with the care, attention and dazzle of Mr. Gray. A shame often the books themselves are such a letdown.
September 11, 2022
Es un libro precioso. Tiene joyas de cuentos pequeños, originales sátiras desternillantes y fantasías orientales tan refinadas que subyugan el ánimo lector, complementadas con dibujos y arabescos hechos por el propio autor, que le dan ese toque adicional. Para nada fácil, a algunos cuentos les perdí la pista entre tanta vuelta, pero tan bien escritos que igual se terminan disfrutando.
Acá mis favorit0s:
"La estrella": para empezar uno corto y mágico. Te das cuenta de lo que se te viene encima.
"La causa de algunos cambios recientes": de final sorprendente y magnitud planetaria
"La manivela que hizo la revolución": esta crónica del inventor del cigüeñal es muy buena, jajaja esos patos jajaa
"El gran culto al oso": una sátira de modas que desnuda la naturaleza humana e inserta el absurdo en la vida cotidiana. En formato documental excelente.
"Cinco cartas de un imperio oriental": lo mejor del libro. Me quedé atrapado en la melancolía del relato, en esos jardines orientales y política de poetas. Admirable narrativa.
"El nacimiento del eje / El final del eje": otra vuelta al mito de la Torre de Babel, con una segunda parte que ofrece potentes imágenes de progreso y caos.
"Prometeo": interesante discusión filosófica primigenia mezclada con amor y deseo.
Acá mis favorit0s:
"La estrella": para empezar uno corto y mágico. Te das cuenta de lo que se te viene encima.
"La causa de algunos cambios recientes": de final sorprendente y magnitud planetaria
"La manivela que hizo la revolución": esta crónica del inventor del cigüeñal es muy buena, jajaja esos patos jajaa
"El gran culto al oso": una sátira de modas que desnuda la naturaleza humana e inserta el absurdo en la vida cotidiana. En formato documental excelente.
"Cinco cartas de un imperio oriental": lo mejor del libro. Me quedé atrapado en la melancolía del relato, en esos jardines orientales y política de poetas. Admirable narrativa.
"El nacimiento del eje / El final del eje": otra vuelta al mito de la Torre de Babel, con una segunda parte que ofrece potentes imágenes de progreso y caos.
"Prometeo": interesante discusión filosófica primigenia mezclada con amor y deseo.
July 30, 2012
Alasdair Gray is, by his own oft-repeated admission, a terrible writer who has been committing not-very-likeable prose, drawings and other miscellanea to paper while tucked away in an obscure and tiny corner of the British Empire for several decades now. But then, Gray is also utterly unreliable, especially when talking about his own fiction—and, in fact, Unlikely Stories Mostly turns out to be quite entertaining after all. Parts of it are even brilliant.
This is an early collection of shorter work, published in 1984 but extending back to the 1950s. The pieces collected are wildly uneven in length and tone, but each is recognizably, uniquely Gray. His drawings infiltrate the text, and his typical typographical tricks, especially in "Logopandocy," the longest single story, must have driven the typesetters to drink here the way they did in Lanark, and the way they would in subsequent work.
Gray also leavens his stories with social commentary. Though "Logopandocy" ostensibly comes from the pen of Sir Thomas Urquhart in 1645 A.D., it carries sentiments that could, if orthographically updated, easily describe today's dupes of the one percent, those
Another strong story is Gray's meditation on the Tower of Babel, "The End of the Axletree." This one (along with its predecessor "The Start of the Axletree," also in this volume) is a fantasy that in its aggressive reimagining of an oft-told tale reminded me of Ted Chiang's "Tower of Babylon," about which Chiang wrote, "The characters may be religious, but they rely on engineering rather than prayer. No deity makes an appearance in the story; everything that happens can be understood in purely mechanistic terms. It's in that sense that—despite the obvious difference in cosmology—the universe in the story resembles our own." The same could be said of the Axletree.
My favorite story here, though, has to be "Five Letters from an Eastern Empire." The Emperor of this unnamed Empire has appointed a poet, Bohu (two poets, actually, but poor Tohu is not the focus) to write a poem "celebrating my irrevocable justice" (p.113). The society in which this command is given is, in detail, unlike any that has existed on Earth, and hence is Gray's fantasy—but each individual detail seems plausible, seems like something that a human society could have come up with. "Five Letters..." is therefore a work of sf as well, a speculative fiction, and the playing out of Bohu's assignment proceeds as inexorably as anything by Chiang or by George Orwell. The poem (for Bohu succeeds in his set task) is a powerful statement that does, in fact, speak to the Emperor's justice; the story as a whole is a creative tour de force.
Which is not to say that the rest of the book should be ignored. There are a couple of one-page stories (with illustration by Gray) that carry a sudden impact as well, for example. As an introduction to Alasdair Gray's style, Unlikely Stories Mostly functions quite well. Or, as it says on the back cover in a quote from "Col. Sebastian Moran,"
This is an early collection of shorter work, published in 1984 but extending back to the 1950s. The pieces collected are wildly uneven in length and tone, but each is recognizably, uniquely Gray. His drawings infiltrate the text, and his typical typographical tricks, especially in "Logopandocy," the longest single story, must have driven the typesetters to drink here the way they did in Lanark, and the way they would in subsequent work.
Gray also leavens his stories with social commentary. Though "Logopandocy" ostensibly comes from the pen of Sir Thomas Urquhart in 1645 A.D., it carries sentiments that could, if orthographically updated, easily describe today's dupes of the one percent, those
[...]who were perswaded to support the superiour stance by the usual publick lie: that the overexaltation of some would in time lead to the benefit and happiness of all[...]
—p.170
Another strong story is Gray's meditation on the Tower of Babel, "The End of the Axletree." This one (along with its predecessor "The Start of the Axletree," also in this volume) is a fantasy that in its aggressive reimagining of an oft-told tale reminded me of Ted Chiang's "Tower of Babylon," about which Chiang wrote, "The characters may be religious, but they rely on engineering rather than prayer. No deity makes an appearance in the story; everything that happens can be understood in purely mechanistic terms. It's in that sense that—despite the obvious difference in cosmology—the universe in the story resembles our own." The same could be said of the Axletree.
My favorite story here, though, has to be "Five Letters from an Eastern Empire." The Emperor of this unnamed Empire has appointed a poet, Bohu (two poets, actually, but poor Tohu is not the focus) to write a poem "celebrating my irrevocable justice" (p.113). The society in which this command is given is, in detail, unlike any that has existed on Earth, and hence is Gray's fantasy—but each individual detail seems plausible, seems like something that a human society could have come up with. "Five Letters..." is therefore a work of sf as well, a speculative fiction, and the playing out of Bohu's assignment proceeds as inexorably as anything by Chiang or by George Orwell. The poem (for Bohu succeeds in his set task) is a powerful statement that does, in fact, speak to the Emperor's justice; the story as a whole is a creative tour de force.
Which is not to say that the rest of the book should be ignored. There are a couple of one-page stories (with illustration by Gray) that carry a sudden impact as well, for example. As an introduction to Alasdair Gray's style, Unlikely Stories Mostly functions quite well. Or, as it says on the back cover in a quote from "Col. Sebastian Moran,"
"Too clever for its own good in parts, but otherwise a damned good read."
April 1, 2008
This book came to me after I mentioned that I liked book not about day-to-day life. Sometimes books for adults become so mundane, as if all we care to read about is love, sex and lies. Books for children on the other hand may be written on lies and a little love but are mostly immune to such problems, they may be untrue in our little world, not something you could see every day, but a whole new world that is true to itself and wonderful for it.
Unlikely Stories, Mostly on the other hand is not a children's book, written about things beyond our life, ideas and imagination, I found it wonderful.
This review is less about this book and more about my taste in general.
Unlikely Stories, Mostly on the other hand is not a children's book, written about things beyond our life, ideas and imagination, I found it wonderful.
This review is less about this book and more about my taste in general.
September 26, 2007
I think this author should have greater recognition. His works are semi-fantastic and quite imaginative, many stories are stylized as fables and dispatches from far away lands. But to describe does not do the work justice. He is original, fresh, and hard to pin down. I admire him a great deal.
Want to read
September 25, 2012I wish you could see this weird cover-it sold me on the book. I did not care was was inside the pages. Then I flipped the pages, and what strange illustrations delighted me! The cover has open skulls, with babies or cupids growing in them! This is awesome!!!!!
May 9, 2025
Dear Alasdair,
Col. Sebastian Moran accuses you of being "too clever for your own good." I can't help but sympathize with this impression, at least when it comes to your more abstruse parables. It isn't that your stories are hot air dressed in lavish attire, but that it, well...goddamn it Alasdair, you sure do make us work for it! At least all this work is not in vain. Funny that such strenuous labour of understanding is rewarded in your story-telling, especially considering your characters' struggle at length against the meritocracies that so govern and oppress the nameless masses. For, even though one of your character's shout "all this knowledge is useless and I love it!" it seems to me that the underlying theme of "Unlikely Stories, Mostly" is that established powers will do whatever they can to keep knowledge as useless as possible, to turn its "mastery into a mystery, cultivating a jargon which is never fully disclosed to the initiated."
Maybe the task you set the reader then is one of decoding the "jargon" of some of these texts as a kind of philosophical precondition for political revolution, a way of spelling out the complicated layers of the rapacious axletree at the base of our civilization. Or maybe, like your narrator of the story "Prometheus Unbound", they are examples of how so-called progressives can unconsciously participate in the corrupt discourses that construct the axletree and keep fuel in the machine.
My favourite story? Well I'd have to go with the most difficult one and the one I almost gave up on: Logopandocy. How thrilled I was at reaching that unexpected end with your hateful Thomas Urquhart in his search for the universal language that preceded the fall of Babel. Your imagined empires feel all too familiar, paralleling our own, your lies spun in order to spell the truth.
Also, your drawings are, as usual, so frightening and evocative. They fill me with a dark sensation while giving shape to some of your most obfuscating prose. There is nothing like them.
- Braden
Col. Sebastian Moran accuses you of being "too clever for your own good." I can't help but sympathize with this impression, at least when it comes to your more abstruse parables. It isn't that your stories are hot air dressed in lavish attire, but that it, well...goddamn it Alasdair, you sure do make us work for it! At least all this work is not in vain. Funny that such strenuous labour of understanding is rewarded in your story-telling, especially considering your characters' struggle at length against the meritocracies that so govern and oppress the nameless masses. For, even though one of your character's shout "all this knowledge is useless and I love it!" it seems to me that the underlying theme of "Unlikely Stories, Mostly" is that established powers will do whatever they can to keep knowledge as useless as possible, to turn its "mastery into a mystery, cultivating a jargon which is never fully disclosed to the initiated."
Maybe the task you set the reader then is one of decoding the "jargon" of some of these texts as a kind of philosophical precondition for political revolution, a way of spelling out the complicated layers of the rapacious axletree at the base of our civilization. Or maybe, like your narrator of the story "Prometheus Unbound", they are examples of how so-called progressives can unconsciously participate in the corrupt discourses that construct the axletree and keep fuel in the machine.
My favourite story? Well I'd have to go with the most difficult one and the one I almost gave up on: Logopandocy. How thrilled I was at reaching that unexpected end with your hateful Thomas Urquhart in his search for the universal language that preceded the fall of Babel. Your imagined empires feel all too familiar, paralleling our own, your lies spun in order to spell the truth.
Also, your drawings are, as usual, so frightening and evocative. They fill me with a dark sensation while giving shape to some of your most obfuscating prose. There is nothing like them.
- Braden
December 29, 2024
This man just doesn't miss
October 19, 2024
Very weird and hard to describe. It’s the author of Poor Things, which I now want to read, if that gives an idea of the sort of brain at work here. Absurd and interesting. I finished it, although there was some skimming, because I never quite knew where a story would go.
September 4, 2009
Laughed out loud at the erratum the second I opened the book and found myself smiling all through the first two stories.
1/5/09
Alistair Gray was recommended to me but not a specific title. I got half way into this and realized I had no idea wtf was going on, so I went on to read something else.
Does anyone prefer one of Gray's books over his others?
1/5/09
Alistair Gray was recommended to me but not a specific title. I got half way into this and realized I had no idea wtf was going on, so I went on to read something else.
Does anyone prefer one of Gray's books over his others?
November 28, 2018
Bought this years ago, probably on the strength of the art only, as I generally don't like short stories. Only now getting round to reading it, mostly to impress a man I was interested in who professed a love for Gray (I know... tragic...). Unfortunately, I found it mostly dull and confusing, and have not pursued the man in question. Maybe Lanark is better...?
April 15, 2024
Filmi çekilen Zavallılar- Poor Things sayesinde tanıştım Alasdair Gray ile... Dilimizde çok aa eseri basılmış, sağolsun @ecesuerenok kaptı getirdi Londra'dan. Hikaye okumayı pek sevmem, romancıyım ama deli bu adam yahu. Öyle güzel fantastik hikayeler kurguluyor, herşeyle öyle güzel dalga geçiyor, gerçek ile fantazi karışımını öyle güzel bir kıvamda tutturuyor ve kendi çizimlerii ile de beziyor ki, hikayeler bambaşka bir tat veriyor.
İtiraf: hikayenin birini (Sir Thomas's Logopandocy) hiç anlayamadım. Hem içerik hem de ingilizcesi sebebiyle. Ne kelimeler öyle,.her satırda.üç kere.sözlüğe bakarak okumak, Ders çalışır gibi bir emekle okumam gerekecekti, şu taşınma telaşında hiç canım çekmedi. Ayırdım, bir ara okuyacağım. #booklist #booksbooksbooks #bookworm #okumatutkusu #okumahalleri #okumalistesi #okumazamanı #okumagünlüğü #meltemgulsoy #meltemokuyor #meltemgülsoy #meltemthereader #bookworm
İtiraf: hikayenin birini (Sir Thomas's Logopandocy) hiç anlayamadım. Hem içerik hem de ingilizcesi sebebiyle. Ne kelimeler öyle,.her satırda.üç kere.sözlüğe bakarak okumak, Ders çalışır gibi bir emekle okumam gerekecekti, şu taşınma telaşında hiç canım çekmedi. Ayırdım, bir ara okuyacağım. #booklist #booksbooksbooks #bookworm #okumatutkusu #okumahalleri #okumalistesi #okumazamanı #okumagünlüğü #meltemgulsoy #meltemokuyor #meltemgülsoy #meltemthereader #bookworm
March 20, 2024
There's some bangers in here, and one which is surely some kind of elaborate practical joke. Dense, weird, with flashes of brilliance.
June 29, 2024
Gotta love the Scots, absolutely. Alasdair Gray was no mere sir Thomas Urquhart, he went one better, compiling a fake diary of that worthy. And he produced many more fine stories here - some read as a little dated, but then they span something like thirty years, so that would be unavoidable. Great imagination, the man had. And the parting wish? "Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation"? Heartbreakingly splendid.
March 5, 2025
Honestly very well written, I really like the author’s humour and language. I think short stories are just not my thing
January 10, 2022
El surrealismo de las historias a veces (pocas) me ha interesado y otras me ha aburrido soberanamente. Creía que me iba a gustar mucho más de lo que lo ha hecho al final, porque las primeras eran cortitas y e interesantes. Pero llega un punto en el que son páginas y páginas de desvaríos en las que me ha costado encontrar una motivación para seguir leyendo. Me he quedado más por el continente que por el contenido: las historias están bien presentadas y las ilustraciones son muy chulas. Pero desde luego ha sido un poco sufrimiento leerlo.
April 24, 2021
The stories are... Well, I don't really have an appropriate adjective. Quirky? No. Surreal? Not really. Kafkaesque... Well, he bases two of them off original ideas from Kafka but that doesn't really do it justice either. They're just very strange, all very different in style, using typography and pen drawings to great effect. Odd and unpredictable.
August 8, 2023
I find Gray's writing to be a mixture of the entertaining and the tedious, sometimes within the same story. He can be witty and interesting, but far too often he merely obtuse. Some of the stories are quirky hold the attention, while others are dreary and pointless. The design of the book and the assorted graphics in it are uniformly impressive, though.
February 24, 2009
This is by far the best of Gray's short story collections, provided you don't read the first story in the book, which is for babbies anyway. Also the 1984 King Penguin edition is the nicest.
June 23, 2014
Good short stories, mostly. Alasdair Gray's quirkiness and subversive wit shines through in this excellent collection of short stories.
November 7, 2025
"This book is a darkly hilarious parade of freaks and monstrosities".
The sentence above is true. But it falls desperately short as a useful representation of this collection. As a sentence, it's not enough, at all.
I read it first when I was 14. I have read it again, and again, and again. There's nothing else like it. I can't say it's beautiful. Rather it has a kind of magnificent, shockingly clever ugliness similar to that which a very occasional piece of modern art manages to pull off well enough to genuinely make me think.
Here - try this:
After a while he said: "Tell me your last dream."
The emperor said: "I never dream."
"How many tribes do you rule?"
"I rule nations, not tribes. I rule forty-three nations."
The saint said sternly, "Among the perimeter people a ruler who does not dream is impossible. And a ruler who dreams badly is stoned to death. Will you go away and dream well?"
The emperor stared and said, "Is that the best you can say to me?"
"Yes."
The emperor pointed at the builder and said, "Roll that thing aside. Let me out."
"No. You have not answered my question. Will you go away and dream well?"
"I cannot command my dreams!"
"Then you cannot command yourself. And you dare to command other people?"
The saint took a cudgel from the shadows and beat the emperor hard for a long time.
That passage comes from a story that - read alone - is, as far as I'm concerned, worth all five of the stars I have given this book. And that passage in italics is only one tiny piece, at the beginning of this disgustingly-yet-deliciously cynical satire, which in this collection ordered into two chapters, (though presented as two different stories), separated in the collection's order by three other monumental satirical works, whose purpose are clearly to be sandwiched between the "start" and "end" of "The Axletree" - which are, respectively, the titles of these two chapters/stories. Because the meaning of the sandwiched three would be SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT if they weren't sandwiched by the other two.
The Axletree stories are a parable. Or a an allegory. Or a fable. Or... something. It's impossible to say what. It's all very strange and deliberate. Reading it doesn't feel like reading. It feels like looking at a sculpture. That's the only way I can describe it.
"It's impossible to say what" is a phrase that will trip of the tongue quickly if ever one is asked to describe what "genre" Alasdair Gray writes in. "Fantasy", I suppose, is the closest, but it's quite ridiculous to try and encourage people to read Gray as if he is a fantasy writer, it's like saying MC Escher was a naturalist because some of his pictures contained ducks.
There is a story in this collection about ducks. Some of the illustrations of these ducks (produced by Gray) always struck me as oddly Escheresque. But Escher has never made me laugh out loud like Gray's illustrations have.
This is my favourite short story collection. It contains my favourite short story "The Cause of Some Recent Changes" which is my favourite story because the typography itself becomes part of the
story. The illustration at the end of the story is of someone chiselling the story's last paragraph out of rock.
A lot is said in literary criticism about the "author's voice". Gray's prose is a lightning conductor for his mind. His mind was seemingly a very peculiar thing and it can be felt - hovering just behind and beyond each sentence in these stories - but it blazes through in flashes of lightning-hot genius.
His prose is sharp and cold and it glitters with nasty-but-delicious ironies. It doesn't seem to age -by which I mean it tickles me the same way every time I read it.
Everyone should read this. It does things with words that shouldn't be possible.
The sentence above is true. But it falls desperately short as a useful representation of this collection. As a sentence, it's not enough, at all.
I read it first when I was 14. I have read it again, and again, and again. There's nothing else like it. I can't say it's beautiful. Rather it has a kind of magnificent, shockingly clever ugliness similar to that which a very occasional piece of modern art manages to pull off well enough to genuinely make me think.
Here - try this:
After a while he said: "Tell me your last dream."
The emperor said: "I never dream."
"How many tribes do you rule?"
"I rule nations, not tribes. I rule forty-three nations."
The saint said sternly, "Among the perimeter people a ruler who does not dream is impossible. And a ruler who dreams badly is stoned to death. Will you go away and dream well?"
The emperor stared and said, "Is that the best you can say to me?"
"Yes."
The emperor pointed at the builder and said, "Roll that thing aside. Let me out."
"No. You have not answered my question. Will you go away and dream well?"
"I cannot command my dreams!"
"Then you cannot command yourself. And you dare to command other people?"
The saint took a cudgel from the shadows and beat the emperor hard for a long time.
That passage comes from a story that - read alone - is, as far as I'm concerned, worth all five of the stars I have given this book. And that passage in italics is only one tiny piece, at the beginning of this disgustingly-yet-deliciously cynical satire, which in this collection ordered into two chapters, (though presented as two different stories), separated in the collection's order by three other monumental satirical works, whose purpose are clearly to be sandwiched between the "start" and "end" of "The Axletree" - which are, respectively, the titles of these two chapters/stories. Because the meaning of the sandwiched three would be SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT if they weren't sandwiched by the other two.
The Axletree stories are a parable. Or a an allegory. Or a fable. Or... something. It's impossible to say what. It's all very strange and deliberate. Reading it doesn't feel like reading. It feels like looking at a sculpture. That's the only way I can describe it.
"It's impossible to say what" is a phrase that will trip of the tongue quickly if ever one is asked to describe what "genre" Alasdair Gray writes in. "Fantasy", I suppose, is the closest, but it's quite ridiculous to try and encourage people to read Gray as if he is a fantasy writer, it's like saying MC Escher was a naturalist because some of his pictures contained ducks.
There is a story in this collection about ducks. Some of the illustrations of these ducks (produced by Gray) always struck me as oddly Escheresque. But Escher has never made me laugh out loud like Gray's illustrations have.
This is my favourite short story collection. It contains my favourite short story "The Cause of Some Recent Changes" which is my favourite story because the typography itself becomes part of the
story. The illustration at the end of the story is of someone chiselling the story's last paragraph out of rock.
A lot is said in literary criticism about the "author's voice". Gray's prose is a lightning conductor for his mind. His mind was seemingly a very peculiar thing and it can be felt - hovering just behind and beyond each sentence in these stories - but it blazes through in flashes of lightning-hot genius.
His prose is sharp and cold and it glitters with nasty-but-delicious ironies. It doesn't seem to age -by which I mean it tickles me the same way every time I read it.
Everyone should read this. It does things with words that shouldn't be possible.
January 14, 2024
In my opinion the best stories in this collection are those inspired by Kafka. Those were 'Five Letters From An Eastern Empire' recalled a poet laurettes letters describing the land he is in and his role. 'The Start Of The Axletree' and 'The End Of The Axletree' tell a story of a Tower of Babel-like structure and it's own catastrophic end. These were fascinating and wide in scope.
I found it quite interesting to read the Kafka stories mentioned in the acknowledgements of this book. I found the Willa & Edwin Muir translations the best, which I believe are the versions Gray read. There seems to be something in them that is similar to Gray's style.
I loved 'The Crank Who Started The Revolution' a tale of an industrious man who started the Industrial Revolution by experimenting with ducks and his grandmother.
Two stories I didn't get were 'Prometheus' and 'Logopandocy'. I had no idea what most of Logopandocy was about but enjoyed the stuff about a universal language (again Tower of Babel) and Urquhart's travels. I see that that story isn't well liked among comments here, but I still enjoyed it.
The lesser stories were those at the start and end. My copy also lacked the story 'A Unique Case'.
As usual, throughout the book are illustrations. I particularly liked the ducks and serious looking men and those illustrations in 'Prometheus' and the Axletree stories.
I loved the comedy in these stories and references to the Hebrew Bible and other literature. Alasdair Gray's imagination is boundlessly entertaining. I have purchased Gray's Complete Stories and will be onto that in time!
I found it quite interesting to read the Kafka stories mentioned in the acknowledgements of this book. I found the Willa & Edwin Muir translations the best, which I believe are the versions Gray read. There seems to be something in them that is similar to Gray's style.
I loved 'The Crank Who Started The Revolution' a tale of an industrious man who started the Industrial Revolution by experimenting with ducks and his grandmother.
Two stories I didn't get were 'Prometheus' and 'Logopandocy'. I had no idea what most of Logopandocy was about but enjoyed the stuff about a universal language (again Tower of Babel) and Urquhart's travels. I see that that story isn't well liked among comments here, but I still enjoyed it.
The lesser stories were those at the start and end. My copy also lacked the story 'A Unique Case'.
As usual, throughout the book are illustrations. I particularly liked the ducks and serious looking men and those illustrations in 'Prometheus' and the Axletree stories.
I loved the comedy in these stories and references to the Hebrew Bible and other literature. Alasdair Gray's imagination is boundlessly entertaining. I have purchased Gray's Complete Stories and will be onto that in time!
May 2, 2023
Alasdair Gray is an author new to me (which says nothing against Mr. Gray and everything against me) who I like, but also hate (the story 'Sir Thomas's Logopandocy' is one of the most awful things I have encountered in recent years). There is vast imagination and humour, I particularly loved his two stories which encompass the beginning and end of 'The Axletree' (of course that means nothing but I won't spoil anything by trying to explain), but overall he is a writer I wished that I liked and appreciated more. Maybe I am just culturally unattuned to the nuances of his stories. I honestly think he is an author that you would do well to sample - I don't regret it and will sample more of his work at a later date but for now I must report that while there were stories in this collection I loved there were also those that left me cold. That I retain such a high opinion of the author and his work possible speaks more loudly of what is good in him and it then anything I can say.
June 14, 2025
I enjoy reading a collection of short stories and seeing if there are any thematic connections between them. For this book what I took was that arrogance/greed will without fail ruin whatever is going on in the short story. A few standouts for me are the stories about the little boy with the marble shaped star, the weird one about the dog who steals wives, and the one about the inventor who never realizes his full potential. Unfortunately the more uninteresting stories happened to be the longer ones, such as the ones about the bear cult and the five letters from the eastern empire. While I actually really liked the creativity of the stories about the axleteee, those ones also just dragged out and couldn’t keep my attention for too long. Overall weird but still a semi-enjoyable read
December 27, 2020
prachtig prachtig prachtige verhalenbundel met de meest uiteenlopende etsen als illustraties. de sfeer deed beetje aan zoals roald dahl maar dan nog meeslepender? magischer? merkwaardiger! echt fenomenaal mooie kleine wereldjes geschept: een uitvinder van een eendenpaddelboot als begin van de industriële revolutie, een gevallen stersteen die de bezitter betovert, een koningkrijk met wel heel anders opgedeelde prioriteiten (we bouwen een toren! tot het oneinde!) ja ik ben FAN. prachtig.
January 21, 2024
I have a weird feeling of vertigo after reading these short stories, probably an effect of reading about the axletree?
Reading the Postscript certainly shed some light, but I like that mostly the stories are left open to interpretation, hilarious & often quite unsettling in the most curious way.
The artwork certainly enhanced the stories & made it such a unique reading experience.
Reading the Postscript certainly shed some light, but I like that mostly the stories are left open to interpretation, hilarious & often quite unsettling in the most curious way.
The artwork certainly enhanced the stories & made it such a unique reading experience.
April 11, 2024
Yo vi Poor Things y me voló la cabeza. La fotografía, las actuaciones, todo me pareció increíble. Y los diálogos eran raros, pero toda la película es fucking rara así que tenía sentido.
No leí el libro porque no lo encontré.
Pero tenía este libro de cuentos y pensé, bueno, dale, vamos a ver qué onda Gray.
Vean Poor Things.
Esto es inleíble.
No leí el libro porque no lo encontré.
Pero tenía este libro de cuentos y pensé, bueno, dale, vamos a ver qué onda Gray.
Vean Poor Things.
Esto es inleíble.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 67 reviews