The Book of Man

by Barry Graham

Set in the Scottish Third World hidden inside the First, this novel takes a savagely uncompromising and unsentimental look at the true nature of love and friendship in a city that, like its troubled characters, has lost all its old certainties.

London-based writer and single father Kevin Previn returns to his native Glasgow after an absence of ten years, his homecoming prompted by the death of a friend and mentor, junkie writer Mike Illingworth, author of The Book of Man.

Previn believes he's trawling the streets of Glasgow in order to make sense of his old friend's troubled life and death - but he's on a personal journey, a quest to understand his own childhood brutalities, mental breakdown and lost loves, and the terrifying control the state can exert over the individual. Past and present become one as Previn discovers what he has really left behind.

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Barry Graham is what Foucault called an Author Function.

More than a dozen books.

Published in magazines including Harper's, Salon, Narratively, PANK, Northwords Now, Flaunt, Parabola, The Big Click and Nerve.

Reviews

[Tony Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barry Graham comes from that great generation of Scottish writers like Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, Gordon Legge and Duncan McLean - all names I admire and whose work I've enjoyed - but for some reason I came late to Graham's own output. The Book of Man was my first introduction and it carries a lot of the hallmarks of the ScotLit brigade: casual drug use; drifting, sofa-surfing characters; warts and all Scottish locations; biting scabrous humour and a deeply-felt pathos ... I was immediately at home with the characters and the depiction of Glasgow was recognisable to me. The story is told with a light touch - it's no mean feat to carry such a heavy message on such a delicate plot arc but Graham pulls it off. I'll be checking out more of this talented author's work right away ... can't quite understand how I missed him.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think a big reason I enjoyed this book is because it takes place in Glasgow, the city I currently live in. I recognized areas and attitudes within its pages that I encounter often, despite the action taking place decades before I lived here. Graham captures the working class atmosphere that still hovers over this city despite the changes that have taken place. It was interesting.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 3 out of 5]

A writer from Scotland where this novel is set. Friendships, class issues, family relationships, drugs--you wacky kids will probably like it.
saw him and Peter Plate speak here back when Incommunicado Press was still around. I remember the guy from the press pushing me to go get autographs...from the anarchist writer and Graham? I never understood how people involved in punk and anarchist related endeavors never seem to understand what it's all about.

[Jeremy Tolbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just fantastic writing about going home again.

[Sean Bradford · Rating 5 out of 5]

a grim portrait of a life flecked with the daily joys that keep one from being lost.