The papers of Tony Veitch
Registered by jawin of Launceston, Tasmania Australia on 4/7/2019
This book is in a Controlled Release!
This book is in a Controlled Release!
1 journaler for this copy...
William McIlvanney's 1983 novel The Papers of Tony Veitch was his second (of three) to feature the gritty maverick, Glasgow-based detective Jack Laidlaw.
Laidlaw once again travels the mean streets of Glasgow, trying to find Tony Veitch, a young student who may have killed an alcoholic vagrant and a criminal. Down and outs, titled ladies, and middle class students mingle with the hard men of the Glasgow underworld in ever-changing alliances as Laidlaw and Harkness, his sergeant, try to get at the truth of two, then three, deaths. There are seemingly no heroes in this world, not even Laidlaw himself, who is laid even more bare to the reader by Harkness's perceptions of him. In Laidlaw's world, heroes are older working class women who have held home and family together through depression, war, and overwhelming change in the world.
At first, I found the fact that much of the dialogue is in broad dialect really distracting. But once I tuned in, it faded into the background.
After a time I could hear these people speak in my head - hear the humour and the bravado and the aggression. He shows beautifully the odd mix of the Glaswegian character, with its kindness that must always be kept carefully hidden for fear of seeming soft. His villains are frighteningly hard without ever tipping over into caricature, and the ever-present threat of violence is chillingly believable.
‘ "Coulda made something o' himself. But a luckless man. All his days a luckless man. The kinna man woulda got two complimentary tickets for the Titanic.” The unintentional humour of her remark was like her natural appetite for life reasserting itself. Harkness couldn't stop smiling. It was as if Glasgow couldn't shut the wryness of its mouth even at the edge of the grave.’
Laidlaw is complex and multi-faceted but always believable.
Laidlaw once again travels the mean streets of Glasgow, trying to find Tony Veitch, a young student who may have killed an alcoholic vagrant and a criminal. Down and outs, titled ladies, and middle class students mingle with the hard men of the Glasgow underworld in ever-changing alliances as Laidlaw and Harkness, his sergeant, try to get at the truth of two, then three, deaths. There are seemingly no heroes in this world, not even Laidlaw himself, who is laid even more bare to the reader by Harkness's perceptions of him. In Laidlaw's world, heroes are older working class women who have held home and family together through depression, war, and overwhelming change in the world.
At first, I found the fact that much of the dialogue is in broad dialect really distracting. But once I tuned in, it faded into the background.
After a time I could hear these people speak in my head - hear the humour and the bravado and the aggression. He shows beautifully the odd mix of the Glaswegian character, with its kindness that must always be kept carefully hidden for fear of seeming soft. His villains are frighteningly hard without ever tipping over into caricature, and the ever-present threat of violence is chillingly believable.
‘ "Coulda made something o' himself. But a luckless man. All his days a luckless man. The kinna man woulda got two complimentary tickets for the Titanic.” The unintentional humour of her remark was like her natural appetite for life reasserting itself. Harkness couldn't stop smiling. It was as if Glasgow couldn't shut the wryness of its mouth even at the edge of the grave.’
Laidlaw is complex and multi-faceted but always believable.
Released at meeting at Launceston East Bowling Club
