| Amazon.com As part of the wave of new Scottish writing， Duncan McLean made a splash in the literary world with Bucket of Tongues and Bunker Man. His second novel， Blackden， is full of humor and beauty， a true find. It is the story of a weekend in the life of an 18-year-old. Paddy Hunter's mom is out of town， his mates are getting drunk， and all he can think about is girls， girls， girls. Paddy wants out of Blackden， the tiny highland village where he has lived his entire life， but sometimes the idea seems like a pipe dream. He's poor， his dad is dead， and his grandparents need him to deliver their dinner， as well as to make sure the heat has not gone out in their tiny shack. Dropping by on Friday night， Paddy hopes to get away quickly and get drunk， but instead his grandfather sits him down and tells him about the day a German plane crashed into the nearby hillside during the war: A big red hand of fire reaching up into the darkness， that's what it looked like. And then it came down. The hand came reaching down towards us， the fingers of the fire stretching out over the woods in all directions towards Ballogie， and setting the timber ablaze wherever it touched.... And nearer it came， nearer， the hand was closing in about us， your granny and me， it was closing its fingers tighter， tighter. The quality of his listening even as he dreams of beer is part of what redeems Paddy， what makes him stand out from the guys around him， a creepy bunch who like to make jokes about having sex with sheep and raping girls. Throughout the book， women respond to him in an almost maternal way， offering him rides， giving him free food at the pub. Through these gestures of kindness， we come to understand him from the outside， even as the novel is written solely (and masterfully) in his chattery， contagious first person. Infatuated with Shona， who is in love with her abusive boyfriend， Paddy rides around with her in the middle of the night and tries to talk reason into her， tries to tell funny jokes and get her to look at him instead. Inevitably she ends up going back for more abuse. In the remote and violent backwater of Blackden， Paddy is a gentle soul， a fatherless boy on the verge of becoming a man， on the verge of seeing past the horizon of the only place he has ever known. --Emily White From Publishers Weekly Set in the titular rural Scottish highland village of Blackden， McLean's kinetic novel examines the supernatural possibilities in a small town and in the complicated adolescence of observant narrator Patrick Hunter. "Paddy" is a fatherless， imaginative 18-year-old， left alone for a weekend while his emotionally unstable mother goes to visit his "brainy" sister， Helen， at university in Edinburgh. The boy is obliged to look after his fragile but loving grandparents， but he also has ample opportunity to exchange good-natured insults with his layabout mates and to cynically survey his provincial hometown. Paddy is hoping for romance with Shona Findlay， a local girl just returned from the outside world to work as a chef in the village pub. He's also drawn to her claim that she witnessed a gathering of witches in a nearby glade. Shona's occult yarn becomes Paddy's emotional outlet as he copes with his unstable home life and increasingly dismissive and disappointing friends. Eventually， he finds himself alienated from the community and agitated over unanswerable questions about witchcraft， smalltown legends and family legacies. Mired in his grandfather's eerie， phantasmic folklore， Paddy's conscious and unconscious fears overwhelm him， and his mind begins to unravel. Burning is a consistent metaphor here for the uncharted roads of adolescence， and the witches' gathering becomes a symbol for the locked gate through which Paddy must pass to gain access to the world beyond. "I want to get somewhere under my own steam for a change，" rants Paddy to his bewildered Aunt Heather， mingling a man's resolve and a child's fear. With a decidedly ambiguous ending， Scottish writer McLean (Bucket of Tongues) captures the ripe cadences of highland dialect， creating miasmic tension and a sturdy wit. In Paddy， he conveys the awful sensation of standing on the edge of something inevitable yet unknown. (Jan.) FYI: McLean's Bucket of Tongues won the 1993 Somerset Maugham award. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information， Inc. See all Editorial Reviews |
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