Thursday 4 December 2008

Espedair Street by Iain Banks

A rather blokey read for me last night: Espedair Street by Iain Banks. This is the funny and sad tale of a geeky boy's rise to 70s rock stardom with ELP-style stage excesses, followed by his inevitable fall. The novel features lots of Glasgow/West of Scotland humour and local colour - look out for the beer-drinking dog. I did think, however, that the two girls in 1973 Paisley at the start would have said "def-in-ATE-ly" instead of "definItly" and I was crushed when the protagonist says that he had never heard of the Glasgow to Edinburgh slow train (THE way to travel across country, via Shotts!)

Day 57; Book 55