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I believe 'Poor Things' is a remarkable piece of work. This story is truely a brilliant original, which I like. To anyone fond of strange unique books, take a venture into Alasdair Gray's 'Poor Things' and find out for yourself why Scottish novelists can write like no-other.
Here is the plot as giving on the back of the book:
"What strange secret made rich, beautiful, tempestous Bella Baxter irresistible to the poor Scottish medical student Archie McCandless? Was it her mysterious origin in the home of his monstorus friend Godwin Baxter, the genius whose voice could perforate eardrums? This story of true love and scientific daring whirls the reader from the private operating-theatres of late-Victorian Glasgow through aristocratic casinos, low-life Alexandria and a Parisian bordello, reaching an interrupted climax in a Scottish church "
Basically the novel is about -- without giving too much away -- one of these cliché men. The kind of men who would seclude themselves from the social ranks at school or university, taking full pride in researching something of thier own. We have all had the "privelage" of having these strange people in our class, those who would walk with thier face turned, avoiding eye contact with fear of turning to stone. He talks of how ironically, it was until he left that he noticed him. The previously darkened area where he would once sit was left for light to break. When he finds this man again, he realises the extent of which his genius reached: he was a Frankenstein of Scotland, creating not a monster but a beautiful creation named Bella Baxter. Medically speaking, this woman was as dead as they came, yet somehow Godwin Baxter found out the key to 'reserrection'. This is found out fairly early in the book, but all I shall tell, for when you read further there would be an element of dramatic-irony, which we don't need. This is not Romeo and Juliet.
anyway, read it.
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Alistair Gray is an excellent writer. Check out Lanark also.
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1982 janine - better on masturbation than "Portnoy's Complaint"
