Well Breakfast of Champions got a little too directionless and weird for my liking, whilst the hilarity thinned out. I can’t help wondering if Kurt Vonnegut was completely out his box when he wrote that.
Enjoyed Slaughter House 5 much more.
So some more Rankin.
My Scots teacher of English friend had also recommended The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg. I dunno why though. I had stressed to him that I often find older texts difficult and nor do I ever find any convoluted style of wiring enjoyable.
This falls into the former having been first published in 1824. And one wonders how the heck Hogg even managed to get it published.
I ignored the introduction, got stuck in and was stumped after only 30 pages. This short novel comes with a 30 page introduction, a glossary of Scots words (though it is largely written in English so don’t let that put you off) and 24 pages of explanatory notes.
So, I selectively read the introduction, did some googling on the politics and religious friction of the time and tried again. I took it now as a challenge.
It is a fantastic and haunting book, a study of religious madness, schizophrenia perhaps, the memoirs of a serial killer in the Scottish borders at the beginning of the 1700’s.
If you love classic literature and gothic romantic fiction, it might be for you if you.
For me it was only the Covid19 lockdown that gave me the patience to wade through it.
Back to Rankin.
