This book... I don't know what to say about it, but I'm disappointed.
How Late it Was, How Late by James Kelman didn't really throw me off at first, like I know it did to many others. I appreciated the stream of consciousness, found the narrative voice refreshing, I thought all would be well. But then there was the plot... I actually want to use quotation marks around that, because was there a plot? Am I missing something?
Beyond my overall response, as I said, I did appreciate the narrative voice and writing style of Kelman, but as I continued to read, I found myself extremely annoyed. However, reading James Wood's New York Times article helped me appreciate what I found to be so annoying. My largest grievance of all was the repetition and the ruminations that seemed word-for-word in their redundancy. However, this sentence by James Wood made me think: "Because proximity of impersonation is his goal, he [Kelman] is unafraid of boredom, banality, digression, repetition, and verbal impoverishment". As I sat and thought about this, I began thinking - wow, Kelman really captured that internal monologue. It felt unfortunate to be privy to Sammy's inner thoughts, but I do see how what bothered me about the book, created the reality of Sammy. His thoughts weren't polished up nicely like we usually read in "inner monologues", instead they were honest and real. Wood mentions Kelman's characters don't escape in their thoughts, and I think that is largely what I've been exposed to in the cases of inner monologues. Wood also refers to Kelman's use of the "prison principle" in regards to Kelman's word choice: "The prison principle extends to Kelman's language - his habit of using and reusing a relatively small register of words..." Perhaps my boredom was extended due to a small sample of vocabulary but should I expect Sammy to be possessing that tool? No.
So, perhaps I didn't love the book and may not have "got it", but I can greatly appreciate what Kelman was doing with his writing, and I think his talent is one that should be appreciated - maybe the Rabbi should take another look.
It's nice of you to draw attention to that part of Wood's article about the functions of boredom and repetition. Indeed, if Sammy is a kinds of "product" of his circumstances as Tony and Wayne mention above, then can his narrative voice not be an extension of the monotonous experience of life in poverty? Maybe that's a way of thinking about Kelman's narrative style--as refusing us the escapism or transcendence that privileged literary readers look for, and forcing us to inhabit another realm entirely.
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