Young Adam

Rating:
Summary: A Much Overlooked Author
Review: "Young Adam" was a suggested read by my reading partner. How he discovered Alexander Trocchi is beyond me. But I found his writing style, as well as his own outlook of the the world incredibly interesting.

Trocchi's works were said to have been exiled out of Scottish literature, along with Trocchi physically. His writings stretched to the outer limits of moral acceptability. Holding anti-establishment attitudes, a lack of "work ethics", and sexual promiscuity, Trocchi simply tells it as it is through his own philosophy, which allows the reader to concentrate on the story and examine the characters as they unfold. A strong narrative voice guides you through the events of this simple, yet thought provoking storyline.

The story is told by Joe, a barge worker, who shares quarters with Leslie, his wife Ella, and their son, which Joe often refers to as "the kid". The body of a dead woman is found floating in the river, and taken aboard the barge. As the story unfolds, the connection between the dead woman, the circumstances of her death, and two innocent men, caught between a rock and a hard place, nervously emerge and come together. Lingering in the back of your mind, the question of fate or freedom for either of these men.

The question this story evoked in my mind was simply, "What would I do if I were in this man's position?" You will "walk a mile" in Joe's shoes in "Young Adam" But it still leaves this question unanswered.

Read "Young Adam" and see if you can discover a solution to this moral dilemma. I tip my hat to you Alexander Trocchi, ya done good!!!

Rating:
Summary: I must admit...
Review: ...that I purchased this book because a movie adaptation starring Ewan Mcgregor is currently in the works... I had never even heard of Alexander Trocchi before reading this (his first novel, originally published in 1954). The story is relatively simple; it is told from the viewpoint of Joe, the hired hand on a barge that traverses the Clyde river between Glasgow and Edinburgh. One morning (on page 2), he pulls the body of a woman out of the river, and that event sets the story in motion. This is really a character driven narrative and I found it very easy to relate to Joe and his environment, even though I am 50 years and about 6000 miles removed from it. As the story progresses, and more and more about Joe's past is gradually revealed, the book becomes quite engrossing. Trocchi has a way of taking incredibly mundane experiences and describing them using the most beautiful, flowing prose...I can't understand why more people aren't familiar with this author's work as he's easily in the same league as Bukowski and Burroughs... Overall, I highly recommend this book and I can't wait to read more of Trocchi's work!

Rating:
Summary: A hidden treasure
Review: I cant remember what made me pick Young Adam off the shelf and what made me by it, certainly I had not heard of Alexander Trocchi and had no idea what to expect. From the first page it was clear to me that I had stumbled accross a unique and highly talented author. Told from the perspective of a drifter working the canals and waterways of 1950's Scotland, the story begins with the body of a young woman being retrieved from the water, and the bleakness and realism of the writing style, married with a coldness of the protaganist was at once engaging and highly readable. The story is full of moments of sexual intimacy which are powerful in their realism and the whole book is an unsentimental glimpse into the mind of a man who see's himself as an outsider. The story unwinds simply and effectively asking more questions than it ever answers and is beautifuly sparse and uncomplicated. I have since learned of Trocchi's own alienation from the Scottish literary canon and this explains his obsucrity but i would recommend anyone to read young Adam it stands the test of time and is engaging throughout.

Rating:
Summary: The Scottish Beatbox
Review: The Pete Best of the Beat generation, Trocchi ran with Ginsberg, Burroughs, et al, but never achieved their lasting fame. He paid the bills by writing pornographic works, but this brief novel--while certainly sexual--is cut of a different cloth, and is invariably compared to the Camus masterpiece "The Stranger". Written fifty years ago, the simple story is told by Joe, an itinerant worker who works on a barge that hauls coal and other loads between Glasgow and Edinburgh. He lives on board with the meaty ex-sailor, his solid wife Ella, and their child. The book opens with their discovery of a woman's corpse floating in the water, a woman who is somehow linked to Joe. After reporting it to the police, they continue on their way, and over the next several days Joe discovers that he is attracted to Ella. However, after the initial excitement of their affair it doesn't take long for him to become bored with her. Indeed, that's Joe's problem in general, as he states two-thirds of the way into the book: "It has always been that way with me as far as I can remember. I am a rootless kind of man. Often I find myself anxious to become involved with other people, but I am no sooner involved than I wish to be free again."

Of course, what that means is that he is unable or unwilling to form emotional attachments with people, and ends up hurting them in one way or another. As his and Ella's story wends to its obvious conclusion, a man is arrested for the murder of the floating woman. The tension mounts as Joe worries whether or not his relationship to her will come to light. In the end he is presented with a very difficult ethical choice and makes the same decision most of us would in his shoes. Indeed, for all his self-professed status as an outsider, he still works when he has to, and manages to act quite in line with the established patriarchal sexual modes. In perhaps the books most memorable scene, Joe recounts how an argument with a girlfriend led to his sexual assault of her using household food products ("I didn't know whether she was laughing or crying"), only to end with "I felt her arms close about me and she kissed me on the lips." By the end, it's a little hard to know what to make of the story, and it's not at all clear that Joe is a particularly reliable narrator. Of potential interest to those interested in expanding their knowledge of the beat writers or of modern Scottish literature, but unlikely to move others. Recently made into a film starring Ewan MacGregor that is reputed to be quite faithful to the book.

Rating:
Summary: Young Stranger
Review: While Trocchi's take on alienation has more than a few parallels to Camus' "The Stranger", the landscape and characters provoke a more visceral reaction. Amazing that most people only know Trocchi's pornographic material - this version has been edited to reflect his original story.

Rating:
Summary: Young Stranger
Review: While Trocchi's take on alienation has more than a few parallels to Camus' "The Stranger", the landscape and characters provoke a more visceral reaction. Amazing that most people only know Trocchi's pornographic material - this version has been edited to reflect his original story.