Rating: 
Summary: Fabulously good read
Review: If there's any justice, this will be made into a movie. Done right, it will have the same sort of humor that Trainspotting or the Roddy Doyle trilogy (The Commitments/The Snapper/The Van) had when they were transitioned to film. Some of the scenes are just screaming to be played out on screen!It did take a bit to get used to the language, but I felt that Warner captured the essence of Scottish schoolgirls pretty well, and the venture to the big city (Edinburgh, obviously) brought back some memories of my own. This did convince me that I need to check out his other books. This one had a few laugh out loud moments, but also presented the interrelationships of this group of girls splendidly.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Amazing!!!
Review: If this isn't the best novel out of Europe this year, I'll eat my hat. This would make a hell of a movie! The characters are real, the plot develops with amazing skill, and it's as raunchy and side-splittingly funny as anything Irvine Walsh has done. The drunken debauchery and fun-crazed attitude of the teenage heroines of this story will make your eyes pop. Flaming zambucas and a large tray of tequila shots all round!
Rating: 
Summary: Irreverent Scottish Youth
Review: My first Warner novel, it's taken me quite a while to get through it. The book is written in dialect, which I usually hate, but it's done so well here that I can't imagine the story without the dialog/dialect interwoven through it. Having said that, I feel that b/c of the intensity of the dialect, I had some trouble adequately distinguishing the female characters from eachother. This is a novel by a young Scottish author, who is (I assume), writing outside mainstream UK establishmentarian literary circles. The author gives us some insight into Catholic high schools, and into Scottish societies in general.
Rating:
Summary: Girl power.... if there is such a thing!
Review: Not a book on opera, definitely! But a book on life, sex, questions,religion, booze and the depressing landscapes of Scotland. Definitely much different than Morvern Callar, but it stays with you just the same. The best scene has to be the one with the Yankee tourists in the toilets -not sth to show back home! All the girls are hilarious and real towards what they feel and experience - a nice change from all the misery of youngsters gone astray... An excellent handling of language and a poisonous sense of humour. An excellent read thegether (as the author himself might say....)
Rating:
Summary: Bittersweet
Review: Scotland's Alan Warner is one of the best and most original writers atwork today. The only reason I gave this, this third book, four starsinstead of five is because his two previous, Morvern Callar and TheseDemented Lands were so much better.From the title, you might thinkthis book has to do with the opera world. Hardly. It concerns thefifth-form sopranos at Our Lady of Perpetual Succor School for Girlsin the Scottish village of Port. the plot concerns a day trip thegirls (Orla, Kylah, Chell, Manda and Fionnula) are making from theirsmall village school to the city for the national singing finals.While these girls are superior sopranos with beautiful voices, theyreally don't give a hoot about music or the singing competition.These five girls are completely focused on their free afternoon in thecity where they fully intend to prowl the local pubs for attractiveprospects among the opposite sex.A local McDonald's provides theplace to shed their school uniforms and don the sexy outfits theyconsider more fitting. Somehow, Warner gets the descriptions of theclothes exactly right, even down to the girls' underwear. With theirmakeup and nail polish applied, the girls head off, some directly tothe pubs, some to buy CDs, etc., before meeting again for rehearsalwith Sister Condron.The book is written in dialect and that takes alittle getting used to, but not much. It would, in fact, havesuffered greatly had Warner not written in dialect. The dialogue hasa perfect air of authenticity about it: this is exactly what naughtygirls at Catholic schools do and say when the Sisters' are occupiedelsewhere.The outcome of the singing competition comes as nosurprise and the girls are exhilarated. They head to the town's localdisco, The Mantrap, where they manage to fill the night with slowdances with a group of submariners from the nuclear submarine that hasjust anchored in the bay. Here, too, Warner captures perfectly, thethoughts and feelings of Catholic school girls. In fact, he may havecaptured them a little too perfectly; we feel almost like voyeurs.Dawn finds the girls gathered for breakfast at the local stationbuffet "none appearing much worse for wear."These are notwealthy boarding school girls. Just the opposite. They are frompoor, working-class families, something that makes their situation inthe book all the more poignant and bittersweet. This is it. Youth isreally all these girls have. None of them really has much hope ormuch of a chance of escaping the grim and bleak future their parents'are now living.The book is not perfect. In a story told byFionnula, she resurrects characters from Warner's two previous novels.This story has a distinct feeling of simply being tacked on (as wellas being a little too reminiscent of Trainspotting) rather than beingan integral part of the story of the sopranos and their day in thecity. The girls' story is good enough as it is; we didn't need to bereminded of anything else.The plot in this book is obviously morecontrived than in Warner's first two novels and, at times, it borderson the preposterous. And, while the girls are almost perfectlycharacterized, Orla's actions sometimes ring a bit unbelievable. Herdesires, especially her sexual desires, are just a bit toosophisticated for a seventeen year old girl who is battling cancer.Still, Warner has done a next-to-perfect job in his creation of thefive girls who make up the sopranos.The Sopranos is definitely acommercial book, but commercial doesn't have to mean bad, especiallynot when it's as well-written as this one is. Morvern Callar,however, is still Warner's most memorable and unique character andThese Demented Lands is his tour de force to date, a book that was soheady and surreal it seems almost impossible to top. While TheSopranos is extremely well-written and is, by turns, funny, sad,comic, hilarious and tragic, it is a book that fails to reach thestatus achieved by his previous two. Warner is such a wonderful andpolished writer, though, that top them he will. In time.
Rating:
Summary: Lives of Wild Desperation
Review: The most recent, and probably most entertaining of Warner's three books (see also Morven Callar and These Demented Lands) set in a small town on the Scottish coast, it's probably also the least demanding read and most self-conciouslessly commercial of them. Warner shares two stylistic forms with his more famous countryman, Irvine Welsh: ultra-realistic dialogue with a rhythm and vocabulary all its own, and a tendency to write in fragments, scenes, and flashbacks to build the overall narrative. As in his previous books, the narrative here is about the oppressiveness and boredom of youth living in a small town. The book chronicles the adventures of six foul-mouthed, bawdy, and misbehavin' teenage Catholic choir girls as they take a day trip to Edinburgh to compete in a nationwide choral competition. Released to the big city the girls set sights on booze, clothes and men--with mostly predictable results, rendered in enjoyable episodes by Warner. Fun stuff, but the underlying air of desperation to grasp a good time, makes this more than a mere mildly titillating romp with youth. The dull fate that inescapably awaits these girls in adulthood make this a poignant and memorable tale.
Rating:
Summary: Twisted and Wonderful
Review: The Sopranos, Alan Warner's exploration of the lives of several teenage girls in the big city is fantastic. The young women explore the grimy underside of life--barhopping, getting picked up by sleazy older men--while maturing in the process. One must face an unwanted pregnancy, while another, the truth about her sexuality. The six girls we follow have a depth of true to life emotions that they must handle. Because of their youth, all mishandle, in some way or other, these emotions. The writing here is fabulous--funny, exhuberant and energetic. The young women are all completely believable. This book will definitely transport you to the insecurities and the excitement of being young, thinking you can conquer the world. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Twisted and Wonderful
Review: The Sopranos, Alan Warner's exploration of the lives of several teenage girls in the big city is fantastic. The young women explore the grimy underside of life--barhopping, getting picked up by sleazy older men--while maturing in the process. One must face an unwanted pregnancy, while another, the truth about her sexuality. The six girls we follow have a depth of true to life emotions that they must handle. Because of their youth, all mishandle, in some way or other, these emotions. The writing here is fabulous--funny, exhuberant and energetic. The young women are all completely believable. This book will definitely transport you to the insecurities and the excitement of being young, thinking you can conquer the world. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful and poignant
Review: This is a gem of a book, and as others have noted, will make a great film. Warner's use of dialect in the novel is much more accessible than that of his countrymen James Kelman and Irvine Welsh. It's necessary, and not overdone. The Sopranos are a vivid, believeable collection of Catholic schoolgirls from the west coast of Scotland. They are lusty, naughty, loving, hating, ambivalent, caring, violent, sad--yet with a will to keep going. They're like high school kids the world over in the turn of the millenium... you'll love them, they'll shock you. You'll see girls just like them in New York and Tokyo and Paris and know they're similar in so many ways. Definitely a worthwhile read...
Rating:
Summary: An excellent novel
Review: This is one of the few books which I have actually gone back and read again and again. I never get tired of the situations and each time the book gets funnier. This is, in my opinion, without a doubt Mr Warners best novel to date. Excellent.
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