Book Review | In Rural Scotland, a Gay Artist’s Difficult Homecoming
Life on the croft is as bleak as Cal had predicted, and his only solace is listening to his old music tapes.
After four years away at university in the city, art school graduate John-Calum Macleod, aka Cal, has to return to the family croft in the remote Isle of Harris. His grandmother Ella is unwell: Her heart is dodgy, and she confesses she has conversations with sheep. Besides, it is time, Cal’s father John firmly says.
Cal has mixed feelings. He has no money, no job, no accommodation, and is couch surfing in Edinburgh, so home would be more comfortable. On the other hand, Harris is a lonely place, his father is a strict, uncompromising man of god who does not shy away from using his fists on his son, so Cal can never be himself and confess that he’s gay, among other things. His mother left home when Cal was young, and the only warm and understanding person in that house is his maternal grandmother Ella, who brought him up. Much as she’s aware that she’s a good grandmother, Ella regrets that she was a terrible mother: “She had chosen her grandson over her daughter when the world was harder on women and when she had always known it to be so.”
Life on the croft is as bleak as Cal had predicted, and his only solace is listening to his old music tapes. His former best friend Doll gives him a hard time, his father is tough on him and sees him as his property, daily chores like looking after the sheep and weaving is thankless work (even though Cal knows that one day he will inherit the croft), and the fractious relationship between his father and grandmother makes life at home less than happy. However, though there is no joy to be found anywhere in this tight, conservative little community, this novel never flags. Never, not even once. It’s rich with people’s lives and thoughts and leavened with humour, and there’s so much to discover. Like, why did Cal’s mother leave his father? What are Ella’s biggest secrets? And what is it about gentle Innes, his father’s best and only friend? The harshness of the setting and the situations people find themselves in is offset by the sweetest tenderness ever. Stuart engages your emotions so masterfully, you’re completely immersed in Cal’s life. Like Cal, sometimes you hate his father, and sometimes you like him, but very often you feel sorry for pious and repressed John senior — even before you discover his deepest, darkest, most shameful secret.
Cal finally falls in love for the first time but his advances are politely rebuffed over and over again. He’s crushed, but there’s precious little time to dwell on his pain because life in Harris suddenly gets very hectic, almost to the point of melodrama. There are tragicomic situations, heart-breaking tragedies, and firm but shattering decisions are finally taken in this sleepy isle. If that weren’t tumultuous enough, fate then presents Cal with one chance to save his father. He’s very, very conflicted, will he take it?
John of John
By Douglas Stuart
Published by Pan Macmillan
pp. 400; Rs 899.
