Electric Brae

You can tell that this is a young man's book - passionate, eclectic, clever, romantic - if I'd been 20 years younger I'd have fallen in love with the author or one of his characters - old before his time narrator Jimmy, unbalanced artist kim, political climber graham, and sexually ambiguous fighter Lesley. The book centres around and leads to a child; it keeps its secrets and relishes spinning them out, while leading the reader through 1980s Scotland, relishing its resistance to thatcher, its old ways, grand scenery and pointlessness. Well written, intricate, intriguing and emotional

A sympathetic novel about a group of friends and The Old Man of Hoy, a sea stack on Orkney. The friends move in and out of relationships with each other, lose touch, meet again and have problems and dramas. These friends are human and real. Climbing runs through the novel and Scotland is travelled through and present. I found the book occasionally wandered away and I lost interest but at other times the narrative was gripping. The reader moves from present to the past as events are revealed.

I love Greig's writing and couldn't wait to pick this up. With that kind of build up, it's asking a lot of a book to live up to the expectations. This book almost managed... almost. The prose was superb as ever, the plot had great moments - the end of the first book in particular really took me by surprise, although with hindsight, I should have seen it coming. Unfortunately, for me the characters and the implausibility let it down a bit. I couldn't understand the fuss about Kim - her magnetism didn't come across for me. The intertwined nature of the relationships also got a bit silly - Lesley and Tess? Graeme and Joan? In all, still worth a read, but I'd recommend 'That summer', 'In Another Light' or 'Romanno Bridge' ahead of this novel.

OK, so this may sound like damnation with faint praise, but this is the best novel I've read about climbing (including Simon Mawer's The Fall which I also enjoyed). I remember picking this up in a warehouse sale purely on the strength of the title and cover, but since then I have read and enjoyed more of Andrew Greig's novels, which were all interesting and well written, but this was the most enjoyable.