1982, Janine by Alasdair Gray
Under the cover of the 1st edition of 1982, Janine
Alasdair Gray’s best novel?
Alasdair always felt that 1982, Janine was his best novel. But his own synopsis of the story doesn’t make it sound particularly promising!
Audio transcript:
It’s the story of an aging, divorced, alcoholic supervisor of security installations who’s tippling in the bedroom of a small Scottish hotel. It’s a stream of consciousness… he’s been brooding and thinking about his past life and has come to the conclusion that his past life has been largely speaking a waste of time.
He’s engaged in a job he doesn’t like, but he can do it. And is kept going by keeping himself drinking and by sexual fantasies, which is all that’s left of his love life. But on the whole he’s disgusted and tired of them. And he has in fact a box of pills that he was given once by a chemist and that he thought he might use if he ever wanted to commit suicide. And he has eventually decided to take them.
Scroll down to hear the full version of Alasdair reading Galloping from 1982, Janine.
Truth and honesty
“I am glad I have said some things you feel. If I say enough things that you feel I may be some good.”
Alasdair sent Kat a copy of 1982, Janine as a birthday present when it was first published, with the hope that it wouldn’t upset her too much! And his response to her thank you letter (with its characteristically incorrect date) highlights what we value most about his work - his determination to try to understand and share something essential about our human experiences:
The letter Alasdair Gray sent with his present of 1982, Janine
“It contains a lot of stuff which shocked me as a wrote it, yet I felt I was right to put it down on paper. At the end I felt what Melville felt (or said he felt) after writing Moby Dick – ‘I have written a wicked book and feel as innocent as a lamb’.”
Invitation for the launch of 1982, Janine in London, April 1984
Alasdair’s reply to Kat’s thank you letter for 1982, Janine
Transcript of letter dated 3 March 1984 and sent with 1982, Janine:
39 Kersland St, Glasgow G12 8BP. 3 March 1984.
Dear Katrina,
What great news! I can think of nothing as good which could possibly befall our family, except Tracy getting on the board of directors of Imperial Chemicals. Thanks for telling me so soon. Enclosed is your birthday present for this year. I hope the book doesn’t upset you too much. I feel sure about it inside myself, but have one or two good friends who detest parts of it.
I’m sorry you can’t come to the publication party in Glasgow on the 12th. Could you come to the London one at lunchtime in Covent Garden on the 17th? There is also an evening reading on the 17th at the poetry society, Earls Court, and another the next day at the I.C.A. gallery, the Mall. I’m excited about the book because a lot of other folk are also. Jonathan Cape are already ordering a second printing, because the orders from booksellers have ensured the first printing is sold out before publication. So I’m delighted not to be the only one in the family to have good luck……….
Love from Alasdair (Uncle)
Transcript of Alasdair’s reply incorrectly dated 15 Feb 1984:
39 Kersland St, Glasgow G12 8BP. 15 Feb 1984.
Dear Katrina,
Thank you for your fan letter. I appreciated it. I only hope you like the rest of the book as much – I’m afraid you may be shocked by it. It contains a lot of stuff which shocked me as I wrote it, yet I felt I was right to put it down on paper. At the end I felt what Melville felt (or said he felt) after writing Moby Dick [underlined] – “I have written a wicked book and feel as innocent as a lamb.”
I had noticed that your feelings about how different levels of income are made to classify folk – and justify them, and condemn them, quite unfairly – are like my own. I am glad I have said some things you feel. If I say enough [underlined] things you feel I may be some good.
Heart-breaking inspiration
1982, Janine had a profound impact on many other creatives including our resident writer Anita:
“While I enjoyed and admired Lanark and the scale of Alasdair Gray’s imagination, I was also intimidated. 1982, Janine was different. I was compelled by the intensity of Jock’s enormous overnight journey in one tiny room. I loved the typographical storytelling, the movement between fantasy and real relationships, the astonishing Ministry of Voices, and a character making an active choice to die or live.
As someone who was doing way more theatre than studying, I totally connected with the Edinburgh festival section. And yes, the sexual powerplay is compelling. A fascinating distraction deferring the deeper story of Jock and Denny and Helen. It breaks my heart every time, and I have read Janine many more times than Lanark. It even ends with a chink of hope.”
Scrapbook reviews for 1982, Janine
1982, Janine was first published in 1984, shortly after Lanark and at the same time as Unlikely Stories Mostly. And unsurprisingly given the subject matter, the book divided critics just as it had divided Alasdair’s friends.
Select each book review to enlarge it. Or use this link to read a transcript of the opening and closing paragraphs and get a flavour of each critic’s response.
Glasgow rag-day
“Then the typography goes less wild than artfully chaotic, with marginal comments, some of them upside down, which make the Triv and Quad chapter of Finnegan’s Wake seem like Enid Blyton.”
Anthony Burgess, Sunday Observer, April 1984
Scots Gray
“There is no sense of arch pretension or post-neo-postist fraud about him at all. His fictions seem easily to inhabit all possible literary worlds, potent hybrids in a class of their own.”
William Boyd, April 1984
Sex and the dying Scotsman
“Lanark is the work of a very powerful and sustained imagination…. The same mind and the same uncompromising vision animate 1982 Janine. …the new novel, like some of the later short stories, marks the development of a superbly controlled and effective prose style.”
Isobel Murray, The Scotsman, April 1984
The artist exposes the zealot
“Alasdair Gray has been called a successor to Joyce but he provides no Molly Bloom. His women are a series of long masturbatory fantasies, a series of sexual power games which keep poor Jock company through a night in a soulless, small hotel bedroom.”
Jane McLaughlin, April 1984
Alasdair reads Galloping from 1982, Janine
In 2019 Kat created a series of recordings with Alasdair reading and talking about his own books and other favourites. This is the full version of him reading from 1982, Janine.
You can listen to all the recordings on our YouTube channel and see a short video of Alasdair reading for this one. And you can find out more about the story behind them in Conversational inspiration.
Alasdair reads his own choice of excerpt from what he felt was his best novel.
Explore more…
DOG: A Masochist’s Tale
The making and remaking of a novel… and some editorial advice from Alasdair Gray.
Courageous conversations
A literary translator shares her secrets and a Croatian excerpt from 1982, Janine.
External links…
1982, Janine polarised critics like few other novels in modern literary history
You can hear more of Alasdair reading and talking about books on our YouTube channel