Book of a lifetime: The Busconductor Hines, By James Kelman

 

I was 21 and in my last year at Edinburgh University when James Kelman's The Busconductor Hines was published. It was brought out by Polygon Books, a tiny house owned and run by Edinburgh students. It was a desirable object, beautifully printed in gold and green to make it look like a giant box of Rizla papers.

I already knew Kelman's work from his short stories; I'd first come across "Not Not While The Giro" in a Penguin anthology, and after reading it became so anxious about Kelman's state of mind - having identified it with the character in the story - that I asked a friend who knew him, "Is he all right?" I don't know what I would have done if the answer had been "No". Taken him some sandwiches? I was reassured that Kelman had a family, a place to live, means of support. But I can't imagine asking that about anyone else I was reading. They were all dead, or lived in faraway places like Italy or London, or were too prosperous to be personally jeopardised. Here was a man living only a few miles away, in my time, writing powerful, funny, moving prose about the torments and consolations of people who didn't have much money, and whose parents and grandparents didn't either.

The Busconductor Hines was the fuller realisation of Kelman's greatness. Hines, the Glasgow conductor, struggles to make his consciousness of the overwhelming arbitrariness of the universe correspond to his immediate human instincts - to love, pity or hate the individuals around him, his wife, his child, his family, the drivers and conductors, his petty supervisors. Hines's political anger - and there is plenty, about class, authority, snobbery - returns to a questioning of the self, in brilliant, hilarious internal dialogues between the escapist dreamer Hines and Hines the hard-nosed cynic.

As a young writer I experimented with Kelmanesque style and subject matter, not very successfully. But there are things a writer can teach you that are neither style nor content. One of the things that staggered me about Hines was the rigour of it: there's no sloppiness, no cliché, nothing stale. He never cruises, never makes allowances, never makes assumptions. Hines crystallised for me the notion that founding drama in criminal extremity, or in the exotic, isn't a necessary condition for it to be intense. It's just that when you write about the here and now, everyone thinks they're an expert; so it is more difficult. It takes someone like Kelman to come along and point out that we don't know what we think we know about the here and now. It can always bear re-imagining.

James Meek's new novel is 'The Heart Broke In' (Canongate)

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
News in pictures
World news in pictures
Arts & Ents blogs

The Photography Blog: ‘Control Order House’ by Edmund Clark – Photographing our response to terrorism

Recent events in Boston have served as a painful reminder of the threat posed by terrorism. In Contr...

Parachute Youth: Supporting Rudimental is not a clash of interests

I’ve not heard many bands that had quite the same kick as Pendulum did. Their unbelievable fusion of...

Review of Glee ‘Sweet Dreams’

The episode begins with Finn (Cory Monteith) at college, partying and accidentally participating in ...

       

ES Rentals

    'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'

    Masculinity in crisis?

    'There is a battle going on inside us that is never discussed'
    Have US shock jocks gone too far?

    Have US shock jocks gone too far?

    An incendiary remark from Rush Limbaugh may be the beginning of the end for outspoken right-wing US broadcasters
    The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey pays more income tax than big cities of the North

    The ‘Beverly Hills’ of Surrey

    Elmbridge pays more income tax than big cities of the North
    Heavenly Bodies

    Heavenly Bodies

    Michael Landy's artistic marriage made in heaven... and hell
    'He will always be a friend': Jackie Stewart backs Polanski

    'He will always be a friend'

    Jackie Stewart backs Roman Polanski
    The price of pacifism: Refusing to go to war is finally being recognised as a brave act

    The price of pacifism

    From the Second World War refusenik to the 19-year-old Israeli, Holly Williams talks to five people who risked shame and suffering to take a stand as conscientious objector.
    'It was mass hysteria': Jason Isaacs on groupies, theatre bores and snogging James Bond

    Jason Isaacs: Groupies, theatre bores and James Bond

    To millions, Jason Isaacs is one of Harry Potter's arch enemies – but his wife prefers him as a Scottish TV detective.
    Notes from a small island: Is Sealand an independent 'micronation' or an illegal fortress?

    Sealand: 'Micronation' or illegal fortress?

    Thomas Hodgkinson spent a week at the tiny platform off the Suffolk coast to find out.
    Not a bad bone: Mark Hix cooks with cutlets and ribs

    Mark Hix cooks with cutlets and ribs

    If you ignore cutlets and ribs, you'll risk missing out on some delicious and easy meals, says our chef.
    The experts' guide to summer: From getting fit for the beach to recreating that Olympic buzz

    The experts' guide to summer

    From getting fit for the beach to recreating that Olympic buzz
    Sex, drugs and fast cars: The legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing

    Legend of James Hunt has set Hollywood hearts racing

    Early glimpses of Ron Howard's film Rush suggest it will portray Hunt as a high-living lothario, with an insatiable appetite for partying.
    Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation when using drugs and alcohol. It was hurting my life'

    Macklemore: 'I don't have moderation'

    The next Vanilla Ice or the next Eminem? Macklemore doesn't have a record contract – but he does have the UK's biggest-selling single of the year.
    Don't be shy: Bill Granger's Sri Lankan recipes

    Don't be shy: Bill Granger's Sri Lankan recipes

    Sri Lankan cuisine is light, sunny, wonderfully spiced – and so easy to cook from scratch. Just as soon as you've broken into the coconut, that is.
    Sir James Dyson’s latest project: Cleaning up hospitals

    Sir James Dyson’s latest project: Cleaning up hospitals

    Doctors are hailing the revamp of a Bath neonatal unit, where babies sleep more and feed better, as the model for patient care
    One man returns to Argentina's town that drowned

    One man returns to Argentina's town that drowned

    Epecuen was submerged under 10 metres of water in 1985. Now the floods have gone – and 83-year-old Pablo Novak has moved back in