Old Men In Love

First edition

Old Men In Love is a novel by Alasdair Gray, published by Bloomsbury in 2007.

Adapting is the central conceit of the novel - it represents a found manuscript by one John Tunnock, which Gray merely edits - from the author's earlier Poor Things, the writing presented as Tunnock's likewise recycles earlier material by Gray. Tunnock's unfinished trilogy of novels, based on the lives of Socrates, Fra Lippo Lippi and Henry James Prince, are thus re-workings of earlier stage and television drama by Gray.

In the afterword to the novel the literary critic Sidney Workman (a fictitious alter-ego of Gray used in his debut novel, Lanark), points out the novels themes. Old Men In Love was met with an ambiguous critical reception, praised for its striking design and diverting contents, criticised for its lack of substance and cynical derivation from earlier material. Writing in the Observer, James Purdon commented that "In form as well as subject matter, this is probably the most twitchily onanistic fiction since Portnoy's Complaint".[1]

References

  1. ↑ Purdon, James. "Don't Play The Joker". Observer, 11 November 2007


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