Douglas Stuart is a Scottish American writer whose novel, Shuggie Bain, won the 2020 Booker Prize. Both Shuggie Bain and John of John, his latest novel, have been hailed as literary fiction at its finest.
John of John is the story of Cal (his full name is John-Calum McLeod). Cal returns reluctantly from the Scottish mainland to Harris, an island off Scotland famous for its tweed. His father hints at the ill-health of Cal’s grandmother, Ella, who raised him after his mother left the family when Cal was a boy. His return leads to discoveries about his family and himself which change his attitude towards the harsh life and God-fearing citizens of his childhood home.
The characters in John of John are memorable: his taciturn father who is a native of Harris, his irreverent grandmother from Glasgow, his mother who has made a new life not far away on the island, the genial male friend of Cal’s father and a local girl whom the islanders expect Cal to marry. The community is small and hardy, reliant on the running of sheep and hand weaving of the fleece.
Douglas Stuart writes in strong prose with vibrant verbs and a liberal smattering of Scottish words like ‘coory’ (standing close together for warmth) and ‘birl’ (whizzing children around in a circle by the arms). Stuart, like his character Cal, studied fine art and he brings a painter’s eye to his descriptions. In the opening line of the novel, for example, Cal’s father refers to his mother-in-law’s feet as ‘purple as calf liver’. In another example, Stuart refers to a plant found on Harris when he describes Cal’s childhood home: ‘The samphire-green paintwork was salted to a bluish-grey’.
Highly evocative and heart-rending in parts, John of John brings a landscape and set of characters to life with subtlety and sureness. Highly recommended for its story and for the delights of its prose.