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The Shoe
Gordon Legge's debut novel follows three days in Archie's life where arguments about football and the relative merits of his record collection loom large. The focus is on Archie and his group of Davie, the Mental Kid, Richard, and Dostoyevsky, the intelligent, fun-loving, vegan Doberman. And all this has a soundtrack - whether it's makes God look like a prototype, classic Motown, Joy Division or Van 'awesome'.
The Shoe, set somewhere between Edinburgh and Glasgow, draws the reader in to a special culture with its own codes and languages centred around music, football, sex and the camaraderie of street and pub.
The Shoe, set somewhere between Edinburgh and Glasgow, draws the reader in to a special culture with its own codes and languages centred around music, football, sex and the camaraderie of street and pub.
181 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 12, 2023
so this was a recommendation from a pal of mine who reckons this is a better slice of Scottish working class life than anything by Irvine Welsh, and I take his point even though I disagree wi it
it's a book where nothing happens, the characters have nae money, and the events described are all pretty mundane - it's also really engaging
the thing this book has, and I think the reason it's talked aboot in terms of Irvine Welsh (other than the fact that he's used as the standard measurement for this sort of fiction) is because of the characters, like ye feel like ye know these guys - each of the main characters, you can think of somebody you know who's just like that, so it makes the endless chat aboot politics, fitba and music while at the pub, having a smoke or just walking around, really vivid
anyway, this is magic, and I'll be foisting ma battered paperback of it onto anyone who'll have it (until it inevitably goes missing and I have to buy another one)
God bless Mad Archie
it's a book where nothing happens, the characters have nae money, and the events described are all pretty mundane - it's also really engaging
the thing this book has, and I think the reason it's talked aboot in terms of Irvine Welsh (other than the fact that he's used as the standard measurement for this sort of fiction) is because of the characters, like ye feel like ye know these guys - each of the main characters, you can think of somebody you know who's just like that, so it makes the endless chat aboot politics, fitba and music while at the pub, having a smoke or just walking around, really vivid
anyway, this is magic, and I'll be foisting ma battered paperback of it onto anyone who'll have it (until it inevitably goes missing and I have to buy another one)
God bless Mad Archie
October 14, 2024
I’m sure there’s at least one word in the Oxford English Dictionary that can truly describe this book, but I’m not sure what it is, and I don’t think I will ever know what it is
May 27, 2026
Footie tribalism, post punk music obsession, a talking dog... more fever dream than plot but the random genuine Adam Ant quote on the final page has earned this one a fourth star.
November 2, 2024
Is that Dostoyevsky? No, it’s garrrbage.
Made me chuckle a good few times though.
Made me chuckle a good few times though.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews