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Walking Wounded
These poignant short stories about the quiet yearnings of ordinary lives form “a sad, brilliant, joyful tribute to the dreams that never make it” ( Sunday Express ).
From a recipient of a Whitbread Award, a Faber Memorial Prize, and other literary honors—who has been called “one of Scotland's finest writers” ( Independent )—this is a collection of stories about the casualties of social and emotional struggle, the people who defy defeat with humor, resilience, and a persistent faith in their unfulfilled dreams. Whether widows or prisoners or argumentative elderly spouses, they are all the walking wounded—and they all have the power to inspire both laughter and empathy.
“As a stylist Mr. McIlvanney leaves most of the competition far behind.” — The New York Times Book Review
From a recipient of a Whitbread Award, a Faber Memorial Prize, and other literary honors—who has been called “one of Scotland's finest writers” ( Independent )—this is a collection of stories about the casualties of social and emotional struggle, the people who defy defeat with humor, resilience, and a persistent faith in their unfulfilled dreams. Whether widows or prisoners or argumentative elderly spouses, they are all the walking wounded—and they all have the power to inspire both laughter and empathy.
“As a stylist Mr. McIlvanney leaves most of the competition far behind.” — The New York Times Book Review
175 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
18 people are currently reading
108 people want to read
About the author
William McIlvanney
39 books226 followersWilliam McIlvanney was a Scottish writer of novels, short stories, and poetry. He was a champion of gritty yet poetic literature; his works Laidlaw, The Papers of Tony Veitch, and Walking Wounded are all known for their portrayal of Glasgow in the 1970s. He is regarded as "the father of 'Tartan Noir’" and has been described as "Scotland's Camus".
His first book, Remedy is None, was published in 1966 and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1967. Docherty (1975), a moving portrait of a miner whose courage and endurance is tested during the depression, won the Whitbread Novel Award.
Laidlaw (1977), The Papers of Tony Veitch (1983) and Strange Loyalties (1991) are crime novels featuring Inspector Jack Laidlaw. Laidlaw is considered to be the first book of Tartan Noir.
William McIlvanney was also an acclaimed poet, the author of The Longships in Harbour: Poems (1970) and Surviving the Shipwreck (1991), which also contains pieces of journalism, including an essay about T. S. Eliot. McIlvanney wrote a screenplay based on his short story Dreaming (published in Walking Wounded in 1989) which was filmed by BBC Scotland in 1990 and won a BAFTA.
Since April 2013, McIlvanney's own website has featured personal, reflective and topical writing, as well as examples of his journalism.
Adapted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...
His first book, Remedy is None, was published in 1966 and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1967. Docherty (1975), a moving portrait of a miner whose courage and endurance is tested during the depression, won the Whitbread Novel Award.
Laidlaw (1977), The Papers of Tony Veitch (1983) and Strange Loyalties (1991) are crime novels featuring Inspector Jack Laidlaw. Laidlaw is considered to be the first book of Tartan Noir.
William McIlvanney was also an acclaimed poet, the author of The Longships in Harbour: Poems (1970) and Surviving the Shipwreck (1991), which also contains pieces of journalism, including an essay about T. S. Eliot. McIlvanney wrote a screenplay based on his short story Dreaming (published in Walking Wounded in 1989) which was filmed by BBC Scotland in 1990 and won a BAFTA.
Since April 2013, McIlvanney's own website has featured personal, reflective and topical writing, as well as examples of his journalism.
Adapted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
September 20, 2019
A compassionate eye...
McIlvanney takes to the short story form to create a collection of character studies of the inhabitants of his recurring setting of Graithnock, which is a lightly fictionalised version of Kilmarnock, an industrial town in Ayrshire in the West of Scotland. The stories take place just as the ‘70s were giving way to the ‘80s – a time when hope seemed to be turning to despair in light of the Thatcherite policies that would rip the industrial heart out of Scotland over the next decade. McIlvanney rarely addresses politics directly in his work but it infuses everything he writes and, as a result, his books catch the national psyche at a given moment in time. His characters’ stories grow out of their social and cultural circumstances.
The stories here often overlap and share commonalities – many of the characters know each other, drink in the same pub, share the same histories. So they gradually build together to give a full picture of the town and to show how, in any society, the actions of the individual arise from and add to the prevailing culture. With his usual wonderfully insightful prose, McIlvanney makes us care about these people – we laugh with them and cry with them, celebrate their victories, sorrow over their disappointments and mourn their griefs. And we (certainly the Scots among us) recognise ourselves in at least some of them, as we recognise our friends and neighbours in the others.
I love McIlvanney. Having come late to his work as his long career drew to a close, I am reading his books with a retrospective eye and a feeling of profound familiarity – the twentieth century Scottish world he recorded is the one that I too lived. His culture and language and humour are mine too, his people are people I knew, his view of Scotland and the world aligns largely with my own. My only hesitation about him, and I wonder if this is the reason that despite his huge talent he’s still not as widely known as he should be, is that perhaps his books are so deeply embedded in our small society that possibly they don’t have the same resonance for people not so familiar with it. The humanity of his characters is undoubtedly universal, but perhaps a Scottish reader’s instinctive understanding of their cultural hinterland is why he’s so much more revered in Scotland than outside it.
These stories make use of aspects of working class Scottish culture of the time, especially from the male perspective – football, pubs and getting drunk, dog racing, gambling. What they’re about, however, is men and women trying to survive the things life throws at them – love, marriage, divorce, jobs and unemployment, bereavement, petty crime, violence, prison. Makes it sound much gloomier than it is – while some of the stories made me cry, just as many made me laugh, and a couple made me do both at the same time. McIlvanney’s characters are mostly resilient – the walking wounded of the title. Life may knock them down but they crawl back up, often with a pawky quip at fate’s expense, and ready themselves to face tomorrow. Great stuff – highly recommended!
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
McIlvanney takes to the short story form to create a collection of character studies of the inhabitants of his recurring setting of Graithnock, which is a lightly fictionalised version of Kilmarnock, an industrial town in Ayrshire in the West of Scotland. The stories take place just as the ‘70s were giving way to the ‘80s – a time when hope seemed to be turning to despair in light of the Thatcherite policies that would rip the industrial heart out of Scotland over the next decade. McIlvanney rarely addresses politics directly in his work but it infuses everything he writes and, as a result, his books catch the national psyche at a given moment in time. His characters’ stories grow out of their social and cultural circumstances.
The stories here often overlap and share commonalities – many of the characters know each other, drink in the same pub, share the same histories. So they gradually build together to give a full picture of the town and to show how, in any society, the actions of the individual arise from and add to the prevailing culture. With his usual wonderfully insightful prose, McIlvanney makes us care about these people – we laugh with them and cry with them, celebrate their victories, sorrow over their disappointments and mourn their griefs. And we (certainly the Scots among us) recognise ourselves in at least some of them, as we recognise our friends and neighbours in the others.
Margaret and John Hislop had one of those marriages where there wasn’t room to swing an ego. All was mutual justice and consideration and fairness. He only golfed between the hours of two and six on a Sunday because that was when she visited her mother. Her night-class was always on a Tuesday, regardless of what was available then, for that was when he worked late. Both watched television programmes which were neither’s favourite. They didn’t have arguments, they had discussions. It was a marriage made by committee and each day passed like a stifled yawn. It was as if the family crypt had been ordered early and they were living in it.
I love McIlvanney. Having come late to his work as his long career drew to a close, I am reading his books with a retrospective eye and a feeling of profound familiarity – the twentieth century Scottish world he recorded is the one that I too lived. His culture and language and humour are mine too, his people are people I knew, his view of Scotland and the world aligns largely with my own. My only hesitation about him, and I wonder if this is the reason that despite his huge talent he’s still not as widely known as he should be, is that perhaps his books are so deeply embedded in our small society that possibly they don’t have the same resonance for people not so familiar with it. The humanity of his characters is undoubtedly universal, but perhaps a Scottish reader’s instinctive understanding of their cultural hinterland is why he’s so much more revered in Scotland than outside it.
These stories make use of aspects of working class Scottish culture of the time, especially from the male perspective – football, pubs and getting drunk, dog racing, gambling. What they’re about, however, is men and women trying to survive the things life throws at them – love, marriage, divorce, jobs and unemployment, bereavement, petty crime, violence, prison. Makes it sound much gloomier than it is – while some of the stories made me cry, just as many made me laugh, and a couple made me do both at the same time. McIlvanney’s characters are mostly resilient – the walking wounded of the title. Life may knock them down but they crawl back up, often with a pawky quip at fate’s expense, and ready themselves to face tomorrow. Great stuff – highly recommended!
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
January 10, 2015
McIlvanney's collection of short stories is a tribute to the ordinary and the mundane, capturing the tiny fragments of people's lives while elevating their hopes, regrets, dreams and musings on to another plane entirely. Some moments make you laugh out loud while elsewhere, the poignancy is heartbreaking. As you read, characters from previous stories reappear briefly and this, coupled with the lyrical prose and realistic dialogue, gives the book a delightful and unforced unity.
In one story, 'Beached', which is barely 500 words long, McIlvanney is like an internal photographer as he captures a young widow's response to a couple she glimpses on the beach. In this brief moment, she recognises 'a promise life had made to her a while ago, a promise only fully known in its departure.'
The stories are of yearning, hopes and possibilities which may, somehow just may, be fulfilled. The pages are filled with the lives of the little, and supposedly insignificant, people, but McIlvanney's depiction endows them with a grandeur which truly situates them as the real stuff from which history is made.
Powerful, evocative and deeply moving.
In one story, 'Beached', which is barely 500 words long, McIlvanney is like an internal photographer as he captures a young widow's response to a couple she glimpses on the beach. In this brief moment, she recognises 'a promise life had made to her a while ago, a promise only fully known in its departure.'
The stories are of yearning, hopes and possibilities which may, somehow just may, be fulfilled. The pages are filled with the lives of the little, and supposedly insignificant, people, but McIlvanney's depiction endows them with a grandeur which truly situates them as the real stuff from which history is made.
Powerful, evocative and deeply moving.
February 27, 2017
I had not realised this was a book of McIlvannney's short stories until I opened it. Twenty of them and each with the emotional impact of a novel: so many of tiny, tragic lives, of what seems to be an inexorable slide from youthful optimism into the poverty/disappointment trap of marriage and mortgage. All told through the magical, all-seeing, wonderfully-worded eyes and pen of McIlvanney. And, for me, 'On the sidelines' has to be one of the two most impactful stories I have ever read.
December 20, 2016
A series of short stories written by Scotland's master- about the ordinary lives of the ordinary folk. Not many laughs but well worth the effort of reading them.
January 23, 2022
After reading this McIlvanney book of short stories I've come to the conclusion that I don't like books that are short stories, a novella I can get behind but short stories I can't. I'm too invested in the characters and Walking Wounded just proves this. McIlvanney writes about a series of characters some that have shown up in my recent read of Strange Loyalties my particular favourite being Gus McPhater who makes an appearance several times in Walking Wounded and always have an opinion on everything. My particular favourite is his rant about religion and stained-glass windows. I would quote it but it is a long rant. While this little rant was a hilarious little gem this is a book that takes a good look at marriage, loneliness and the road not taken, and it doesn't leave you feeling good especially when the author in such little time immerses you in their lives. One of my favourite stories was Sidelines about John recently divorced and watching his son playing football in Dean Park a place I have been to often so I could see what John was seeing.....
....he had turned up to watch Gary and stood, peeled with cold, feeling as if the wind was playing his bones like a xylophone, and seen children struggle across a pitch churned to a treacle of mud. In five minutes they wore claylike leggings, the ball had become as heavy as a cannonball and the wind purpled their thighs. He remembered one touching moment when a goalkeeper had kicked the ball out and then, as the wind blew it back without anyone else touching it, had to dive dramatically to save his own goal kick.
I loved this story and so wanted to know more about John and his relationship with his kids.
This is the 4th McIlvanney book and I am left thinking regularly whether this is life imitating art or art imitating life.
....he had turned up to watch Gary and stood, peeled with cold, feeling as if the wind was playing his bones like a xylophone, and seen children struggle across a pitch churned to a treacle of mud. In five minutes they wore claylike leggings, the ball had become as heavy as a cannonball and the wind purpled their thighs. He remembered one touching moment when a goalkeeper had kicked the ball out and then, as the wind blew it back without anyone else touching it, had to dive dramatically to save his own goal kick.
I loved this story and so wanted to know more about John and his relationship with his kids.
This is the 4th McIlvanney book and I am left thinking regularly whether this is life imitating art or art imitating life.
July 28, 2022
It's very good, even though it didn't have as much variation and versatility as I'd have liked to have seen. I'm a big fan of William McIlvanney, my favourite work of his being "The Big Man". Although I am starting to see him as a merchant of one specific tone and setting. On that basis, I suppose it comes down to how much each reader respectivly enjoys that tone and setting as to how much they'll enjoy this collection. I happen to really like it, which is why I would certainly recomment this book to others. My particular favourte was"At the bar" (chapter 7). I would have given a fifth star if he'd had used this opportunity to show some diversity, to show that he can do more than just melancholic small-town Scotland.
August 30, 2017
Death of a Spinster, Holing Out, On the Sidelines, ..all of them really punchy & true. Performance hooked me.
It seems to me McIlvanney gives each character dignity in what in any other situation they would be seen as undignified.
The spinster, the man approaching his past love and of course, the performer.
My debut with this author, I can't wait to read more.
It seems to me McIlvanney gives each character dignity in what in any other situation they would be seen as undignified.
The spinster, the man approaching his past love and of course, the performer.
My debut with this author, I can't wait to read more.
April 16, 2020
Whilst well written, with some cracking metaphors, these stories are depressing. Miserable little lives. Divorce, death, brawls, unemployment - even the mildly upbeat ones are unhappy. But then, I suppose most people's lives were in small town Scotland at the start of the 80s...
May 17, 2023
a wonderful collection of short stories. prepare to be intrigued by each and every single one, captivated by the simple yet engaging lives captured in this smallish book. just right for passing the time on long, otherwise boresome train rides
August 8, 2024
I was given this book by a Lit professor in Scotland and am so glad I did! I love the Scottish setting and dark humor and just British ways things are described. These short stories will stay with me for a long time!
May 27, 2025
Collection of 20 short stories, which are set in sane fictional Scottish town and interlinked. A certain poignancy to many and laced with a black humour.
November 8, 2022
McIlvanney's writing is masterful. Every page is filled with such wonderful passages I can't bear to type in only a few.
March 28, 2022
Short stories about characters around a fictional town in the west of Scotland - some of the characters will be familiar to readers of other McIlvanney works such as the Laidlaw series, others are entirely new. Well written to McIlvanney's usual standard of description and depth of story.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews