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The Sopranos Cycle #1
The Sopranos
A trip to the big city for the national singing finals becomes a saga of adolescent debauchery for members of the choir from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour School for Girls, especially for the sopranos, for whom such treats as pub crawling, shoplifting, and body piercing are top priorities. Reprint.
336 pages, Paperback
First published June 22, 1998
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About the author
Alan Warner
77 books182 followersNote: There is more than one Alan Warner, this is the page for the award-winning Scottish novelist. For books by other people bearing the same name see Alan Warner
Alan Warner (born 1964) is the author of six novels: the acclaimed Morvern Callar (1995), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; These Demented Lands (1997), winner of the Encore Award; The Sopranos (1998), winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award; The Man Who Walks (2002), an imaginative and surreal black comedy; The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven (2006), and The Stars in the Bright Sky (2010), a sequel to The Sopranos. Morvern Callar has been adapted as a film, and The Sopranos is to follow shortly. His short story 'After the Vision' was included in the anthology Children of Albion Rovers (1997) and 'Bitter Salvage' was included in Disco Biscuits (1997). In 2003 he was nominated by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'. In 2010, his novel The Stars in the Bright Sky was included in the longlist for the Man Booker Prize.
Alan Warner's novels are mostly set in "The Port", a place bearing some resemblance to Oban. He is known to appreciate 1970s Krautrock band Can; two of his books feature dedications to former band members (Morvern Callar to Holger Czukay and The Man Who Walks to Michael Karoli). Alan Warner currently splits his time between Dublin and Javea, Spain.
Alan Warner (born 1964) is the author of six novels: the acclaimed Morvern Callar (1995), winner of a Somerset Maugham Award; These Demented Lands (1997), winner of the Encore Award; The Sopranos (1998), winner of the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award; The Man Who Walks (2002), an imaginative and surreal black comedy; The Worms Can Carry Me to Heaven (2006), and The Stars in the Bright Sky (2010), a sequel to The Sopranos. Morvern Callar has been adapted as a film, and The Sopranos is to follow shortly. His short story 'After the Vision' was included in the anthology Children of Albion Rovers (1997) and 'Bitter Salvage' was included in Disco Biscuits (1997). In 2003 he was nominated by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'. In 2010, his novel The Stars in the Bright Sky was included in the longlist for the Man Booker Prize.
Alan Warner's novels are mostly set in "The Port", a place bearing some resemblance to Oban. He is known to appreciate 1970s Krautrock band Can; two of his books feature dedications to former band members (Morvern Callar to Holger Czukay and The Man Who Walks to Michael Karoli). Alan Warner currently splits his time between Dublin and Javea, Spain.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 90 reviews
December 9, 2008
Best drinking scene ever. Sorry, Hemingway.
February 2, 2020
"The whole landscape was massively ancient, under scattered screes, the exposed cliffs below the glacial glens showing time wasn't finished with the world here. A landscape from an age unslept."
"Jerry was famous for swerving to hit pheasants on the Bultitude Estates. When he copped one, he'd stop the school bus and scour verges."
While hundreds of authors could have written either of the above passages, only Alan Warner could have written both, and done so within the space of three paragraphs.
The Sopranos is a wonderfully ribald account of the misadventures of the choir of Our Lady of Perpetual Succor, in Edinburgh for a choral competition; it's sort of a Scots Girls Gone Wild, only infinitely more arousing, in every sense of the word. Warner not only has created six sharply individuated characters in the five eponymous Sopranos and the alto, Kay Clarke, he has also created memorable supporting characters, such as the barmy Father Ardlui, who is desperate to foster a miracle amongst his flock. Perhaps his most vivid character is the small coastal town, identified only as the Port, which featured in his first novel, Morvern Callar, whose heroine is briefly referenced (as "a bonny bonny lassie").
One last passage from the book:
"An even though Fionnula's family was hidden up the back, in the dip of land where history put council housing, away fro the Victorian resort villas, even there, was saving grace of the skies where clouds would always move faster than anywhere these girls would ever travel to and where the dying light of day would falter in the slow-moving coal-fire smoke above where owls and foxes moved in the grey-black woods of the sheltering hills, hundreds of feet above the bus-stops."
Alan Warner is what Miles Davis would call a "motherfucker"; the man can flat-out write.
"Jerry was famous for swerving to hit pheasants on the Bultitude Estates. When he copped one, he'd stop the school bus and scour verges."
While hundreds of authors could have written either of the above passages, only Alan Warner could have written both, and done so within the space of three paragraphs.
The Sopranos is a wonderfully ribald account of the misadventures of the choir of Our Lady of Perpetual Succor, in Edinburgh for a choral competition; it's sort of a Scots Girls Gone Wild, only infinitely more arousing, in every sense of the word. Warner not only has created six sharply individuated characters in the five eponymous Sopranos and the alto, Kay Clarke, he has also created memorable supporting characters, such as the barmy Father Ardlui, who is desperate to foster a miracle amongst his flock. Perhaps his most vivid character is the small coastal town, identified only as the Port, which featured in his first novel, Morvern Callar, whose heroine is briefly referenced (as "a bonny bonny lassie").
One last passage from the book:
"An even though Fionnula's family was hidden up the back, in the dip of land where history put council housing, away fro the Victorian resort villas, even there, was saving grace of the skies where clouds would always move faster than anywhere these girls would ever travel to and where the dying light of day would falter in the slow-moving coal-fire smoke above where owls and foxes moved in the grey-black woods of the sheltering hills, hundreds of feet above the bus-stops."
Alan Warner is what Miles Davis would call a "motherfucker"; the man can flat-out write.
January 28, 2016
One of those books that remind you why you read fiction, and by extension why you live. Definitely a new favourite. The characters are extremely lifelike (so much so that I urge all followers of "men are from mars and women from venus"-like crap to read it, if a man can paint such a believable portrait of teenage girls the opinion that "we're just too different to understand each other, at least without crappy self help manuals" becomes impossible to hold). The language is amazing, too; poetic but without ever seeming forcedly "literary" or pretentious. Alan Warner has become one of my top 5 (at least) favourite writers in a short time, I can't wait to read more.
July 9, 2011
Once you get about 20 pages in and adjust to the writing style (rural Scottish dialect), you will fly through this book. The girls are both typical teenagers, and totally not typical, and because of that you can't resist finding out what happens to them. I fell in love with Kay and Fionnula especially, but all the girls are dear. The brunt of the book spans a mere 24 hours in their lives, but it is jam packed with insight into who these young women are, where they come from, and what they want out of life.
This book is at turns funny, touching, sweet, and horrifying. In sum, it's delightful from start to finish.
This book is at turns funny, touching, sweet, and horrifying. In sum, it's delightful from start to finish.
May 1, 2017
A latecomer to this novel by over 15 years (rah!) I instantly thought: oh larks: Scottish girls' upper form school choir in competition! Yes please, Roddy Doyle (Irish tam put aside briefly for a kilt) does (a smarter, wittier) Glee, I'm in. Only I'm out. Tried my best but ended up thumbing through; there wasn't one girl I particularly liked or could even take special notice of; they were, almost exclusively, a throng of chain-smoking rebellious Catholic School gels, their classism so relegated by beauty that the author has them lined up by the length of their legs. The expected half-smiles pop up where expected (Choir Mistress Sister Conron is referred to by the choir as Sister Condom, etc); and some smiles more full fledged - there's a reference to The Commitments, with one of the girls aptly sneering - but as far as I was able to get, nothing new under the wee girls' sun. Praps I gave up easily, should re-read at some future date (but then that infamous New Yorker cartoon once again rears its' head: 'how about never? is never good for you?') Ah well then.
December 26, 2020
The crappiest book ever. Me and my friend had a book burning. So bad was it.
October 1, 2012
When reading a book, I start to compose my Goodreads review and think about it's ranking. Almost all the way through this book I had it down for a two-star rating. I don't know a lot about teenage girls, but this bunch of overly-confident convent girls didn't ring true. Partly this was due to their confidence, they have hardly a doubt and their immense capacity for alcohol was simply staggering. I guess also a a middle-aged man I felt rather uncomfortable about reading so much intimate detail about teenaged women, especially in a book written by a man. I also found Warner's disregard for speech marks profoundly annoying. Having reached the end though, I think a ranking under four stars would be churlish. For all my doubts and niggles, it is great fun and really quire absorbing.
August 11, 2013
I just thought it was a bit nothing. Woo catholic schoolgirls getting up to no good in the back end of nowhere! Maybe more exciting if you're a young man, not a grown up ex catholic schoolgirl (for whom life was not like this and made the story seem nonsensical)
October 17, 2019
Oppvekstroman om skotske gymnasjenter på tur tur til sangkonkurranse mellom de beste katolske skolene. Rå dialog som synes ekte. Historien griper meg likevel ikke helt.
December 17, 2012
A damn sight more enjoyable than Morvern Caller, which I struggled with somewhat.
This is a simple tale of a girls school's day out to Edinburgh to compete in a singing competition.
Nothing at all to do with the Mafia..... It reads like a modern updating of St Trinians. And if anyone wanted to see how society is collapsing, thats all they would have to do.
The girls are from a northern fishing port. They are on the cusp on woman hood and set the streets, shops and pubs of edinburgh on fire with their wild antics and revelations - and it soon appears that they are no much different in their sleepy village.
If you wrote on a blank piece of paper what you would expect the conversations to be, they would all be covered.... Teenage pregnancy, lesbianism, boys, drink (loads), drugs and so on.
The successes of the book are the constantly hilarious set pieces (indoor fireworks, touching revelations) and more importantly, how Warner as a grown adult has captured the dialogue (written in a way that is realistic, phonetically true and a challenge to pick up) and the girls hopes and fears. The dialogue forms the majority of this book.
Where it struggle a little is that the characters all merge into one, despite their differences. It's often difficult to tell who has done what.
But all in all, an entertaining way to spend some time and if its true, a pretty shocking analysis of youth.
This is a simple tale of a girls school's day out to Edinburgh to compete in a singing competition.
Nothing at all to do with the Mafia..... It reads like a modern updating of St Trinians. And if anyone wanted to see how society is collapsing, thats all they would have to do.
The girls are from a northern fishing port. They are on the cusp on woman hood and set the streets, shops and pubs of edinburgh on fire with their wild antics and revelations - and it soon appears that they are no much different in their sleepy village.
If you wrote on a blank piece of paper what you would expect the conversations to be, they would all be covered.... Teenage pregnancy, lesbianism, boys, drink (loads), drugs and so on.
The successes of the book are the constantly hilarious set pieces (indoor fireworks, touching revelations) and more importantly, how Warner as a grown adult has captured the dialogue (written in a way that is realistic, phonetically true and a challenge to pick up) and the girls hopes and fears. The dialogue forms the majority of this book.
Where it struggle a little is that the characters all merge into one, despite their differences. It's often difficult to tell who has done what.
But all in all, an entertaining way to spend some time and if its true, a pretty shocking analysis of youth.
September 1, 2010
Hilarious, sad, knowing. Everyone loves a story with mini-kilted Catholic schoolgirls going to the Big City on a trip (Edinburgh, here) with secret plans to do over-the-top Very Bad Things. But "The Sopranos" is not just a romp with wicked teens in Scots dialect. It's insightful and sympathetic to smalltown girls trapped in a hideous little seacoast town with nothing to look forward to past school except pregnancy and early marriage and (if they're lucky) a Council flat. Some moments--- the school's posh girl and the hippest girl of the Sopranos realising that they're falling for one another and finding the nerve to slow dance and kiss at the local pub ---are deeply romantic. Others--- one girl telling her friends that her leukemia has come back ---are shattering. A book very much worth reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2014
This is a book where the whole is less than the sum of the parts.
The writing is utterly brilliant. You have to read quite slowly as every sentence contains some gem of witty observation, humour or pathos. The Scottish dialogue is sometimes hard to follow, but always witty and sharp.
However, as a whole, the book didn't work for me. I couldn't distinguish between the characters. They are all teenage girls at a Scottish Catholic girls school. They get drunk, they buy clothes, they talk about boys. One or two of them get pregnant and drop out of school. One is in a band. One has a relative who dies of cancer. But these things could seemingly have happened to any one of the girls. I can't even remember their names.
As for plot, it is almost entirely non-existent. For most of the book, literally nothing happens. Then they get on a bus and go to Edinburgh.
The writing is utterly brilliant. You have to read quite slowly as every sentence contains some gem of witty observation, humour or pathos. The Scottish dialogue is sometimes hard to follow, but always witty and sharp.
However, as a whole, the book didn't work for me. I couldn't distinguish between the characters. They are all teenage girls at a Scottish Catholic girls school. They get drunk, they buy clothes, they talk about boys. One or two of them get pregnant and drop out of school. One is in a band. One has a relative who dies of cancer. But these things could seemingly have happened to any one of the girls. I can't even remember their names.
As for plot, it is almost entirely non-existent. For most of the book, literally nothing happens. Then they get on a bus and go to Edinburgh.
August 18, 2016
Yes, in the end I did like it. My first impression was disappointment, exacerbated to a large extent by the fact that I'd just finished Kelman's 'How late it was, how late' and felt I couldn't face another dialect book, and then the realisation that this was very different from 'The Deadman's pedal' which I'd thoroughly enjoyed.
However it grew on me. And grew, so that I began to care quite a bit about what happened to each of the Sopranos and how they would get through their tumultuous day. Certainly one to re-read in a year or so's time, to soak up the language and the nuances.
And the observations were fantastically well done; either Alan Warner has sisters, or daughters (I hope not like this!) which he brings very vividly to life.
However it grew on me. And grew, so that I began to care quite a bit about what happened to each of the Sopranos and how they would get through their tumultuous day. Certainly one to re-read in a year or so's time, to soak up the language and the nuances.
And the observations were fantastically well done; either Alan Warner has sisters, or daughters (I hope not like this!) which he brings very vividly to life.
July 3, 2013
I can see by the other reviews I am in a minority here but I really didn't enjoy this book at all. Reading the Scottish dialect takes a bit of effort - which I wouldn't mind if the plot was engrossing enough. Nothing happens and it just seems to handle the young girls sexuality in a very blase way. Not my kind of thing. Perhaps I'll give it another go one day and see if I can see what everyone else sees in it - I gave up half way through and that is really unlike me. Puzzled but intrigued why this has got such good ratings??!!
October 1, 2020
Not since Under The Volcano/American Graffiti has one day seemed so exhausting - the stamina of these girls is amazing! Wonderfully entertaining, with some hilarious set-pieces, and enjoyed the narration style which veered between Scots dialect and little gems of flat prose. Not as weirdly superb as Morvern Callar, but still a solid 4 Stars.
July 2, 2008
I read this a few years ago and at the time I thought it was brilliant. It was hard to believe that Alan Warner was not an out-of-control Catholic schoolgirl.
January 26, 2022
This was really not my type of a book.
June 14, 2023
Scottish version of Derry Girls? Yes.
Read
February 16, 2020of 2 minds here. mind #1 marvels at, e.g., the painterly detail w/ which stuff like ice cubes sliding across a polished bar or the changing color of roadside bushes as dusk approaches is rendered, the clear eye but light touch w/r/t class differences, the sorta... porosity of the narration by which it absorbs some of the rhythm and vocab of the dialogue... mind #2 can't get it out of mind #2's head that this is a grown ass man writing about these high school girls' fantasies & first sexual experiences, & squirms a little at that. on balance i think mind #1 marveled more than mind #2 squirmed, so you should probably read it, but i can't blame anyone whose reaction is "ah dinnae scum us out!"
May 14, 2011
Just finished reading a signed copy of this that I've had knocking around since it first came out. Have the feeling that I would have liked it more after it had first came out... But back then the fact that their was no quotations for the dialogue put me off - to be fair it still took a little getting used to. Quotations and punctuation are there to tell the narrative apart from the dialogue. Its a proven method - why change it? Pretension?... If I was to be cynical then I'd say that if Warner hadn't been found by the publishing world then they would have had to create him. After the success of fellow Scot Irvine Welsh the public were hungry for another writer, experimental, concerned with youth culture, drugs and alcohol and inner city liiving. And most importantly one from Scotland. A bit like how Nesbo had to be dug up to cream off Larsen's success. But now the fad is Norway.
The novel follows the life of a number of teenage convent school girls over the course of a few days. A trip to the capital, lots of alcohol, boyfriends, girlfriends, parties, drinks, etc. Well written with a good ear for dialogue the novel is valuable as a social document. It just seems thess typed of books date too quickly to ever be considered classics.
The novel follows the life of a number of teenage convent school girls over the course of a few days. A trip to the capital, lots of alcohol, boyfriends, girlfriends, parties, drinks, etc. Well written with a good ear for dialogue the novel is valuable as a social document. It just seems thess typed of books date too quickly to ever be considered classics.
June 1, 2015
Twenty-four hours in the lives of a clique of Scottish high school girls. On one hand, you could describe them as "bad girls" - drinking profusely, wearing skimpy clothes, and looking for people to hook up with. As an awkward shy teenager myself, it's not as if I could relate to that version of teenagedom, but it is not difficult to see the universal issues of group dynamics in female friendship, struggling with becoming a sexual being, and rebellion. On top of that, this book manages to create a LOT of tension and suspense about whether the girls will make it to their choir performance on time.
January 12, 2008
If you don't mind a book written with much dialect and slang then you'll be fine with The Sopranos. It's absolutely hilarious throughout, even though it deals with many serious and sad issues, and i can read it over and over. The premise - of five schoolgirls causing havoc on a choir trip - could have been so bad but it's very gritty and real - i could really imagine the characters and their conversations ring true.
November 15, 2012
I think this might be my favourite Scottish novel of all time. It's hilarious for the most part and very touching in places. An all-girls Catholic school sends their choir to Edinburgh for a big choir competition. Queue the kids going mad in the capital as they binge on drink, drugs and sexual encounters. It continues after they return to 'The Port' - their small, west-coast of Scotland town. Marvellous.
July 16, 2014
It would be four stars but I've bumped it up to five because of a scene at the end involving fireworks in a bouncer's flat that actually had me laughing hysterically. Synopsis: convent girls go nuts in the big smoke on the day they are supposed sing in a choir competition. It's all very amusing and poignant in places. My one complaint is that nae fucker should a whole novel without quotation marks. Never ever! I don't care if you're Cormac McCarthy, you need fucking quotation marks. /End rant
April 18, 2019
Questo libro non mi è proprio piaciuto. Esprime tristezza, rabbia e non mi ha divertito affatto. Superficialmente potrei dire che non è altro che la storia di un gruppo di ragazze "alcooliste" che per tutta la durata del libro non fanno altro che bere di tutto e di più, ma è evidente che il loro comportamento nasconde problemi più grandi di loro, collegati al passaggio dall'adolescenza all'età adulta.
March 25, 2008
Where Morvern Callar is a deep, thought-provoking study of a girl and how she deals with her life, this is just plain fun. Sure, you 'could' say that it is exactly the same focus on girls discovering themselves and life, because it is. However, it just feels more light-hearted and not quite as serious.
November 12, 2012
Based in a couple of reviews I'd read I was expecting this to be far wittier and mocking of the strict catholic education system than it is. That said you can't help but want to read on and find out where 24hrs can take these teenage girls.
December 5, 2014
The Sopranos spans one day in the life of 6 schoolgirls who are travelling to compete in a choir in Scotland. It started off with amusing character studies of each girl, however it didn't live up to it's promise.
August 18, 2015
Alan Warner is a fascinating writer, each book I've read of his seems to be a conscious contrast to the last. I enjoyed this but the endless escapades did seem to pall towards the end although he just manages to pull it back without sentiment or cliche.
April 5, 2017
Loved this, absolutely hilarious in parts and beautifully told. His gift for youth dialogue and describing the weird is unsurpassed in Scotland. This is the third book of his I've read and I'll be seeking out the rest.
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