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Allan Massie, the prolific novelist and non-fiction writer, is here revealed as a consummate master of the short story. This should not surprise, given his dense and highly effective style. Some of the short stories come from his early career, and some are the product of a recent return to the genre.
Klaus, the novella that opens and, to some extent, dominates this collection, tells the story of Klaus Mann, son of Thomas, and in spite of the long shadow of so famous a father, an important novelist and political activist in his own right. His struggle against Nazism gave him a focus, but its demise and what he perceived as Germany’s inability to change led to depression and an early death.
Massie succeeds in evoking that period of courage and hypocrisy, intellectual fidelity and clever changeability, sacrifice and impunity, personified by the tragic Klaus and the mercurial and indestructible Gustaf Gründgens, his former brother-in-law and ex-lover. Between these two lie not only those broken relationships but also a novel – Klaus’s novel Mephisto, a thinly disguised attack on Gründgens that for many years could not be published in West Germany. Massie’s subtle prose merely suggests some intriguing aspects of this network of relationships and the self-destructive nature of literary inspiration.
“Allan Massie is a master storyteller, with a particular gift for evoking the vanishing world of the European man of letters. His poignant novella about Klaus Mann bears comparison with his subject’s best work.”
Daniel Johnson, editor of Standpoint
“The tale of Klaus Mann’s final days is, however, tremendously interesting, a warning and an example. Aspiring authors should read it. They’d do worse than study Massie’s craftsmanship.”
Colin Waters, Scottish Review of Books
Price: £10.00 ISBN: 978-0-9560560-6-1 pp. 208
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Allan Massie’s Surviving
Surviving is set in contemporary Rome. The main characters, Belinda, Kate (an author who specialises in studies of the criminal mind), and Tom Durward (a scriptwriter), attend an English-speaking group of Alcoholics Anonymous. All have pasts to cause embarrassment or shame. Tom sees no future for himself and still gets nervous “come Martini time”. Belinda embarks on a love-affair that cannot last. Kate ventures onto more dangerous ground by inviting her latest case-study, a young Londoner acquitted of a racist murder, to stay with her.
Allan Massie dissects this group of ex-pats in order to say something about our inability to know, still less to understand, the actions of our fellow human beings, even when relationships are so intense. It is also, therefore, impossible or at least difficult to make informed moral judgements of others. This is an intelligent book that examines human nature with a deft and light touch.
“Massie is one of the best Scottish writers of his generation. Surviving – sympathetic, unsentimental, atmospheric – is an overdue reminder of how good he is.”
Alan Taylor, The Herald
“… an impressive novel which poses moral and philosophical questions but works equally well as a compelling thriller.”
Joe Farrell, TLS
“… an excellent little novel.”
Ben Jeffery, The Guardian
“The dark brilliance of Massie’s style … Surviving may be an instant classic in the alcoholic literary canon.”
Patrick Skene Catling, The Spectator
“This is Scotland’s Stendhal at his best: clipped but sympathetic to his fragile characters in their haunted wood.”
Christopher Harvie, The Sunday Herald
Price: £10.00 ISBN: 978-0-9560560-2-3 pp. 224