GRAY, Alasdair. Lanark. Edinburgh: Canongate Publishing. 1981.
8vo. Original black cloth, title gilt to spine, in decorative dust wrapper; pp. [viii], 561; minor enclosed tear to head of spine of wrapper; very light rubbing to top edge of wrapper; internally bright and clean, near fine.
First edition, boldly signed by the author to the front free endpaper.
Set in a definitely-not-Glasgow of the future as well as a pre-war Glasgow, this surrealist dystopic nightmare contains chapters in the wrong (or right) order (depending on who you ask), an epilogue four chapters before the end, an implausible number of disturbing orifices, and a heady blend of autobiography and science fiction.
Gray cites Kafka as a major influence on the atmosphere of the novel, as well as his own experiences in the media industry, with the labyrinthine buildings and individuals talking in jargon proving particularly memorable. It has become somewhat of a cult classic, with Anthony Burgess writing that Gray is "the best Scottish novelist since Walter Scott".
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