McIlvanney, William

New York. 1986. Morrow. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 0688064051. 256 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Terry Fehr. keywords: Literature Scotland . FROM THE PUBLISHER - In his local mining village of Thornbank in northern Scotland Dan Scoular is a living legend for his physical prowess. While his friends proudly refer to him as ‘the big man,' Dan has yet to find a way of defining himself. As a teenager, he turned his back on the university scholarship that could certainly have been his to go down into the mines. He knows that the family of his wife, Betty, feels that she married beneath her1 and he also knows that, although he loves Betty their marriage is a deeply troubled one. Whatever he has been seeking, in work, in admiration, or in love, has left him unfulfilled. When Matt Mason, an underworld boss from Glasgow, approaches him with a proposition, Dan listens, If Dan will represent Matt in a bare-knuckle illegal prizefight to the finish Matt will make it worth his while. In the money offered him and the bonus that will be his if he wins, Dan sees a way of possibly salvaging his marriage. But in the offer itself, in the possible association with Matt and what he stands for, Dan senses something even more: the challenge he has been waiting for all his life, How - and if - Dan can handle the self-truths he seeks to discover provides the novel with a depth of suspense that surpasses even the tension of the action itself. Comparisons are always dangerous, Yet, in Conradian terms, there is little doubt that what Dan is choosing to do is to immerse himself in the destructive element, And like the Conradian hero only after he has done so can he discover what measure of man he really is. inventory #2 ISBN: 0688064051.