Perhaps the finest artist/writer of his generation . . . Tumultuous, inventive, heart-rending . . . A landmark work
- WILL SELF,
<i>1982, Janine</i> has a verbal energy, an intensity of vision that has mostly been missing from the English novel since D.H. Lawrence . . . Gray is a natural storyteller and it is the wit and energy of his language that keep the rendering of Jock's lonely, wasted life from being unbearably depressing. The richness of this novel and the pleasures of its language and form are sufficient affirmation, a real message of hope
* New York Times *
Made me realise that contemporary fiction could still be a vivid and vital way of interpreting the world . . . <i>1982, Janine</i> revived my flagging impetus to continue writing myself
- JONATHAN COE,
Alasdair Gray is that rather rare bird among contemporary British writers-a genuine experimentalist . . . The influence of James Joyce, and . . . Laurence Stern, is very evident, but Gray does not seem merely derivative from these masters. He is very much his own man
- DAVID LODGE,
<i>1982, Janine</i> is not pornography but a thoughtful and sad study of the human predicament; to be trapped in a world where the little man, woman or country will always be exploited by the big bullies
* Irish Independent *