This book was a delightful, heart-warming but also heart-wrenching modern Scottish novel. Steeped in Glaswegian small-town/suburb culture, a lot of sayings, characters, and definitely the family morals of this book were somewhat familiar to me.
Family
The story is told from 3 different generations of a family. Firstly the Matriarch and clan leader, Granny Jean. With her mind harking back to Glasgow’s golden years she wields her mantra ‘Be guid tae yer mammy and you'll get yer blessings’, almost as a weapon to conjure the respect and service she wants from raising her family.
Her youngest daughter is Stella-Marie, and part of the story is also told from her fraught and tumultuous relationship with her Mother. For me the crux is, she is also a Mother to Kate in her mid-20’s and Isla, just about to head to uni. Kate and Isla also share some of the narrative viewpoint where we begin to understand their worries and dreams.
(I never got to meet my Scottish Granny, but I like to think she was kinder than the Granny in this book lol.)
The title
Sharing some of the plot to this book, brings me back to the title. The title is incredibly important in this book and takes on different meanings depending on which narrative you’re reading at the time, because of course, not everyone has the same Mammy.
The title of the story is a scots saying repeated by the Granny of the central family; ‘be guid tae yer mammy and y’all get yer blessings’. On the surface, this seems like a quick adult quib to children to behave. But in this novel, Granny Jean’s kids are middle-aged adults, with kids and responsibilities of their own.
Far from just being a threat to children, the saying transforms, for the second and third generation character into a difficult burden to shoulder, when attempting to forge your own future.
When the Granny turns against her youngest daughter, The third generation (Kate and Isla) must decide which Maw they will be guid too, their Maw or Granny.
The mantra becomes a curse, where Marie (the youngest daughter), sees that what may be guid fae her maw may not be guid fae her and her family, or herself.
This book is fraught with raw family emotion, and family responsibility, how should the middle generation serve their parents, at the expense of their own family and future.
Why this book
I was very eager to read this book, I found the author online, tweeting about writing in Scots and was intrigued. I have Scottish heritage, but as many do I associate Scots with the likes of Robert Burns, perhaps wrongly confining it to the past. Several important figures online have served to prove me wrong, including the author of this Scottish family drama, Emma Grae. Whilst I don’t speak Scots as my first language, but having a Scottish Dad has meant a few scots words/idioms have worked their way into my normal speech.
Scots language
I probably have an advantage over some English readers of this book because of this. I understood the Scots language in this book. But English readers of this book shouldn’t be put off, Scots and English are ‘sister’ languages, meaning there are many similarities.
The Scots also varies across the book, depending on who is speaking, (Granny accuses Kate of talking with her ‘Glasgow university accent’), which kind of serves to show how Scots is often portrayed as being confined to a ‘less proper’ way of speaking.
Dreams and Dreams
On the surface this is a wee family drama to read through. As I finished it I saw the mirroring of the generations of women in one family, and how they pursued or fell shy of their dreams for their futures. It begins with a young Granny Jeannie, about to have her first child, apparently full of hope for her family. As we learn, this wasn’t her first dream for herself. She actually wanted to be an actress.
Flip-forward to her Granddaughter Isla, is troubled with a similar pathways of her dreams, to go crazy and have fun, or begin her career as a nurse. Similarly with Kate, troubled by anxiety she too has dreams, which she has held herself back from.
This connection between past and present, with lost dreams unites the family, even when they are each other’s throats or not even talking. It’s a very gentle book on how dreams are passed in a family, rich in small-town Glaswegian Catholic faith and nostalgia. Read it!
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