Stuart Kelly, Freelance Journalist Profile

Articles

Idle Grounds & Atavists review: 'immensely subtle and controlled'

6 days ago | scotsman.com | Stuart Kelly

Very occasionally with a novel, I get the sense while reading it that it is going to linger in some manner. It is not due to anything particularly dramatic or shocking or extravagant, in fact, quite the opposite: a premonition of something nagging and unresolved. The first time I encountered such an unsettling response to a book was The Sacred Fount, a late novel by Henry James, which I’ve subsequently re-read and never quite caught its sublime out-of-kilter-ness.
On the Calculation of Volume, Volumes I & II review: 'rewrites the rules of the novel'

1 week ago | scotsman.com | Stuart Kelly

A stark, eerie and deceptively simple opening belies the scale of the achievement to come, writes Stuart Kelly. And it all happens in one dayAlthough it has been my privilege to review a great many excellent, memorable, fascinating and moving books, it is rare to be gifted a work such as this; a novel which rewrites the rules of the novel. Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, On The Calculation Of Volume expands the possibility of fiction.
'rewrites the rules of the novel'

1 week ago | msn.com | Stuart Kelly

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'not much flesh on the bones'

2 months ago | msn.com | Stuart Kelly

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Carrion Crow by Heather Parry review: 'not much flesh on the bones'

2 months ago | scotsman.com | Stuart Kelly

The latest in a line of Victoriana ‘queer’ stories leaves Stuart Kelly wondering if it is anything more than an imaginative re-fleshing of a thesisIt seems that “Victoriana” is a style, if not quite a genre, in its own right.
Book reviews: Rejection, by Tony Tulathimutte | The Book of George, by Kate Greathead

2 months ago | scotsman.com | Stuart Kelly

The humour in Tony Tulathimutte’s new collection of short stories is caustic enough to make the reader wince, writes Stuart KellyThere is something divinely appalling, almost sublimely ghastly about Tony Tulathimutte’s linked collection of stories, Rejection.
The vicious and violent rhetoric of Cicero

2 months ago | thespectator.com | Peter Stothard |Tom Jones |Christopher Harding |Stuart Kelly

It is rare to read a book about Cicero that likens its hero to a demagogue. Rome’s prosecutor of conspiracy and corruption in the last years of the Republic is seen more commonly as a toga-draped crusader for virtue. Was he also a ranter steeped in violence, crude character-assassination, tendentious storytelling and racial stereotypes? Yes, argues Josiah Osgood, an American historian, whose book persuasively analyzes a range of Cicero’s murder, fraud and extortion cases.
Book reviews: The Lamb by Lucy Rose

Jan 22, 2025 | msn.com | Stuart Kelly

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Book reviews: The Lamb by Lucy Rose | Old Soul by Susan Barker

Jan 22, 2025 | scotsman.com | Stuart Kelly

Two eagerly anticipated new novels take readers to some very dark places, but ultimately both fail to live up to the hype, writes Stuart KellyThere is a clear affinity between the gothic genre and feminist writing, albeit a complex one. Writers such as Daphne du Maurier, Charlotte Perkins Gillman, the under-rated Anna Kavan and Sara Maitland use the form for psychologically astute and genuinely creepy ends; Angela Carter must be nauseous and exhausted at her name being taken in vain.
Tommy the Bruce, by James Yorkston review

Jan 15, 2025 | scotsman.com | Stuart Kelly

The new novel from acclaimed musician James Yorkston leaves a lot to be desired, writes Stuart KellySometimes, the smallest of details can be exceptionally telling. This novel, James Yorkston’s third, comes with a puff from his previous one, The Book of the Gaels, culled from a piece in The Times (not an actual review). “There are echoes of Douglas Stewart’s Shuggie Bain…” Alert readers will note that the author is actually called Douglas Stuart.