≫ Download Gratis His Bloody Project Graeme Macrae Burnet 9781910192146 Books

His Bloody Project Graeme Macrae Burnet 9781910192146 Books

Download As PDF : His Bloody Project Graeme Macrae Burnet 9781910192146 Books

His Bloody Project Graeme Macrae Burnet 9781910192146 Books

4.5 stars. I first became aware of this book when the Man Booker long list was announced. I would like to try to read as many of them as possible and started with this one. For the first two thirds of the book, I wasn't quite sure why it was nominated for such a prestigious award. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I would have highly recommended it for that reason alone. It also provided an interesting twist on the crime novel in that it is written entirely in document form - police interviews with the villagers who knew the murder victims and the accused, medical examiner reports, a memoir purportedly written by the accused, an account by a preeminent criminal psychologist who interviewed the accused, his father and villagers and, finally, a report of the trial. The author also managed to write all of these various documents in voices that were true to the period. There were also interesting insights into classism, family dynamics, and the dynamics between residents in a small village.

Then the last third of the book happened and I was blown away. Those bits of the story that had niggled at your brain from earlier on that weren't properly addressed came into play. One is left with questions regarding the justice system, the death penalty and criminal insanity - particularly, in this instance, the diagnosis of it and what it would mean for the individual (either hanging or a life, likely spent in an asylum). Class issues are raised in this section as well. It was here that I really saw what the Man Booker judges did as well as gained a better appreciation of the earlier parts of this book. This doesn't mean that I feel it should necessarily win the prize (I won't make any such determination yet), but I can see why it was nominated.

This review may seem spoilerish, but I was careful to make sure that it isn't. I haven't included any information that one can't glean from the blurb, the table of contents or the first few pages. Now, stop reading this review and go read this book!


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His Bloody Project Graeme Macrae Burnet 9781910192146 Books Reviews

This is one of the best books of the year. It's an account of a terrible crime and the stories of the people behind it, in 1869 Scotland. One of the things that sets this story apart is the creativity with which it's written. It's a series of contemporary accounts written by many of the players in the story. In that way we get a complete picture of the events and personalities, which we piece together from a patchwork of incomplete, or not-wholly-objective reports. The final part of the book is a trial, which examine some timeless issues of law; it could have been set in a courtroom today.

Burnet puts it all together with a light touch, respecting the reader's perceptiveness and intelligence. I'm recommending it to everyone I talk to.
In the spring of 2014, I embarked on a project to find out a
little about my grandfather, Donald 'Tramp' Macrae, who was
born in 1890 in Applecross, two or three miles north of Culduie.
It was in the course of my research at the Highland Archive
Centre in Inverness that I came across some newspaper clippings
describing the trial of Roderick Macrae, and with the assistance
of Anne O'Hanlon, the archivist there, discovered the manuscript
which comprises the largest part of this volume.

Immediately upon finishing this latest Man Booker nominee, I turned back to the author's introduction to check whether I had been reading genuine documents about a true case, or the imaginative products of a clever author with an uncanny sense of style. I think the latter, but even now I cannot be quite sure. The larger part of this book is, as Macrae Burnet tells us, the memoir written in 1869 by 17-year-old Roderick John Macrae at the request of his solicitor while he is awaiting trial in Inverness Castle. He freely admits to killing Lachlan Mackenzie (commonly known as Lachlan Broad) and two other people in the former's house in Culduie, Wester Ross, in order to relieve his father of the persecution he was suffering at Mackenzie's hands. From beginning to end of the book, there is no dispute about these facts; all that remains to be filled in are the details, motivation, and the question of moral guilt.

Roddy Macrae's memoir takes up the first half of the book. It is preceded by various written statements made at the time by neighbors, the local schoolteacher, and the Presbyterian minister, which show a wide variety of opinions, revealing the character of each writer quite as much as that of their subject. It is an extraordinarily compact way of depicting the small crofting community, the various rivalries within it, and the constricting power of the Kirk. The latter part of the book consists of reports of the trial and its aftermath. Burnet is pitch-perfect in capturing the tone of depositions, official documents, and newspaper reports, but nothing is astounding as Roddy's narrative itself, which not only nails the style of 19th-century Scots prose* (think Stevenson) but also recreates the social and moral world in which the tragedy plays itself out.

Culduie is a real place, on the west coast of Scotland a little bit north of the Isle of Skye. Beautiful though it seems to tourist eyes, in the 19th-century it must have been a place of feudal squalor. Here and elsewhere, huge swaths of coast and mountain would be owned by a Laird, and used largely for the purpose of hunting and fishing. The lands would be managed by a Factor, who would assign local jurisdiction to a Constable elected from each area. The crofters lived in little more than hovels, occupying their houses and farming their land at the pleasure of the Laird, and subject to arbitrary rulings on the part of the Constable. Reading this portion of the book made me very angry indeed, not only at the grossly unfair exercise of class privilege, but at the bovine acceptance of it by most of the local people. Here is a snatch of conversation overheard by Roddy at the annual Highland Gathering

I fell in behind two well-dressed gentlemen and eavesdropped on
their conversation. The first declared in a loud voice, 'It is
easy to forget that such primitives still exist in our country.'
His companion nodded solemnly and wondered aloud whether more
might be done for us. The first gentleman then expressed the
view that it was difficult to assist people who were so incapable
of doing anything for themselves. They then paused to drink from
a flask and watch a knot of girls pass by.

This attitude is echoed by that of the Presbyterian Minister, Mr. Galbraith, who speaks of "a savagism" that the Church has only been partially successful in suppressing. He has no difficulty in asserting that Roddy is a throwback to the primitive type, a noxious individual, enslaved to the Devil. Burnet may have used Galbraith as a scathing example of religion at its worst and least compassionate (he based him, apparently, on a real figure), but there is another aspect to his Presbyterianism that is not much developed in the novel, but which I see as centrally important. The willingness of Roddy's father and his sister Jetta to submit to Lachlan Broad's tyranny is the Calvinist doctrine of Predestination in its crudest form

You must not say such things, Roddy. If you understood more about
the world, your would see that Lachlan Broad is not responsible.
It is providence that has brought us to this point. It is no more
Lachlan Broad's doing than yours or mine or Father's.

Jetta, who has second sight, tells him that she has foreseen Lachlan's death. The combination of Gaelic superstition and Presbyterian fatalism finally propels Roddy to his act. So we see two theories of his crime class and religion. The trial, however, will focus on the question of mental confidence. But here we discover something else that Roddy is not the trustworthy narrator we had thought.** All along, we have been proceeding towards understanding and even sympathy—but then something happens to kick us in the gut. From this horrendous point on, halfway through the book, neither Roddy nor the author is any more to be trusted. The novel becomes a genuine cliffhanger, even as it sinks deeper into tragedy. It is really a superb achievement.

======

*
Also as in Stevenson, the text is scattered with dialect Scots words—including the two murder weapons, a croman and a flaughter. Oddly enough, Burnet places his glossary halfway through the book (54% in my edition). Sassenach readers would be well advised to bookmark it!

**
In terms of the combination of unreliable narrator with a 19th-century Scottish crime drama, I thought of the novels of Jane Harris, GILLESPIE AND I and THE OBSERVATIONS. Reviews have also compared HIS BLOODY PROJECT to books such as Margaret Atwood's ALIAS GRACE and James Robertson's TESTAMENT OF GIDEON MACK. I am sure many other comparisons are possible. But that does not lessen the stunning originality of the book we have.
4.5 stars. I first became aware of this book when the Man Booker long list was announced. I would like to try to read as many of them as possible and started with this one. For the first two thirds of the book, I wasn't quite sure why it was nominated for such a prestigious award. It was thoroughly enjoyable and I would have highly recommended it for that reason alone. It also provided an interesting twist on the crime novel in that it is written entirely in document form - police interviews with the villagers who knew the murder victims and the accused, medical examiner reports, a memoir purportedly written by the accused, an account by a preeminent criminal psychologist who interviewed the accused, his father and villagers and, finally, a report of the trial. The author also managed to write all of these various documents in voices that were true to the period. There were also interesting insights into classism, family dynamics, and the dynamics between residents in a small village.

Then the last third of the book happened and I was blown away. Those bits of the story that had niggled at your brain from earlier on that weren't properly addressed came into play. One is left with questions regarding the justice system, the death penalty and criminal insanity - particularly, in this instance, the diagnosis of it and what it would mean for the individual (either hanging or a life, likely spent in an asylum). Class issues are raised in this section as well. It was here that I really saw what the Man Booker judges did as well as gained a better appreciation of the earlier parts of this book. This doesn't mean that I feel it should necessarily win the prize (I won't make any such determination yet), but I can see why it was nominated.

This review may seem spoilerish, but I was careful to make sure that it isn't. I haven't included any information that one can't glean from the blurb, the table of contents or the first few pages. Now, stop reading this review and go read this book!