Docherty is an intense and sometimes painful novel about a working class community in Scotland in the early 1900’s where there is immense hardship and little possibility of escape in the grim lives of the impoverished miners. But there is also enormous warmth in the writing and you feel very much a part of the life of the central character, Tam Docherty, and his family. The novel opens with the birth of Tam’s son Conn, who Tam is determined should have a better life and not go down the pits: ‘Ah’m pittin his name doon fur Prime Minister’, but his idea of higher education for his son is an impossible dream and Conn ends up down the pits as does his brother Angus. Brother Mick goes off to war, Old grandfather Conn moves in with his rocking chair while mother Jenny attempts to hold the whole family together. The hero of the novel is Tam who emerges as the staunch defender of the working classes and their values which are seen as superior to those of the middle classes. A powerful read.
'His face made a fist at the world. The twined remnant of umbilicus projected vulnerably. Hands, feet and prick. He had come equipped for the job.'
Newborn Conn Docherty, raw as a fresh wound, lies between his parents in their tenement room, with no birthright but a life's labour in the pits of his small town. But the world is changing, and, lying next to him, Conn's father Tam has decided that his son's life will be different from his own.
Gritty, dark and tender, McIlvanney's Docherty is a modern classic.
