Old Men in Love

History—both sociological and fictional—is one of the many themes in Scottish writer Alasdair Gray's densely layered novel Old Men in Love. Purportedly the posthumous papers of one John Tunnock, Old Men concerns itself with Tunnock's efforts to write a vast survey exposing the economic machinery that guides and drives historically significant developments, while also pointing up the personal flaws of key players in those events. Sound impossibly ambitious? That's just the beginning. Running alongside this are selected entries from Tunnock's journals, recording his frustrations with his literary efforts, while also providing a movingly sympathetic record of his sheltered upbringing and day-to-day existence as he stumbles through a relationship that he never asked for—one which pushes him toward a grim resolution. As with many of his other, more successful efforts, Gray has filled Old Men with meticulously drawn maps and chapter ornaments, harkening back to an earlier era of book publishing. While these are pleasing to look at, they only serve to further churn up a book that wants to be three books but ends up being one unsuccessfully. Gray's metafictional gambit makes for an overstuffed creation that maddeningly holds the makings of a much better book—Tunnock's "real" life—within its bulging frame.