“Johnny, I got your address from your mother who asked I’d say hello.”
James Yorkston, Three Craws, 2016
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In the month before we took our trip to Scotland I read Three Craws to get a more modern slice of the Land of the Brave than I was likely to get from Robert Louis Stevenson or Robert Burns.
Yorkston’s tale is about a washed up art student who finally called it quits in London after he received a letter from his childhood friend Stevie and “shoogled” back to rural Scotland.
The book is ostensibly about getting used to the idea that you may never quite attain your dreams, that old friends can still be good friends, and that you should be very careful about who you are overly polite to on the bus.
The book is also full of delightful dialogue and bursting with colorful, regional dialect. It helped me get a sense of the accent so I could understand our taxi drivers a bit better. Thanks to my old schoolmate @heather.rae.easley for the recommend!