Review: Naming the Bones by Louise Welsh

Product Summary

Knee-deep in the mud of an ancient burial ground, a winter storm raging around him, and at least one person intent on his death: how did Murray Watson end up here? His quiet life in university libraries researching the lives of writers seems a world away, and yet it is because of the mysterious writer Archie Lunan, dead for thirty years, that Murray now finds himself scrabbling in the dirt on the remote island of Lismore. Loaded with Welsh’s trademark wit, insight and Gothic charisma, this adventure novel weaves the lives of Murray and Archie together in a tale of literature, obsession and dark magic.

First Impressions

I've been on a mission to read all of Louise Welsh's work since Scottish photographer Alex Boyd turned me onto her debut novel, The Cutting Room (read the review here). So it is with great excitement and mirth that I can say in all honesty that her newest work, Naming the Bones, is a triumph in all respects.

In Naming the Bones we meet Murray Watson, an academic who has recently been granted leave from his university in order to research and write an account of Archie Lunan, an obscure Scottish poet known both for his unique talent and his love of the drink.

Driving his biography forward is Murray's obsession with the nature of Archie's death. While living in Lismore (a small island to the west of Scotland) Archie recklessly takes his ill equipped vessel into the sea during a brutish storm, never to return. When his body fails to turn up everybody suspects the worst. The reason for his disappearance, however, remains a mystery to the residents of Lismore.

A recurring theme within the novel is the fragility of human relationships (as exemplified by Murray). On an intimate level, Murray misconstrues the advances of seductress Rachel as hope for a meaningful relationship--even though the feelings are not reciprocated. On a familial level, his relationship with his brother has been strained due to a questionable art exhibit as well as the mutual guilt each brother shares about decisions made in their father's dying days. Even Murray's professional life is in jeopardy: much to the chagrin of Fergus Baine, the head of his department, Murray is writing about Archie Lunan, the man, rather than providing a thorough examination of the poems themselves. A more suitable cause for Fergus' chagrin is that he is unknowingly made a cuckold, since Murray has been sleeping with his wife.

Naming the Bones is what I would call a sleeper thriller. The principle force driving Murray throughout the novel is retracing the steps of a dead man. The major revelations come knowingly, but unexpectedly and will have the reader questioning if any of the characters are worthy of their trust.

Final Thoughts

Welsh's latest is decadent academic adventure with rich yet subtle tones of Gothic influence. It has all the stock characteristics of a Gothic novel: a tragic protagonist, natural elements that are both harsh and foreboding, a deep sense of mystery, dry wit, and complex characters with complex pasts, all of which is written with Welsh's luscious and velvety prose.

Naming the Bones offers more tease and less strip, creating a genre-bending literary thriller that offers mystery in place of answers and intrigue in place of epiphany.

Easily my favourite novel of 2011 thus far.