Something Leather (Picador Books)

• The Ends Of Our Tethers: Thirteen Sorry Stories
• 1982, Janine (Canongate Classics)
• Unlikely Stories, Mostly
• Poor Things
• Old Men in Love

The characters, however, are unconvincing. We are never quite sure of their motivation, and they are almost universally unsympathetic.

Nevertheless, a curio worth seeking out.

Strange cross-genre novel, 2002-10-04
Within a framing device of a pornographic fantasy (a quartet of women involved in a lesbian sadomasochistic orgy) this novel comprises vignettes of people across the social and political spectrum of Glasgow. It particularly concentrates on believable portraits, presented in complex intercut form, of the lives and relationships of the women that led to this scenario. As another reviewer comments, none of the characters are very sympathetic. Gray's women are cynical and cold, his men ineffectual and given to political lectures. Nevertheless, this is a very readable novel with interesting characterisation, particularly of Harriet, the autistic artist whose strange mindset stems from abuse as a child.