Kane's Ladder by Carlos Alba

Kane’s Ladder follows the story of Steven, a young boy living in Glasgow in the 1970s. In Steven, Alba brilliantly represents the plight of many of Britain’s under-11s: a life painfully lacking in drama, far removed from that of his friend Wally who sleeps on the street to avoid his drunk father.

But luckily for Steven, he is a book character, and thus his miserably normal suburban existence is short-lived.  As per his desire, normality is brutally broken when his father buggers off with a secretary, his straight-a-student elder brother knocks up a girl in a field, and pretty much everything you’d expect from a week’s worth of Hollyoaks destroys his family.

Alba uses a stream of anecdotes following Steven’s childish expeditions: apple-stealing, lunch with old ladies, etc. to portray the characters without all the boring expositional stuff you get in a lot of novels.  It also makes it a fast-moving, easy read, and allows him to explore the setting a lot more freely than with a single stream of plot.  Everything is relevant to the setting and characters, and he manages to portray these without becoming tiresome.

Kane’s Ladder is an excellent read, reflecting somewhat painfully the problems of changing society and growing up.  Alba manages to tackle a wide range of surprising themes, including past male attitudes to female education, morals, and childhood.

Carlos Alba has worked for an impressive list of newspapers, including as editor of the Sunday Times Scotland.  He also co-authored a book on Celtic.  Bit of a lad really, but his book is accessible to pretty much everyone.  It’s a bit of an all-over image of society really, and yet avoids being at all vague or general.  I defy anyone to read this and not identify with at least one character!

RM

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