I read this years ago as a teen and loved its quirky acceptance of violence and mistrust in an outlying remote community of people who the world forgot. Reading it again 20 odd years later it is still an apt description of these weird little places where life is hard and the reasons to stay are few but also epic in their own disjointed and unraveled way.

Thoughts from 2006

More Scottish wierdness from Alan Warner. This follows on from Morvern Callar, although I actually read it before I read Morvern. And to be honest, I think I prefer this one over Morvern Callar. She isn't the only main character in the book and she isn't the narrator this time - that job goes to the air crash investigator.

The story is set on a Scottish island with a cast of odd characters and bizarre behaviour. Very curious read. Quite funny in places.

The further adventures of that Scottish wild child and nature-luster Morvern Callar. If you dug the first one, you have to read this one (and there's a third).

I adored Morvern Callar and The Sopranos and have only just got round to reading this, the sequel to Morvern Callar. I had high hopes, but they were not entirely realised. I accept that Warner is an oddity as an author, it's what I like about him. In a way he reminds me of Nicola Barker, a genius author who for me can be very hit and miss in terms of enjoyment. That is kind of what you sign up for when you follow an author who isn't afraid to push the boundaries. For me, this was a kind of Gonzo Scottish vibe. Slightly psychedelic, verging on mystical, hallucinatory in places and, if you care to ponder it deeply, probably quite philosophical. There were some funny moments here amongst all the stream of consciousness and depth, but for me, what really missed the mark was the sense that Morvern Callar herself was largely missing from the book. If I hadn't known it was a sequel, I wouldn't have known that it was her in these pages and that was a shame, because she's a great character. It has moments of greatness I think, but it's too all over the place to ultimately pull it together.

2.5 stars rounded up but to be honest I don't know where I am with this or how to rate it. It's very 1990s postmodernism, and I didn't know what was going on for most of it, but did stick with it and finish it.

I read Morvern Callar in the late-1990s and really enjoyed it (I was in my late teens and I grew up in the Scottish Highlands so it was context-appropriate). My paperback of these Demented Lands moved house with me several times over the last twenty years and I finally read it - I think I would have enjoyed it at lot more if I'd read it soon after it's predecessor. For me it ended up maybe being wrong time, wrong place, wrong life stage to enjoy it properly.

What a mess this is... This "darkly intoxicating brew" (The Guardian) picks up the story of young a young Scottish lass (see his debut, "Morvern Callar") as she returns from the continent. She comes to a wee little island where honeymooners stay at a weird hotel, and there's a cast of supporting bizarros. Really tough to get through and none too rewarding despite occasionally clever language at times. Warner's got talent, but try his much more accessible "The Sopranos" before trying this.