Clare Reviews Luckenbooth by Jenni Fagan

Your money will be well spent here, be warned, this is a book you may need/have to reread immediately after first finishing. It will be difficult not to be in awe at the way this story has been laid out; divided into 3 parts, broken into chapters (almost short stories themselves) of 9 diverse characters, 3 stories each, told over the buildings 9 floors, spanning across 9 decades. Keeping up so far? It is seriously ambitious. But purists may even want to scribble notes in the margins, underline paragraphs to revisit because Fagan is a poet, and therefore has a way of using words and sentences, and building plots that make you marvel at the sheer magic of words. Her words dance, and then run at you at top speed.

No.10 Luckenbooth Close and its residents will haunt you. Fagan has a way of developing the characters clearly, making them instantly real. We are first introduced to Jessie MacRae (21) the devil’s daughter in 1910, who hides her developing horns in her hair. She had rowed to Edinburgh from an unknown island, having been sold to a rich man to father his child. What happens next caused the building and its residents to be cursed for the rest of the century.

You may know of the real life tormented character William Burroughs, and if not, you’ll want to research him. Fagan braids him into the story seamlessly, his empathy to otherworldliness is shown. You’ll be juggling different stories all at once, all the while sensing the tenement itself, and feeling the curse grow.

Fagan was interviewed recently saying that when she walks across the bridges in Edinburgh city centre she can sense Jessie MacRae (the devils daughter) walking with her, looking at her with curiosity. Edinburgh is a city steeped in dark history, undoubtedly there is a beauty too, it has a presence, and in this book, you feel it like it’s a character itself. In the beginning of the books Fagan has quoted the underlined line from Hugh MacDiarmid, laying out an idea of what your about to experience.

But Edinburgh is a mad god's dream

Fitful and dark,

Unseizable in Leith

And wildered by the Forth,

But irresistibly at last Cleaving to sombre heights

Of passionate imagining Till stonily,

From soaring battlements, Earth eyes Eternity.

Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978)

If dark magic, witches, séances, Ouija Boards and tales of the supernatural all appeal then this book is definitely worth considering. Fagan writes LGBT love and sex scenes like no one else, prepare yourself for those. This is a dark, raw, but a fantastic piece of fiction and I would highly recommend it and Fagan’s other work to all.

Request a copy of the book here.

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