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Buddha
Da |
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Alan Docherty |
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Novels like Buddha Da should carry an advisory warning: 'Readers may find the language in this book unintelligible'. A book that you can't read, how radge is that? (Radge is a word that crops up in Buddha Da. It means 'mad'.) Jimmy McKenna, the 'Buddha Da', is a once down-to-earth painter and decorator, who falls in with a bunch of Buddhists, takes a vow of celibacy and moves out of his Glaswegian family home in a search of 'clarity'. Unsurprisingly, everyone who knew Jimmy is bemused. Buddha Da is an affectionate and humorous portrayal of his Glaswegian family which teeters on the brink of collapse. It's a funny and warm story without the sentimentality that so often poisons portrayals of working class lives. There is, however, a significant problem with Buddha Da - many readers won't understand the language the characters talk in. The book's reliance on Glaswegian vernacular will be off-putting to anyone who hasn't spent a little time in Scotland (this reviewer spent the first twenty years of his life in Scotland and still didn't understand every word). This depiction of local dialects is a fad of modern literature. It's tempting to blame Irvine Welsh for the problem, Trainspotting was peppered with colourful but difficult-to-understand words and phrases. The first twenty minutes of the film version of Trainspotting were redubbed for North American audiences, and web pages like the Trainspotting Glossary appeared on the web providing guides for translation. The obsession with speaking the language of 'real people' runs deep in contemporary writing. It reflects a focus on the local and a retreat from the universal. The approach tells us plenty about places, but very little about people. Doubtless, characters in novels must inhabit communities but the community that 'Buddha Da' inhabits is narrow and closed. The characters are cut of the same cloth, even the teenage Sikh, Nisha, worships pop icon Madonna and sings at a Y2K party as a self-styled 'Millennium Babe'. Nisha may eat spicy food but beyond that she is a Scottish as neeps (turnip), haggis and Irn Bru. Nevertheless, the tension in Buddha Da is a powerful one. The portrayal of Jimmy's struggle with Buddhism and the demands of his family are effectively and honestly portrayed. Jimmy is no mug, he just responds to unfulfilment in his life. He struggles to explain to his twelve year old daughter why he gets satisfaction from meditation. She has a better explanation: 'Some folk like meditation, some prefer EastEnders'. It's left to Jimmy's wife, Liz, to cut through his mid-life crisis. Her reaction to Jimmy's need for celibacy is to demand to know how her sexual needs will be met. Liz cuts through Jimmy's infatuation with Buddhism and his calls for counselling with a healthy passion for life. Buddha
Da won't provide any spiritual enlightenment but it's an entertaining
and stimulating read.
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