Bunker Man

by Duncan McLean

Book Overview

Rob and Karen Catto are a newly married young couple settling into their lives together on the northeast coast of Scotland. Rob's job as a janitor at the local school involves him in both the lives of his students and issues of security. So he takes sharp notice of a hulking figure in a parka lurking around the edges of the school, leering through windows, and squatting in an abandoned concrete bunker. As unpleasant and unsettling incidents multiply,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393316165
• ISBN13: 9780393316162
• Release Date: May 1997
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Creepy & Disturbing... and I mean that in a good way

This is a wonderfully written book that does what really good fiction should do: it stays with you and makes you rethink its characters' motives and actions over and over. I write this in response to the reviews which call this book irresponsible and/or perverse and/or glorying in immoral behavior. I find this critique to be without basis. If reading books or watching plays about immoral activities is immoral, then let's start with banning Macbeth and move on from there. Yes, this book is creepy, but that's the point. It is extremely effective creepiness.

Economic and Effective Writing

Here we have yet another Scottish writer (cf. Iain Bank's "The Wasp Factory", Irvine Welsh's "Filth")who seems to have mastered the art of entering the head of a total psycho and writing about it all in a very unsensational offhand way so that the tension sneaks up on you. This is a very short and quick read, and I don't want to give anything away, but I'll just say that it's a pretty disturbing portrait of a man's decent into paranoia. BTW, there's lots of sex--much of it pretty unpleasant. Not everyone is going to like the ending, but I thought it was effective and the best resolution for all that preceded it. A good example of economic, yet evocative, writing.

A Different Take On Bunker Man

I am somewhat reluctant to post a review only a few days after I've read the book but I've had Bunker Man on my 'to read' pile for several months. I read all the reviews long before I bought the book but I finally decided it was something that I wanted to read despite the negative reviews, being a fan of Scottish fiction. And I've got to say that I was marginally impressed.To address previous reviews, yes, the book is graphic, offensive, contains horrible language, is not a mystery, is hardly a thriller, and lacks a certain amount of character development, as most of it is spent on protagonist Robbie Catto. Having said that, if you don't mind any of the above, I think that Bunker Man is a fine piece of Scottish fiction.This book paints a rather unsettling picture of a school janitor as he sinks into a psychotic paranoia. And yet, the reader can't help but see some good in him even after he's done his best to alienate himself from society and the reader's sympathies. At the very least McLean is gifted at eliciting emotion from the reader.If you're a devotee of Scottish fiction and have a strong constitution, give it a try. I was more than happy I took the time to read it. I guess its because of the presence of the bunker, but I was immediately reminded of Iain Banks' similarly controversial yet brilliant Wasp Factory. McLean's style of fiction fits well into that of his contemporaries such as Banks, Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner and James Kelman.

Almost a winner

Haunting and disturbing. Not for those who dislike strong language and graphic descriptions of sex activities. I loked the book for the wonderful portrayal of place. The writer catches speech rhythms perfectly--including prolific use of four letter words, commonly used in those parts. The author describes Robbie's descent into insanity while maintaining the readers sympathy for him almost to the end, at the same time rousing pity for his victims. However the book fails at the end --it stops as if the author had got up from his desk one day and never returned. Something else was needed to round off the story without leaving the reader hanging. Reads like a promising first novel by a writer who will go far.

paranoia, low self esteem, and sexual dysfunction...

the fodder of classic "working man angst." The one problem Robbie Catto doesn't suffer from is alcoholism, obsessive jogging being his poison. This book is disarming to say the least. The disintegration of Catto's wonderful relationship with his wife is inversely linked to his associations with the mysterious "bunker man." Like the grim face in the mirror - Catto is drawn to the figure and is simultaneously abhorred by all that the man represents. Wonderful earthy writing, makes me proud to be a Scot