An unconventional amalgam of literary forms which feels disarmingly honest
Adventures Of A Looney Scot is a humorous mix of biography, fiction and Scottish history. It covers an array of topics, but most recurring are those surrounding Scottish identity and how it relates to Scotland becoming incorporated into the British empire. Even though Scotland is a nation of great scientists, artists, and builders, one gets the impression that some of its people would be perfectly content had Hadrian’s Wall been the supreme representative product of their history and culture. It was the Romans who built it to keep the Caledonians at bay, of course, but it’s hard not to define yourself in relation to your neighbor when they are an empire.
The conceit of Adventures Of A Looney Scot is that the author is in the possession of the papers of deceased Dr. Ewan McLeod, a Scottish geologist who worked in Hong Kong and is reconstructing a sort of memoir based on these. Our author is also a Scottish geologist who has worked in East Asia, so the boundaries between the two are blurred.
McLeod lightheartedly narrates growing up with a mightily Scottish family, but the hardship can still be detected through the humor, as the young boy is so embarrassed to be seen on his father’s coal truck that he covers his face with its obscuring load. Things were starting to look up, however, as post-war Glasgow was developing at the same time as young McLeod.
We read of the adventurous adolescent’s escapades, particularly his passion for sailing the beautiful Lochs of Scotland, first on a canoe and later, and much more extensively, on a dinghy. He experienced more than one near-run-thing, but made it through, undrowned, to tell the tale. “This dynamic dickhead,” he brags in signature style, “had been dicing with death to defeat disaster.” Alliterative to the last!
The book also makes a great deal out of McLeod’s appeal to the ladies, including yet another near-run-thing with an indignant husband, as well as a tick-removing incident involving the help of two eager female passers-by. Ewan looks to have been a charismatic, if self-serving, fellow, judging from the material in his papers.
Following the biographical part of the book is a quasi-manifesto exalting the glories of Scotland, but it also includes many more and various things. The author defends the Scottish breakfast and directs missiles at the global food industry. More substantially, he claims the Caledonians of the last ice age possessed greater knowledge of acoustics than we do today, hinting that their brains could resonate together at 432 Hz and so produce wonders. Though yet to be supported by evidence, such theories have garnered great interest, and they will undoubtedly long continue to do so. The concern with the past is not entirely parochial, as Smith praises some achievements not only of the ancient Babylonians but also of the ancient Filipinos.
Adventures Of A Looney Scot is a book of large and passionate claims. Some of those claims are pragmatic, such as those in favor of Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, while a few are hypothetical, even metaphorical, and are consequently not as strong. In every instance, the unapologetic tone and continuous wordplay leave no room for dullness. It is both charmingly rugged and ruggedly charming.
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