Glasgow smells like dump, factory and crime. At least, this is what happens in the novels of the Scotsman Alan Parks, set in the early seventies and that Tusquets is publishing in Spanish. Last year, the first of the police Harry McCoy series, ‘Bloody January’, arrived, and these days the second, ‘Sons of February’ has just been published. A new murder narrated quite explicitly and a new journey through the world of underworld, brothels and all the cliches of the black novel. Because, yes, Parks pulls all the stereotypes – the tough but endearing cop, the ‘femme fatale’, the mobster … – but he does it very well.
Before turning to literature, this Scotsman made a living at the Warner record company. And it shows his passion for music and popular culture. In his novels, there are concerts, such as one of Bowie, and the costumes refer to the one created by the designer Vivianne Westwood in the seventies. The beginnings of punk, football George Best and class inequalities. But if the novels go back to that time, Parks is also very committed to today. Brexit irritates him a lot, he doesn’t like how Boris Johnson is doing it and Scotland would have been better off staying in the European Union. He talks about all this in this interview.
QUESTION. His novels show the Glasgow of the seventies, a time of delinquency and crime. More than 40 years have passed, but now we are also living in difficult times. How is our society like the one you portray?
REPLY. Unfortunately, many of the things that were wrong in the 1970s continue today. Scotland has a horrible overdose death rate. Child poverty, the homeless, institutional abuses … Many of the issues that have been tried to eradicate since the 1970s do not seem to be much better. And when there are problems like that, there are always crimes …
Q. Do you think we are going to an era with more unsafe streets due to the pandemic?
A. I don’t think so. There are fewer people on the street, the pubs are not open and drugs are harder to come by. The things that make violence break out are missing.
P. The seventies seem like a time when certain rules were in force, even among crime. And drugs were not so present. Do you think that inequalities are more latent in our time? Will they increase?
A. I’m not sure the seventies were less difficult. I remember the seventies. Unemployment was very high. The industry was collapsed. Women charged a fraction of what men did. In Northern Ireland, problems claimed many lives… Inequality is always with us. Perhaps it was somewhat less obvious in the seventies. Now, governments are more careful when trying to hide it.
“Inequality is always there. Maybe it was something less obvious in the seventies. Now, governments are more careful when it comes to hiding it.”
P. The protagonist of your novel, Harry McCoy, is a tough guy, but at the same time he is very endearing, he cares about the most vulnerable people. It gives a bit the feeling that it belongs to another era. Today it would fit hard. Are social relationships more complicated today? Sometimes we seem to treat our fellow men worse.
A. Well, he would have grown up in a different environment and would be a different person. But I am sure that his essential characteristics, such as a conscience for the weak, resistance to authority, and a sense of moral justice, would stick with him. Perhaps I would not express them so forcefully. But I don’t think that social relationships are more complicated. I think they are better now. People who are different are now treated with much more respect and have greater legal protections. That didn’t happen in the seventies.
Q. In your books, there is a lot of popular culture, music, a Bowie concert, the Rolling Stones … You worked before being a writer for a multinational music company and you know this industry quite a bit. How do you think you will survive this pandemic? It is one of the most affected sectors.
A. It is true that musicians and the music industry are living in terrible times. Most musicians, unless you are very successful, don’t make money from streaming but from concerts, and now there are no concerts. The harsh reality is that many of them will have to quit and try to make money in a more conventional way. Good thing I started McCoy’s books in the seventies, so I have plenty of material until 2020. I would have to write another 20 books until I hit pandemic times. I don’t think that will happen.
“The stark reality is that many musicians will have to quit and try to make money in a more conventional way.”
Q. How are you handling these pandemic times?
A. Personally, the pandemic is difficult as it is for everyone. People often tell me, “well, this doesn’t affect you because you’re at home writing.” Partly it’s true, but I also have another life. It has been less bad for me than for most people, but I have also missed people, traveling, going out … The Mitchell Library in Glasgow closed, so I could not go to check data in old newspapers or maps for my latest book. I guess that’s why there will be some bugs.
Q. UK has been confined again. Is the Boris Johnson Government doing its homework with this pandemic?
R. The United Kingdom, like most countries, is dealing with the blows of the pandemic. He is trying to limit the virus and at the same time that the economy does not collapse. But I am not sure if it is working.
P. And finally, Brexit arrived. How does it feel Why has something like Brexit succeeded today and not in other times?
R. Brexit is a total shit. It is a disaster. I think it has happened now because a certain conservative mentality has resurfaced. A mentality obsessed with sovereignty and a kind of Victorian vision of where the UK stands in relation to the rest of the world.
“Brexit is a total shit. It is a disaster. I think it has happened now because a certain conservative mentality has resurfaced”
Q. Scotland wanted to stay in the EU. Do you think this issue will be taken up again?
A. I don’t think it makes much sense to say that Scotland wanted to stay in the EU. That possibility was never on the table. Many people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland also wanted to stay in the EU!
Q. But is it time for a new referendum? What do you think is best for Scotland?
A. Now I think the best thing for Scotland and the rest of the world would be to try to deal with the pandemic and get it under control. Once that’s done, we can take care of everything else.
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Glasgow smells like dump, factory and crime. At least, this is what happens in the novels of the Scotsman Alan Parks, set in the early seventies and that Tusquets is publishing in Spanish. Last year, the first of the police Harry McCoy series, ‘Bloody January’, arrived, and these days the second, ‘Sons of February’ has just been published. A new murder narrated quite explicitly and a new journey through the world of underworld, brothels and all the cliches of the black novel. Because, yes, Parks pulls all the stereotypes – the tough but endearing cop, the ‘femme fatale’, the mobster … – but he does it very well.
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