Bunker Man [Paperback]

Duncan McLean (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 1997

"A powerful novel of psychological suspense by a young writer hailed as 'Scotland's answer to Roddy Doyle.'"--Cosmopolitan

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, Rob's suspicions tilt into obsession. It is time for a showdown. Time to confront Bunker Man . . .

A powerful, terrifying tale of horror and breakdown from an extraordinarily gifted young writer a smashing American debut.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The head janitor at a school in coastal Scotland seems to be doing well: he's got a good job and a new wife who enjoys making love to him. But she earns twice as much money as he does, and his thoughts about filth and danger and sex are making a racket like bees in his head. He sees a strange man in a hooded parka hanging out in the woods near the school and he catches a 14-year-old girl with a porn magazine. He worries about these things. He knows he's the school kids' "guardian angel," and soon he's going to have to make a stand. "Everybody kens there's bad things going on, but no one'll face up to them. Everyone says, Not my business, nothing to do with me. While evil rules everywhere!" Bunker Man is a skillfully fashioned horror tale, rich with Scottish slang.

From Library Journal

In this new work from Scottish author MacLean, whose story collection, Bucket of Tongues, won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1993, newlyweds Rob and Karen Catto set up house in a Scottish town where Rob is the new head janitor at a local school. For no apparent reason, Rob quickly degenerates into the school's resident lunatic and pervert. Obsessed with the notion that a vagrant living in an abandoned concrete bunker on the grounds poses a physical and moral danger to the students (even the one Rob himself is having an affair with), he sets out to trap "Bunker Man" and save the children. Given Rob's complete lack of cunning, the only mystery is why the others fail to notice his painfully obvious dementia from the start. Sluggish, pointless, and predictable, the plot leads to an inconclusive and unsatisfying ending. Not recommended.?Lori Dunn, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Troy, N.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition first Printing edition (May 17, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393316165
• ISBN-13: 978-0393316162
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,865,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Different Take On Bunker Man, August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bunker Man (Paperback)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creepy & Disturbing... and I mean that in a good way, September 24, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bunker Man (Hardcover)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost a winner, August 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bunker Man (Paperback)

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.