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The novel was called "a magnificently brisk, funny, dirty, brainy book" by the London Review Of Books and is a departure from Gray's usual subject-matter of Glasgow realism and fantasy. However, its Victorian narrative takes in Gray's previous concerns with social inequalities, relationships, memory and identity. STORY The story itself centres on Bella Baxter, a woman whose early life and identity are the subject of some ambiguity, and is narrated by her husband Archibald McCandless in the form of an autobiography of "Episodes from the Early Life of a Scottish Public Health Officer". This historical document is followed by Bella's (or Victoria's) refutation of its facts, suggesting that her "poor fool" of a husband has concocted a life for her from the prevailing gothic and romantic motifs of the period: it "positively stinks of all that was morbid in that most morbid of centuries". This is reinforced by the novel's intricate echoes of Mary Shelley 's Frankenstein . These fictitious historical documents are prefaced with an introduction by one Alasdair Gray, who presents himself as the editor of the following text. The story of the discovery of the papers themselves features two real friends of the author's: Michael Donnely and Elspeth King. This introduction also hosts a critique of Glasgow City Council's treatment of its culture and heritage in the neglect of the local history museum, and a brief mention of Glasgow's time as the European Capital Of Culture in 1990 , which would be the subject of a more sustained satire in his novel Something Leather . NOTES Poor Things contains illustrations by Alasdair Gray, which the text claims are by the Scottish etcher and illustrator William Strang . There are also punning additions of fragments of images from Gray's Anatomy . One feature of the novel which has also attracted comment is the page of review quotes which also features a printed erratum strip. Some of these reviews are patently fictitious (such as those from the Skiberdeen Eagle and the Private Nose) and others are attributed to real publications, but seem so harsh that their authenticity is called into question. SOURCES
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