The Good Times by James Kelman

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book cover of
The Good Times
by
James Kelman

The Good Times (1998)
A novel by James Kelman

Amazon.co.uk ReviewJames Kelman's first book since his 1994 Booker-winning novel, How Late It Was, How Late, is a collection of 20 soliloquies from his habitual protagonist; the Scottish working-class male. The Good Times features men drinking, men working and men simply being with other men. That is not to say women are totally absent. In fact women are often the motivating force for these stories, but they are only glimpsed through the dreams, expectations and, most of all, the anxieties of the men. "She was bending down to look inside one of her bags and her head bumped the edge of the table", recounts the ham-fisted romantic narrator of "Oh my darling". "I moved my hand towards her but she drew me one hell of a look. It's not gony happen again, she said, that's for bloody sure, just no way. And remember this, it was you who asked me to come, it was nay me dragged ye." To anyone who has read Kelman's previous work the relentless swearing will come as no surprise, but it is the accuracy and power of his prose that really draws the reader up short with its telling incisiveness into the troubled lives of his characters. This impressive collection is a bleak, wry and occasionally humorous insight into the quiet agonies of everyday life. --Nick Wroe

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Used availability for James Kelman's The Good Times

See all available used copies of this book at: Abebooks UK or Abebooks US

Hardback Editions

June 1999 : Hardback

Title: Good Times
Author(s): James Kelman
ISBN: 1-4177-1107-8 / 978-1-4177-1107-9 (USA edition)
Publisher: San Val
Availability: Amazon Amazon UK
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July 1998 : Hardback

Title: The Good Times
Author(s): James Kelman
ISBN: 0-436-41215-2 / 978-0-436-41215-8 (UK edition)
Publisher: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd
Availability: Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA
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Paperback Editions

July 2009 : Paperback

Title: Good Times
Author(s): James Kelman
ISBN: 1-84697-055-5 / 9781846970559 (UK edition)
Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn
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October 1999 : Paperback

Title: The Good Times
Author(s): James Kelman
ISBN: 0-09-927697-6 / 978-0-09-927697-5 (UK edition)
Publisher: Vintage
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August 1999 : Paperback

Title: The Good Times
Author(s): James Kelman
ISBN: 0-385-49580-3 / 978-0-385-49580-6 (USA edition)
Publisher: Anchor Books
Availability: Amazon Amazon UK
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January 1998 : Paperback

Title: The Good Times
Author(s): James Kelman
Publisher: Secker & Warburg, Lon
Availability: Amazon
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Other Editions

1999 : Unknown

Title: The good times
Author(s): Kelman James
Publisher: London
Availability: Amazon
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1999 : Unknown

Title: The good times
Author(s): Kelman James
Publisher: London
Availability: Amazon UK
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January 1998 : Unknown

Title: The Good Times
Author(s):
Publisher: Secker & Warburg, Lon
Availability: Amazon
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