51 pages • 1 hour read
James KelmanHow Late It Was, How Late
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Section 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 1-67 Summary
Content Warning: The source material features depictions of police violence, drug and alcohol abuse, and ableism against people with sight loss.
The protagonist, Sammy Samuels, awakens outdoors in a state of disorientation. His mind is filled with self-critical thoughts as he hopes to face his troubles but feels an internal barrier holding him back. He experiences physical discomfort: a sore back, a stiff body, and a pounding headache. He reflects on his situation, sitting near rusty palings and wearing old sneakers instead of his recently acquired leather shoes. He suspects that his leather shoes may have been stolen, possibly by someone who mistook him for dead.
As Sammy contemplates his predicament, he encounters people whom he initially considers tourists before realizing that they are policemen in civilian clothing (called “sodjers” in Glaswegian slang). Sammy experiences violent thoughts toward them. He then approaches them, asking for a pound coin, but is met with disdain and rejection, which causes him to confront them. A brief altercation ensues, and the policemen overpower Sammy and severely beat him.
Later, Sammy wakes up in a prison cell, where he battles excruciating physical discomfort. His thoughts oscillate between desperation and frustration as he reflects on the injuries that he has suffered. He observes that he is missing his personal belongings and expresses the desire to make a phone call to inform his girlfriend, Helen, of his situation. However, the police guards deny his request.
While lying down in the prison cell, Sammy realizes that he has lost his sight. He does not know exactly when he stopped seeing, because he was in the dark prison cell the whole time. He also experiences severe pain in his eyes. He tries to regain his vision by doing different eye movements and exercises but to no avail.
Sammy’s mental state changes from despair to self-humor and resilience. He is worried about Helen’s reaction to his absence. However, he decides that he must maintain a positive attitude and not give up in front of the authorities, whom he despises. He laughs to himself about his situation. He tries to remember what he was doing prior to the police beating. However, he only remembers fragments of the previous night’s drinking session.
After some time, police agents bring Sammy out of the cell. They address him roughly, deriding his loss of sight and calling him derogatory names. They give him back his belongings, including a golden chain that Helen gave him as a birthday present, his belt, and shoelaces. It turns out that Sammy was convicted previously and the police know him. Sammy used to gamble and shoplift. When the policemen release him, he asks to see a third party and a doctor to report his loss of eyesight and the physical pain he feels. However, the policemen abruptly dismiss his request and tell him to go to the hospital. Eventually, as the police authorities turn away from Sammy, he has to leave the police section, although he is unable to see where he is going. He also has no money to take a cab or bus.
Pages 68-105 Summary
Sammy finds himself disoriented outside of the police station. He tries to call for help, telling people that he has lost his wallet. However, nobody answers, and he does not even know if there are people around him. Sammy’s inner monologue reveals his struggle to navigate his surroundings and his desperation for help. He finds it cruel that the policemen did not provide him with a bus fare. He keeps trying to interact with people on the street, explaining his situation, but receives no response. Sammy becomes increasingly panicked as he loses touch with the wall that he has been using for guidance and ends up on the road. His calls for help go unanswered.
Eventually, Sammy gets assistance from a passerby who helps him to cross the road. Sammy feels disoriented and tense, fearing that he might encounter people from his troubled past. Despite his sight loss, he is determined to keep moving forward, occasionally reminiscing about his life experiences and struggles. Sammy’s inner monologue reflects his frustration and anxiety as he grapples with his sight loss and tries to find his way home. However, Sammy believes that he can overcome any obstacles. His life has taught him that he can make his way out of any situation, no matter how dire. In fact, he welcomes his new situation as a change for the better. He keeps telling himself that things will not be the same, which brings him a sense of peace.
Pages 106-151 Summary
As he attempts to make his way back home, Sammy’s thoughts are chaotic and fragmented, with repetitive swearing and expressions of anger. At times, he is overwhelmed by his surroundings and internal turmoil. He feels stranded and helpless, blaming himself for the situation in which he finds himself. Because of his loss of vision, Sammy’s other senses are heightened, such as his hearing and touch.
As Sammy moves through town, he is preoccupied with the idea of needing to find shelter and rest. He constantly attempts to get back to his apartment, though sometimes it is unclear if he can do so. The road ahead is very difficult to navigate in his current condition. Sammy is also tormented by his physical exhaustion and emotional turmoil. His thoughts touch on various topics, from his past experiences to the weather to his relationship with Helen.
As he walks back home with difficulty, Sammy has moments of severe anxiety due to not knowing where he is. Several people help him along the way, though many people whom he encounters do not express much empathy for his situation. Sammy constantly worries about not finding the sidewalk and walking into traffic.
Eventually, he comes across several points of reference that help him to regain his orientation. He stays close to a building wall that guides him back toward his apartment. Once he reaches home, he realizes that the house is as he left it. Helen, his girlfriend, is not at home, and there are no signs that she has been around. However, Sammy expects that she will return when she finishes work, after midnight.
Sammy takes comfort in coffee, the radio, and country music. As he spends more time in the house, his thoughts turn to different subjects, such as women and music.
The following day, Sammy decides that he will go to the Department of Social Security to register his blindness and ask for social benefits. He also realizes that he needs a stick to help him navigate on the street. He asks his neighbor, Boab, to lend him a saw so that he can cut off the head of a mop and turn it into a cane. The neighbor politely obliges and lends Sammy a saw. In addition, Sammy plans to paint the stick white to make it look like a white cane and to buy a pair of dark glasses to signal his blindness.
He gives his new stick a try by walking outside. He thinks of going to his regular drinking pub, Glancy’s. However, he realizes that the pub is too far and decides to return home and listen to the TV.
Section 1 Analysis
From the beginning of How Late It Was, How Late, James Kelman uses stream of consciousness narrative technique to portray Sammy’s internally erratic, though socially consistent, thought process. This allows the reader to delve into Sammy’s fragmented and anxious thoughts. James Kelman’s narrative choice captures Sammy’s mental state, emphasizing his disorientation and the chaos that he experiences. The disjointed narrative mirrors his fragmented perception of the world, emphasizing his struggle to process his recent traumatic experiences. His thoughts are erratic and violent, especially toward the authorities. The section is characterized by Sammy’s profound anxiety, a deep sense of isolation, and his ongoing struggle to come to terms with his sight loss.
Kelman’s style of stream of consciousness has an unpolished and raw quality. He uses a straightforward and colloquial approach. Sammy’s internal monologues are replete with profanity and devoid of conventional punctuation, resulting in a narrative voice that feels immediate and unvarnished. This linguistic realism aligns with Sammy’s working-class background and grounds readers in his gritty reality.
Sammy’s surroundings often mirror his inner turmoil. The darkness of the prison cell represents his troubled emotional state, uncertainty about his place in the world, and sight loss. Glasgow’s noisiness and commotion represent the anxious state of mind that Sammy is in after being released from prison. The setting establishes The Relationship Between Anxiety and Class.
Sammy’s physical discomfort is another crucial aspect of this section. He wakes up with soreness all over his body, especially in his back, ribcage area, and head. This adds to his overall sense of distress because he does not remember exactly how he ended up in this state.
Sammy’s initial encounter with the police is a result of his anger and disorientation. The narrative suggests that his anger has accumulated over a long period of time. This altercation sets the tone for the rest of the novel, as Sammy constantly returns to his hatred of all authority. His violent thoughts toward them foreshadow the antagonistic relationship between Sammy and the policemen, which plays a significant role in the narrative. His decision to confront the policemen reflects his defiance and his refusal to be intimidated, despite his dire circumstances. At the beginning of the novel, Kelman suggests that Sammy knows that he will receive a beating when he provokes the plainclothes policemen. When this happens, however, things escalate further than expected. Sammy’s sight loss is a surprise that even Sammy cannot fully comprehend immediately. It takes his release from prison and a troublesome trip back home for him to fully realize the extent of his newly vulnerable state.
Although Kelman does not represent Sammy as an innocent person, there is an underlying critique that he works into his representation of police agents. Their violence toward Sammy is not presented as justified by Sammy’s provocations. There is a stark power imbalance between Sammy, a working-class man with a history of convictions and later a person with a disability, and the police. Sammy has no means of defending himself beyond his resilience. His physical beating by the officers highlights the systemic issues of police violence and abuse of power, which isolate Sammy from the institutions that should protect him.
One of the most pivotal moments in this section is Sammy’s realization that he has lost his sight. This revelation is a profound and life-altering experience. Sammy’s realization of his sight loss is introduced gradually, as the protagonist is in a “dark place” already, both emotionally and physically. The novel then captures the moment when Sammy’s world turns from darkness to complete blindness, symbolizing his descent into a state of further uncertainty and isolation. The reader witnesses Sammy’s desperate attempts to regain his vision, including various eye movements and exercises. His struggle to see, paired with the excruciating pain in his eyes, emphasizes the physical and emotional torment that he undergoes. Becoming Accustomed to Sight Loss is a central theme that shapes Sammy’s perception of the world, where he can be seen without being able to see himself. Throughout the narrative, Sammy discovers that there are things he can no longer do and attempts to find new ways of handling them.
Despite his dire circumstances, Sammy experiences moments of humor and resilience. His decision to maintain a positive attitude and not give in to despair before the authorities reflects his determination to preserve his dignity. Sammy’s humor becomes a coping mechanism—a way to navigate the absurdity of his situation and maintain some semblance of control. Kelman represents Sammy’s journey as a reminder of the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring quest for dignity and justice.
Sammy’s stream-of-consciousness narrative includes reflections on his past. These reflections provide depth to his character and offer insights into the challenges that he has faced before losing his sight. His troubled history, which includes gambling and shoplifting, adds complexity to his character and hints at the broader societal issues with which he is grappling.
