Small Faces

Small Faces is set in 1968 in Glasgow, where thirteen-year-old Lex lives with his mother and his two older brothers, Alan and Bobby. The middle one, Alan, dreams of getting into art school, while Bobby becomes more and more involved in the rivalry between two gangs of youths. Lex too is drawn into the bad environment, even though Alan ought to be his role model. Alan, you see, knows how to stay out of the feuding. At the same time he gets away with going out with the pretty Joanne MacGowan, whom one of the gang leaders, Malky Johnson, still regards as his property. Despite Lex's good intentions, he fares extremely badly in his encounter with Glasgow's underworld. To get revenge on the gang leader Charlie Sloan, who put Alan's friend in hospital, he plays a dangerous double game when he contacts Malky Johnson's gang to tell them where they can find Sloan. Unfortunately they find Bobby in the same place. They are actually more interested in getting their hands on him, so without meaning to, Lex becomes responsible for the murder of his own brother.

Small Faces is an extremely harsh story. It shows how hard it is to break free of one's environment, however bad it may be. At the same time, Gillies MacKinnon tells his story in a somewhat unconventional fashion that takes a little time to get used to.