Book 45 - Irvine Welsh "Trainspotting"

[jazzy_dave]

Irvine Welsh "Trainspotting" (Vintage)



The story is written in vignettes, each being a situation of one of the members of a group of friends. Some are written in first person and some in third. I’d never want to be around these people in real life because, the way the book is written, anyone outside of their group is fair game for taunting and much, much worse. These are Scottish street guys -- criminals who knife people, steal money, commit robberies, do many kinds of hard drugs, drink themselves into oblivion, and have sex in their occasional lucid times of not having too much too drink.

The writing is good in that it uses the local vernacular, which is made easier to understand with the help of a glossary--easily found and printed out from the internet. It is also a very colourful read which uses the guys’ base street talk and incorporates some really, really funny lines (“Dianne took the opportunity, and rode herself into a climax, Renton lying there like a dildo on a large skateboard”). I had to laugh out loud at quite a few of them. So as not to frighten myself, I think of this book as a look at another culture. From an anthropological standpoint, this is a great read! :-) I’ll be looking for more writing by this author.

I didn’t realize that this story was headed in any particular direction. It seemed just as shattered and dishevelled as the lives of the characters of the novel. I realized, in the end, it was the story of the direction in which Mark Renton was headed all along, but then having seen the film previously may years ago, I should have known.