Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh -
The book does focus on a set of wrong-side-of-the-track friends involved with drugs, alcohol, petty crime, and anything else they can find to take their minds off their completely unfulfilling lives. A large challenge of the book is that the majority is written in Edinburgh dialect. All the characters in the book are somehow linked together. They each tell at least one story through their own eyes. You are taken through a journey, shown the ins and outs of these people's addiction, attempts to kick the addiction, and their ultimate failures, either through illness, after two characters contract HIV, or just through keeping on in their drug use. The characters are vivid and their situations are made to seem very realistic, and relatable to something that would happen in real life.
The author, Irvine Welsh, is renowned for having quite a criminal life himself. Whether the rumours of his rough life were true or not, I believe that the authors previous actions have influenced his writing at quite a few points in the novel.
I have yet to finish the book, as it is taking me a long time to read, because of the dialect, but so far I would highly recommend this book.
An interesting debate around the time of the excellent film adaptation of Trainspotting was whether Welsh glamourised the life of a drug-addict or not. Any thoughts?
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a really intriguing book though it does not really fit with the idea i have , i might read it later.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't think I'll be using it, but it is enjoyable. In very small doses.
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