Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
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Book Reviews of Trainspotting
Book Review: Trainspotting Review
Summary: 5 Stars
Trainspotting, by Irvine Welsh, is a realistic fiction novel about Scottish lowlifes fighting friends, enemies, and an even crueler, more harmful force: heroin. The story focuses on one character in particular, Mark Renton, who continually battles this self-destructive addiction that constantly interferes with and impacts his life. In and out of his drug habit he must search for relationships, jobs, but most importantly any meaning his life or life itself might contain.The setting of Trainspotting varies throughout the story. The many characters travel all over Edinburgh, Scotland, and Leith. They live in the trashy parts of the cities staying with whomever they can and spending the rest of their time at various pubs. The specific year is never mentioned, but it appears to take place in the early nineties. The author, Irvine Welsh, has a unique way of using setting in the story. Although it's not completely relevant upfront, it's always an important backdrop, and the character's actions show subconscious devotion to their settings. An example of this is how Renton takes plenty of time discussing how he dislikes Scotland, but then narrates, "We go fir a [walk] in the auld Central Station, which is soon to be demolished... Somehow that makes us sad, even though ah wis eywis too young tae mind ay trains ever being here." The atmosphere of Trainspotting is very honest with traces of pessimism. The world is portrayed darkly and depressingly, yet truthfully.
The protagonist of Trainspotting, Mark Renton, has a very deviant view on life. The author shows Mark's thoughts, which for the most part are never appreciative or even attempt to see the bright side of things, unless the situation is ironic. He has a thick Scottish accent and dresses his lanky body in converse and fitted clothing. He has a reputation of being a screw up due to his constant state of kicking, relapsing, then starting back up on heroin. However, his mates do view him as trustworthy. His actions may appear negative sometimes, but he also does have feelings of love and friendship he conveys to people. Irvine Welsh definitely wrote Mark to be a round character. He is also nowhere near a stock character because of his unique thoughts and actions. It's arguable whether he's a static or dynamic character, but I personally found Mark to be dynamic because of his thoughts at the end of the book compared with those at the beginning. By the time the resolution occurs, Mark's bitter hatred for the human race has begun to subside. Overall, I simply enjoyed Renton's rude, why-bother outlook on things.
The narrative hook of Trainspotting occurs when an unknown character begins describing a group of people shooting up heroin as an everyday part of life. The plot is hard to determine since the book mainly switches to different characters and tells about random happenings in their lives. It goes in and out of the junkies' lives while they come off drugs, only to become defeated mentally and begin using again. The story also deals with the social interaction between the group of friends. Mark has built up angst for Sick Boy, who he must deal with. Begbie is constantly starting up unnecessary fights with innocent people, and Spud spends all his time dreaming about a relationship instead of getting up the courage to get one. As the chapters unfold and you discover who the characters really are it all builds up to the final climax of the story, one very shocking if not unbelievable one indeed.
Irvine Welsh, while perhaps being a bit too crude for some people, is an amazing, extremely talented author. He writes in phonetics, combining dialogue, description, and a reader's own personal look into the character's minds. He includes flashbacks, lots of irony, symbolism, and even has song lyrics pertaining to scenes in the story included throughout the book. Once you get used to his style of writing, his humor in the dialogue and thought are extremely enjoyable. He has a very distinct style (at least to me because I haven't read any other work by British authors) and he tells the truth. By truth I mean he does not spare any detail that would occur in real life simply to make the story more polite. He's true to life and I enjoy reading what a character is actually thinking, or seeing how they really would react. Overall I think Irvine Welsh has a very enjoyable style of writing with his true-to-life scenes, somewhat darker humor, and interesting characters which make his work distinctive. If Irvine Welsh did indeed have just one theme for Trainspotting it would probably be to question things you wouldn't ordinarily, and to make up your own opinions. He wants to encourage the readers to gain their own sense of independence. Irvine Welsh wrote the book to show ordinary life through the lives of unordinary people. I would highly recommend Trainspotting for anyone who is not too easily offended, enjoys real life stories, and is looking for a new and rare perspective on things.
Book Review: Better than Bible!
Summary: 5 Stars
In the darkest corner of a drug fuelled Scottish sub-culture, its members being sociopaths of the highest order, Irvine Welsh exposes the truth about societies fringe, delving from personal experience as an unemployed, drug using Scot. He, and his characters, resemble "normal" more than the common man dares to allude. Trainspotting is undoubtedly aimed at the general population in Western society who are so willing to prejudge members of certain sub-cultures. Heroin is tool unto which the protagonist, "Rents", uses to kick against society- his philosophy being, "ah choose no tae choose life". He and his "associates" habituate in the working class city of Leith, Scotland. The mentality unto which the heroin users live is that, "nothing exists in ma life except masel and Michael Forrester (heroin)". It is a sub-culture where nothing else in the world matters but getting to the next hit, which Rents claims to be virtuous, as it is an escape from reality...life.Trainspotting is a post-modern novel. It the narrative is a series of disjointed anecdotes unlike a carefully constructed novel in literary traditions. This allows it to aim at a wide range of people within society who it is attempting to communicate with, each of them being able to relate to Trainspotting on their own individual levels. Every anecdote is a narrative of events, in both first and third person perspectives. The novel rotates through perspective, giving a voice to the unheard people in our society. Trainspotting gives us a unique perspective on ordinary events in ones life through the eyes of unordinary people. This is important, as it allows Trainspotting is an important way Trainspotting relates to a broad audience. The characters are not narrating the story; it is simply a digest of their thoughts. Trainspotting chronicles how what may seem as exceptional and anti-social behaviour occurs to the junkies, and their subsequent acquaintances, as normal. For instance, throughout the book the character drink alcohol with the sole purpose of intoxication and regularly solve disputes through violence.
When Trainspotting is being narrated in first person perspective it is written in phonetic Scottish. The character all speak in a distinctly Scottish sociolect of the lower class, using words such as ken, radge, scoobied, likesay, giro and bairn. Their speech is also filled with expletives. This could possibly isolate non-Scottish readers with little tolerance for other cultures- the type of people Trainspotting is seeking to enlighten. Rents is Welsh's authorial voice, which he has cleverly setup so that it is conceivable that Rents has a sophisticated vocabulary (because he was a university drop out). This is mixture of language aptly communicates to many levels of audience and also serves as breaking certain clichés and stereotypes of lower socio-economic sub-cultures by the fact the author of the book, which would be considered in some circles "high brow", is (or was) a member of this sub-culture.
Trainspotting's social ideology is vehemently disestablishmentarianism,. The characters, particularly Rents, reject all of societies institutions such as education, parenthood in the traditional sense, employment and politics. "... them all," asserts Sick Boy. The characters themselves are constructed in a way where really on the rejection of institutions to live their lives, the reason that they become a sub-culture. Society, in Rents opinion, is filled with "boring middle class ...". People in Western society who are willing to pre-judge people are almost always tied into institutions, particularly political institutions.
It is an imcredibly powerful book that indeed does "deserve to sell more copies than the Bible".
Book Review: Not for everyone
Summary: 5 Stars
This is why I love reading challenges - they allow me to discover books I would have never picked up on my own. Let's face it, would I ever intentionally seek a book about Scottish low-lives - junkies, thugs, and prostitutes? Don't think so. But alas, the fate threw Welsh's "Trainspotting" my way and I ate it up like hot cakes.
"Trainspotting" is a collection of short stories narrating scenes in the lives of a Skag Boys (skag = heroin) - Rents, Sick Boy, Begsbie, Spud, and various people around them - their families, lovers, drug suppliers, partners in crime, or victims. Mark Renton (Rents) is more or less is the protagonist, this is mostly his story, even though the stories are written from multiple points of view in 1st and 3rd person. The majority of them are also narrated in Scottish dialect, so some initial effort to understand is required.
The best thing about this book is that it takes you on a roller-coaster ride - it takes you from revulsion to uncontrollable boasts of laughter to tears of compassion. Considering that every other word in this book is a profanity, I think Irvine Welsh has talent.
"Trainspotting" starts off as a rather repulsive read - within the first 10 pages Rents is fishing out the drugs that he has just rectally ingested out of the filthy overflowing public toilet. The repulsive factor doesn't really go away as the story progresses, we are faced with psycopath Begsbie who is extremely abusive to everyone around him, including his girlfriends, or Sick Boy who is very popular with women and at some point becomes a pimp of a few of them, or Rents himself, who drunkenly has sex with a 14-year old girl or shags his dead brother's pregnant fiance in the bathroom during his funeral. The list goes on and on. But the thing is, in spite of all these depravities, Skag Boys are strangely relatable and, dare I say it, often likable. They are losers and addicts and criminals, but their emotional and moral struggles are real.
The book is, although very dark, at the same time hilarious, it is filled with Rents' sarcastic humor. This quote from the scene can give you a good taste of the writing.
Here Rents is held by his parents under the house arrest. They are attempting to get him off the heroin, Rents' mom is trying to feed him.
"The auld girl sticks us in the comfy chair by the fire in front ay the telly, and puts a tray oan ma lap. Ah'm convulsing inside anyway, but the mince looks revolting.
- Ah've telt ye ah dinnae eat meat Ma, ah sais.
- Ye eywis liked yer mince and tatties (potatoes). That's whair ye've gone wrong son, no eating the right thing. Ye need meat.
Now there is apparently a casual link between heroin addiction and vegetarianism."
In the latter part "Trainspotting" is no longer a repulsively hilarious read, it gets darker and darker, as we follow the fates of Rents' many friends, and it's not pretty - too many of them are dying - from HIV from sharing needles, from cancer, gangrene, heart attacks. Seeing this many deaths, 25-year old Rents attempts to kick his habit over and over again, but will he and his friends succeed?
I think "Trainspotting" is a remarkable read and I will definitely read more of Welsh's work. But is this book for everybody? Absolutely not. It is filled with human depravities, profanity, and written in Scottish dialect. This will turn off many readers. But if you are looking for a challenging (in many ways) read, give "Trainspotting" a try. You won't be disappointed.
Book Review: Brutally, disgustingly, hilariously disturbing.....
Summary: 5 Stars
Irvine Welsh's blistering debut novel hit the literary world like a meteorite on first publication, spawning a deluge of pale imitators seeking to reveal the seedy underbelly of society to a readership fascinated by the junkies, hooligans and losers that Trainspotting had brought to life so vividly. Welsh's book is the genuine article though, a fragmented collage of tales based around the lives of Renton, the anti-hero, cod philosopher and sometime heroin addict, Sick Boy, the Don Juan with a heart of stone, Spud, the gormless, animal loving humanitarian (and the only genuinely sympathetic charcter in the book), and Begbie, the psychotic thug whose twisted logic all bow down to through motives of self preservation. Those who have seen Danny Boyle's excellent film adaptation will know that Trainspotting's plot (in the loosest sense of the word) concerns the highs and lows, the thrills and despair of living on the Edinburgh schemes during the 80s, and Renton's attempts to escape the life he has built for himself. The film omits large chunks of the book out of the necessity to boil down the plot for the shorter attention span of cinema-goers, but the essence of the book is still captured admirably. The moral neutrality of Trainspotting is a huge positive for me. There is no sermonising here: Welsh makes no bones about the fact that using heroin is seductively pleasurable, but equally he paints a grim picture of the downside - Renton's attempts to give up the skag are particularly stomach churning. However, the book is exuberant in its appetite for life, and those living on the edge of it. The anti-right wing politics are present but not especially overt, and accountability is never shifted from the shoulders of the individual. The novel's shifting narrative, together with Welsh's decision to write in the Edinburgh dialect, is initially disorienting, but ultimately reveals events from several different perspectives - illuminating more than would otherwise have been possible. The language is visceral and pulsing with life - not for the faint hearted (you may well find yourself reading in a Scottish accent in your head!). Some of the episodes, such as the toilet scene and the bedclothes scene are brutally, disgustingly hilarious: Welsh shows no regard for the finer sensibilities of his readers and occasionally I found myself squirming in my seat!
A certain amount of moral outrage has dogged Trainspotting since it's birth, but this has not prevented the novel from building a formidable reputation as an acute, funny, disturbing and painfully honest novel that is not afraid to confront its subject matter unflinchingly. It is one of my favourite books. If you can take it, it may well become one of yours.
Book Review: the movie only told half the story.
Summary: 5 Stars
Trainspotting was probably one of my favorite movies of all time, right up there with fight club. Just like Fight Club, I saw this movie as a high school sophomore and was blown away, Then on about the third time through youre reading the credits and discover, Hey.....this was based on a book! Well i have been trying to hunt down a copy of trainspotting for awhile but every store was always either sold out or i had no money. well my friends alls well that ends well because i finally have my own copy, and its one amazing read. Written by UK madman irvine welsh this book is the story of several assorted, junkies,psychoes and scumbags, the neighborhood they call home and the societys that left them out. Its alot more than that though, because the characters are actually fully realized human beings that have real feelings and completely seperate views on sex, drugs, rock and roll(not kidding music is brought up quite alot) life and even each other. quick overview of the characters.
renton-junky who is constantly in and violently out of recovery for his addictions, somewhat the main character. Insecure opinionated and cynical but also thoughtful and philisophical about everything.
Dan"spud"Murphy- The Nice Guy. He never judges anything to harshyly and even though he does drugs, his thoughts are usually with his friends. He's one loyal guy and loves everyone equally.
Sick Boy(simon)-the classic ladies man. Hes your friend who has your back at all times except when you get shot down by a girl then he ditches you for her, the friend your always jealous of but, hey hes smart cool and its nice to be around people like that at times.
Begbie-absolutely nuts. This man thrives on violence and making people pay, your friend because your afraid of him not being on your side, likes drinking, pain and talking about girls although he treats them like crap on the rare occaision he gets one. he doesnt do any drugs but hes probably the most despicable character in the group.
Now thats all stuff youll already know if youve seen the movie but, trust me this book is an absolute must read. Things you won't see in the book, sketch chapters on life in Edinburgh, Renton' Itallicized "junk dilemma" entries, loads of characters not even mentioned in the book, especially the great character Davie Mitchell, who's short story "Bad Blood" is not to be missed.Think of this as a directors cut for your mind. and dont forget to read GLUE and PORNO when you finish with this little gem(read this one first, theres a dialogue glossary, thats helpful for reading almost all of welsh's wonderful phonetically spelled slang)