“There’s more to life than books you know?” (Part Nine)

Sweary and hard to understand are just two of the accusations aimed at me, but I digress….Here is the glory that is “Trainspotting” by Irvine Welsh. It is everything that the media made it out to be, and even had a good film version! What? Yes…it’s great. Not a patch on the book, but what is?

Published in 1993, and followed by a long series of completely unique stories, Irvine Welsh struck literary gold with “Trainspotting”. A story of Heroin addiction, Abuse, Crime and uneasy friendship. Told in an unusual structure, but largely narrated by Mark Renton, it is raw and unapologetic. We have dialect on the written page, we have imaginary conversations, and we have a lot, of very dark humour.

It caused controversy at the time of release as it supposedly glamourised addiction. Utter tosh. Anyone who reads this book and thinks that maybe it’s time for them to inject….well….Perhaps their issues can be traced back to before they read a book about it. I love Irvine’s writing, because it is so wonderfully real, and delightfully unique. Whilst he wrotes many different types of book, I always feel like I would be able to pick one out of a line-up.

I love an art work that makes it OK for others to try something new, and I think this book, above all other contemporary fiction did that. It made people feel that they could write, that their stories were valid, and that an audience might care. This is punk, but written down.

I loved the film as I have already alluded to, but the soundtrack also seems to sum up the book as well….so well worth a listen whilst reading if you can do such a thing. SO…parental warning….this book contains violence, Sex, Drug references and excellence….Take your pick, but Choose Life.