Irvine Welsh

This is probably a book I should have read some years ago. It is one of the most brutally honest reads I have seen on the true lives of drug addicts. I think Welsh has written a beautiful book. Trying to interpret the Scottish dialect of the underclass was so hard and yet so rewarding. The characters in the book are anti-heroic, sometimes funny, terrifically foul-mouthed, and full of excuses for themselves. How hard they try to justify their predicament, and puff themselves up. The tough make themselves seem really tough. I have seen this behaviour up-close more with alcoholics than heroin addicts, but the underlying behaviour is the same. I didn't see the movie of this story and it is just as well I didn't because the writing is so evocative and provocative. The book looks hard at the middle and lower class homes some of these people come from, at the narrowness and prejudice in Scottish society. But of course, it is not just there. It is in us all.… (mer)

El episodio final de la saga Trainspotting. Irvine Welsh se despide a lo grande de los icónicos Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy y Spud.

Estamos en 2015 y los destinos de Renton, Begbie, Sick Boy y Spud vuelven a cruzarse. Es decir: tenemos de nuevo reunido al cuarteto protagonista de Trainspotting en lo que el autor ha anunciado como «el Grand Finale de la saga».

Renton es ahora un exitoso representante de DJs que viaja por todo el mundo y se topa en un vuelo transatlántico con Begbie, reconvertido en artista de éxito, hombre casado y padre de familia. A los otros dos no les ha ido tan bien en la vida: Sick Boy sigue en lo del negocio de explotación del cuerpo femenino y Spud es una suerte de mendigo profesionalizado que pide dinero por las calles acompañado de su perro. Las cosas empiezan a complicarse con un turbio asunto de tráfico de órganos y riñones donados o robados, a lo que se suma un cadáver y la aparición de algún que otro secundario de lujo como el taxista priápico Terry Lawson, viejo conocido de los lectores fieles de Welsh.

Y así, a un ritmo acelerado que no da tregua, nos deslizaremos por una enloquecida montaña rusa de sexo –explícito y a veces grotesco cómico–, drogas –en todo su amplio espectro–, alcohol, sátira social, reflexión sobre el paso del tiempo y las dudosas probabilidades de madurar, y desenfreno y delirio en cantidades industriales.

En esta novela los protagonistas han alcanzado la mediana edad, pero ¿los ha hecho eso más sabios? ¿Han sentado cabeza? ¿Han aprendido algo de la vida? Esta nueva entrega y broche final de las andanzas de los ya icónicos personajes de Trainspotting no defraudará a los seguidores de Irvine Welsh, que sigue en plena forma y dispuesto a dar caña y guerra.… (mer)

Jaded Edinburgh cop and substance-abuser (probably a redundant descriptor in an Irvine Welsh novel...) Ray Lennox has been granted compassionate leave after a particularly traumatic child-murder case leads to a breakdown, and he is spending some time relaxing in Miami with his fiancée. Within 48 hours of landing in the US, however, he finds himself in a situation where a young girl needs his protection from sexual predators, in circumstances where he can't very well turn to the proper authorities for help, and of course all the doubts and questions flying around in his mind from the recent investigation come back to haunt him.

Despite the obviously contrived setup, this turns out to be a very engaging, disturbing book, whose brutal plot somehow manages to deal with the fraught subject of sexual abuse of children in a sensitive and often surprisingly subtle way. Although it is probably a book you will want to read quickly to get it over with...… (mer)

I should have read this years ago really. Better late than never!

To be perfectly honest, I've never been much of a fan of writing phonetically in dialect, but it didn't take me long to get used to it, and it was interesting to see how some of the slang has changed (e.g. Spud's verbal tic is "likesay", which probably died out in the 90s because I don't remember hearing it before). (It's actually also slightly unfamiliar spelling - for example "ur" is used to mean "are" but I'm used to using it online to mean "you're"). I'm also ambivalent about the short-story structure, as it made the overall story slightly incoherent for me. But those are ultimately minor quibbles - the stories were vibrant and the fact that I know those locations made it come alive even more for me. Even though it's a world I rarely encountered in real life.

I think this is one of those rare books where I prefer the film, though. The book is excellent, but I think there's something snappy and colourful about the film.… (mer)