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 As a reader currently accustomed to standard paperback
bestseller crap "Trainspotting" was a welcome change. I
admit, I didn't discover this book in its obscurity but
was influenced to read it after the great media-hype
surrounding the film, but I still feel gratitude I read the
book before watching the movie. This book, unlike other
mind-numbing American novels later turned into films,
intrigues the reader and teases his thoughts and his
perception of border lines and what is acceptable and
unacceptable. The novel never urges the reader to try any
drug but rather shows the real side of drug use, the ups
and downs of mainly Heroine and alchohol, in a funny and
provokingly interesting way. With the use of intricate
scottish slang Welsh manages to expose the dark realities of
hopeless junkie lives and bring out the humor of those empty
lives, while still incorpporating hilarious sex scenes, harsh
violence and drug use. A definate must-read, this book will
hopefully open the minds of its readers, if there is any hope
in the youth of this great world of ours!
I say to anyone who isn't quite sure about whether or not to take on the adventure of Trainspotting that it is worth it. Yes, much of the subject matter is dark (comedy) but Welsh's writing is spectacular, you begin to understand the depths of the human condition and how we get there. (PS- Scots can be tricky but most of the slang can be understood from context) |
While the film version of Trainspotting presents a rather slick, humorous version of Mark Renton's life with the needle, the book devotes perhaps a third of itself to a more realistic one. For example, Diane has no condoms, and Renton is raped while he's passed out by a dirty, neurotic man. Its scope is much larger than the film's, encompassing perhaps three times the number of significant characters, and weaving their stories together in a way that keeps the reader feeling as confused as nauseous. I liked it on the whole, but too much of it felt disjointed and irrelevant for me to really enjoy it.
