Trainspotting

If you ever told me I'd cry reading this book, I'd be like, what? I've seen the movie, you see, a long time ago. But I did. I cried like a baby. I cried at a part in the middle of the book, the part that starts off the movie, the famous words of "Choose life. Choose…" Well, in case you haven't read the book and haven't seen the movie, you'll get what I mean, once you do both. I'm actually about to jump into re-watching the movie again, now that I'm done reading. And, WOW. Just, WOW. This is not prose, this is poetry, a powerful cocktail of juxtaposition, Scottish profanities galore injected with searching for the answer to this persistent question. Why live? Why go for hypocrisy, for squalor, for stark morose grim existence of the so called life if we're all going to die anyway? Why not get on the needle and not bother about anything, basking in that mythology of everything will be just splendid? There are so many layers here, I feel like I only started digging. And then, of course, I don't think I can read proper English after this, after indulging on phonetically spelled Scottish awesomeness, on top of it, me being not a native English speaker. It's a feast.Well, so the story itself is a maze of episodes taken from the lives of junkie mates and their friends, narrated primarily by Rents, or Mark Renton. We jump back and forth between scenes of scoring drugs, injecting drugs, withdrawing from drugs, getting on drugs again, all the while revolving around everything that goes with it, HIV infections, sex, violence, death, neglect, you name it, everything under the sun is here, and more, the constant background of moral choice against pure survival. Which outweighs which? We get to see several different perspectives of different characters, most of them colorfully doused with all kinds of human liquid, like puddles of urine, vomit, feces, blood, and everything in between, with rare glimpses of love here and there and this strange soberness that causes them to look up and realize what hole they've sunk into, but only for a moment, before returning back to the needle. The power of language is such that when you raise your head to catch a breath from reading, you're disoriented for a while, not sure where you are and how you got there. The only wish I had was to get back into the book, annoying those around me, perhaps because the topic rung true to me. I've never been on drugs, but I've been suicidal, and maybe that's why I cried. I felt this desire to destroy yourself behind the rage, the anger, the need to escape it all, for not being accepted, for being lonely, for being so numb that the only way to feel something was to get high. You know it's an illusion, but you don't care. Anything goes. it hit me in the gut, this book, and it will hit me again and again, as I plan to reread it. Now I'm off, watching the movie, and I hope you're off to read this book, because you bloody have to.

Then you know what you're getting into. I read Skagboys first, so by the time I got to Trainspotting, I was used to the slang and spellings of words people seem to have so such trouble with. A bit of advice that helped me, don't focus on each word you don't understand. I'm American, so the Scottish accent of the characters was a bit hard at first, but if you read it normal and don't spend so much time trying to focus on words like "thit" and "ayewis", you'll see them as "that" and "always" as intended. Also, I found out much too late, there's a glossary in the back (in the Kindle version, at least).Other people had trouble with first person point of view, too, trying to figure which was which. Understandable, but each character is written differently. Renton is more straight, Spud says "likesay" and "ken" a lot and Begby, well, I'll just say he uses a particular vulgar word for a female part to refer to everyone.If the movie was a bit much for you, this may not be for you. I loved the movies and now the books. Gritty, raw and realistic. Welsh's ability to describe feelings and social situations is so spot on, even relatable in a sense.

So, I hate the film Trainspotting and have never been able to sit through the entire thing. I got the book because I was looking to practice Scots dialect, and I'd lived in Edinburgh for a while so it was of interest because of that. Now, the book isn't so much a novel as a collection of short stories, and it takes a few to get into the rhythm of what you can expect of these stories. Once I had it down I was quite hooked. This is an older book at this point (the action seems to take place in the late 1980s or so) and I suppose the kind of topics dealt with are a little more common of older books (political correctness has kind of run amok in the last decade or two and hardly anyone publishes anything that might be offensive to someone.) For example we get, in Trainspotting, short stories that involve one of the main characters having brief but pretty graphic sex with a 14 year old, obviously a ton of drug use, characters getting AIDS and HIV, unpleasant gay sex, animal abuse, touches of racism, physically abusive relationships, misogyny, the notorious dead baby (whose haunting in the book is much more sexually graphic), and so forth. Moreover, it's usually done with a tinge of humor about the whole thing. Man, I don't think anyone would dare publish this nowadays but I loved it.

Almost didn't get this book because I was afraid I'd have a headache of a time reading a book written in Scots. Since I loved the movie so much, I decided to give it a go and it actually wasn't a tough to read at all! In fact, it was quite refreshing to read something written in a totally different dialect/style. Trainspotting was an entertaining insight to all the backstory the movie didn't include. It was also fun to read different chapters in the perspective of different characters (unlike the movie, Renton's perspective only). Reminded me a little bit of the book Requiem for a Dream, since it was written as it's spoken (phonetically) and the perspective changes (but I have to say I prefer Trainspotting 1,000,000,000 times over).Definitely recommended for anyone with an appreciation for colorful vocabulary (major understatement) and VERY colorful characters! Your mind will be stuck swearing and speaking in a Scottish accent for weeks. I will be Porno as soon as I finish the last chapter of Trainspotting tomorrow! I look forward (with Porno) to having the perspective of reading the book before watching the film this time!

Like many, I have watched the movie on a number of occasions and really liked it but had never read the book. Although I have found Welsh's books inconsistent (love maribu stork nightmares, didn't like filth) I was looking forward to reading this and I wasn't disappointed. The film is very faithful to the book and the chances are of you like the film you'll enjoy the book. Some reviewers find the local dialect hard to follow but I didn't and found it really adds to the characterisation of the main protagonists. The reason it doesn't get five stars is that when characters change it is not always clear who is narrating and I found that slightly off-putting.

Trainspotting is one of those difficult books where the native language can very much be a barrier to the reader but where it is also the central core to the novel, the glue binding the fragmented narrative pieces together. Author Irvine Welsh uses multiple character episodes to create a bleak tale of Scottish drug addicts swirling around in the deprived areas of Edinburgh. Hilarious and sickening vignettes chronicle the lives of Mark Renton (Rents), Sick Boy, Spud, Begbie and various associates in a whirlpool of social observation, booze, battles and grim addiction. But can true friendship really exist when you’re an addict? Although written in the 1990’s this is still a modern topical novel which doesn’t flinch when showing the filth and despair of all too realistic characters. This isn’t a cool or inspiring lifestyle, it’s real and depressing. A necessary read.

I read this book before the hype of the film and could not imagine such a complex book translating well to the big screen. Fortunately, it is different enough to make it worth reading if you have seen the now dated film and takes away the slightly cartoonish characters replacing them with people you can relate to even though your lifestyle may be a million miles away from dark drug dens in Leith.

A great book. I felt every emotion possible reading this book and laughing at my own pronunciation was a blast, I truly think everyone should read this book..

The first thing you will notice about this book is the language it is written in. Much of the book is written with the dialogue written phonetically.For example:Ah = II ken = I knoweywis = alwaysBut do not be put off by this! You will get the hang of of it and soon you will be fluent! The book is narrated by many different characters with each chapter being a sort of short story in itself. A big difference from the film is that there is no real story in the book, the book being more a chain of events not really going anywhere. In the film, a big deal is made of Rents running off with the money but this is not an important part of the book and is only briefly mentioned at the very end. This should not detract from the enjoyment of Trainspotting because instead the reader gets a rich and detailed account of the characters and their lifestyles. A film, no matter how good, could never replicate this. Trainspotting is both shocking and hilarious.