Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh: a review

After watching both of the films, and the theatre show, I figured it was about time I actually read this book. I decided to get the audiobook, and I actually remembered to take notes down this time.

            Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh follows a wide range of characters in Edinburgh, most of whom suffer with an addiction to heroin. Generally, the focus is on Mark Renton, also known as ‘Rent Boy’. It follows the highs and lows of their lives, and the troubles that come from being on heroin, and trying to get off it again.

            I usually listen to audiobooks on 1.25x speed because I often find the narrators to be a little too slow. However, Tam Dean Burn, the narrator for this audiobook, has an incredibly thick accent which is mixed with the use of the slang that Welsh often employs throughout the book. It pulls the narrative together, but it does mean that I have to put it down to regular speed just to give me a helping hand.

            Burn’s narration is very expression when it comes to emotion, however, I wish there was more of a clear distinction between the characters. Not only can it make long conversations a little bit difficult to follow, but Welsh doesn’t put indicators at the beginning of a chapter telling the reader the perspective character. Context helps the conversations, but it can take a fair amount of time within some chapters to understand who has the perspective. Spud is often the most obvious because he calls people “cats”, but I do wish there was more clarity either from Welsh in the first place, or in Burn’s narration.

            First person present is a stylistic choice that doesn’t often work. However, Welsh’s use of it successfully ramps up the tension and emotions. It works as an excellent way to connect with the characters during their highs and lows. It works because everything truly does feel in the moment.

            Though this book is wrought with dark moments, there are humorous moments throughout. Each laugh feels sort of wrong though because of how dark the humour is. The blackness of the humour isn’t at all surprising, given the subject matter of the book, but that means it always feels a little bit bad when something funny does happen. You know that you could be seconds away from having that laugh snatched from you.

            If you’ve ever watched any adaptation of this book, then you’ll know about the toilet scene. Both the theatrical and film versions of the scene are horrendous, but they come nowhere near the original. Perhaps it’s so much worse because I had the audiobook, meaning that I had the description vividly pumped through my headphones, straight into my ears. It was truly nauseating.

            I think one of the things that makes this book so fascinating is that all of the lead characters are reprehensible with little to redeem them. Their journey is one that is easy to become invested in, even though, were I to know any of these people, I wouldn’t be able to stand them. Usually character arcs see somebody become better than they were at the start of the books, but there’s so little redemption for these people from start to finish. Some people might get clean, but their personality sees no improvement.

             The scene where Renton goes cold turkey in his parents’ house shows how much of an expert Welsh is with prose. It made me feel as delirious as Renton, and I began to feel light-headed. Burn’s narration also really helped with this. His rhythm really helped bring Welsh’s words to its height. In terms of prose, I think this might be my favourite scene.

            I bloody loved reading this book. It’s good to read something that really makes you feel something, hell, feel everything. I know that I’ll be entering this world again and read the sequels. Irvine Welsh is a master of prose, and expertly enters the mind of someone struggling with mental health issues and addiction. I hope that the later books have the same narrator, as Tam Dean Burn is genuinely brilliant. I do recommend this book, though I do feel it worth noting that there are areas that it covers that some people may want to avoid. Of course, it covers addiction, but it also covers domestic abuse, rape, mental health, infant death and HIV/AIDs. There’s possibly more that haven’t come to mind, but I feel these are the areas that are most likely to make people unable to interact with this book. However, if you aren’t going to be seriously affected by any of these areas, then I absolutely recommend that you read this book.