Reviews

Reheated Cabbage by Irvine Welsh

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thebobsphere's review against another edition

4.0

I remember back in the 90’s thematic short story anthologies were quite popular and somehow Irvine Welsh’s name always cropped up. Since I was a fan, I tried to collect these but I only managed two. One was Children of the Albion Rovers, which I got for free and back then Canongate had this excellent ‘buy one, get a surprise book for free’ offer and the other was Disco Biscuits, which I discovered at the university bookshop and it was going for LM 5.00 (about 11 EUR). I knew there were others but to seek them out in those early internet days was a problem, so I hoped that one day there would be a odds and sods collection.

That collection is Reheated Cabbage; this anthology brings together all of Welsh’s short stories for other anthologies. Plus there’s a new novella. Out of these 8 stories 3 revisit the Trainspotting world and the remaining ones feature the usual Welsh trademarks: drugs, sex and raves.

All 3 Trainspotting stories are excellent; Elspeth’s Boyfriend has Begbie visiting his family for a Christmas meal and it descends into a maelstrom of violence. It’s also the funniest story of the lot. Irvine Welsh excels at creating off the cuff observations and there’s tons of that here. The other Victor Spoils, consists of minor characters Gavin and Victor fighting over a girl, who is being seen to by a horny dentist, only to realise that their friendship is stronger. The third is the new novella, I am Miami, which sees Juice Terry meeting his secondary school teacher in a Miami Nightclub, as ridiculous as it sounds, Welsh manages to create quite a credible story.

The rest are equally good: The Rosewell Incident features aliens with heavy Scottish dialects trying to take over the Earth, Catholic Guilt (You Know You Love it) is about a Homophobe getting a punishment. A Fault on the Line is probably the most brutal thing I’ve read by Welsh which manages to top the dog mutilation scene in Marabou Stork Nightmares.

The other two stories Kissing and Making Up and The State of the Party are quite weak in comparison. But 6 top notch stories are definitely an incentive for buying the book.

What’s fascinating is how Irvine Welsh progressed as a writer. The early stuff is shocking: Missing Limbs, graphic sodomy, descriptions of sex that leave no room for the imagination and those trademark nasty endings which were common in a lot of Welsh’s first five books. When reading these pieces, I remembered why I liked Welsh so much as he was crass but funny at the same time. Ditto to the Trainspotting stories. It’s always good to read about Begbie and in Elspeth’s Boyfriend he’s completely unleashed.

The actual change is noticeable in I am Miami. It’s quite a sweet story. It’s got a positive message, a happy ending, has quite a political theme and maintains the Scots dialect and hijinks that are part of Welsh’s repertoire – this mellowing can be seen in the stronger later novels such as The Sex Lives of the Siamese Twins and Dead Men’s Trousers

Although this definitely more for the fans, I do think that a Welsh newbie could try this out – maybe after reading Trainspotting and Glue. It does cover all aspects of his writing and delves into the themes of his work in the process.

henderslam's review against another edition

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4.25

I loved this book, it's a collection of old hard to find stories previously published in the 1990s so it's Welsh back to his best after two slightly disappointing publications. The highlight is without a doubt the story featuring Christmas dinner with Begbie, I spent most of my time reading it in fits of laughter. The last, and only new, story may be set in Florida, but it's also great (and a mini-sequel to Glue).

andrew_russell's review

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1.0

Welsh's scabrous brand of prose and overtones of comedy blacker than a bar of Bourneville chocolate don't appeal to everybody. Neither does the Scots vernacular which he uses to infuse his stories with humour and wit. Having already read Skagboys, the prequel to Trainspotting, I had high expectations though. That was, in my humble opinion, a masterfully written piece of work.

With the exception of A Fault on The Line and Catholic Guilt (You Know You Love It), Reheated Cabbage fails to meet the mark set by Skagboys though. Being a collection of short stories, it doesn't play to Welsh's strengths. Fantastic characters and the hilarious interactions between them, which littered Skagboys were notably absent in this work. With the exception of the two tales mentioned earlier, what it felt like was somewhat of a meaningless dirge, to be ploughed through rather than enjoyed.

Not a great read and one that may suit die-hard Welsh fans but nobody else.