Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - Trainspotting

Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

2 reviews

whoisrois's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

So so so good. (obviously)

I enjoyed the self contained short story chapters outside of the main plot best

A lot of characters to keep straight, I keep mixing 2nd prize, Davey, Marty and Tommy up 😮‍💨

Content Warnings

amethystd28d4's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Re-reading an all-time favourite to get back into the swing of things. In many ways this is a deeply personal book I can't be objective about - not just the main topics, but the communities and haunts were those of my parents and everything detailed in the book is why they moved out to the sticks after I was born. My deep-seated bias laid out, here are some things I continue to love about it 15 years after my first read:

I'm sure the Edinburgh dialect is off-putting to some, but Welsh's storytelling simply wouldn't be the same without it. There's a flow to the writing that makes it an addictive read (which is more to do with Welsh's skill than how our speech translates to the page), and it really does the dark and deadpan local sense of humour justice.
Every character's voice is so well-defined, partly because this is a bunch of short stories put together, but there's never anything in the title telling you this is a Renton part, a Sick Boy part, etc. You can tell immediately within the text whose voice you're hearing.
When I was a teen I was reluctant to start this book as I already knew it had more focus on women than the film, and anything "gritty" written by a man automatically rings the alarm bells. I LOVED how women were written in it though, and I actually appreciate it more now that I'm older. Not to praise men for the bare minimum or anything, but I've always felt like Welsh deserves more credit for his ability to sympathise with other points of view to the extent that he can write through a woman's eyes without objectification. Something I appreciated this read-through, though, is how this goes both ways - female characters are allowed to be every bit as disgusting as the men are, with the same self-awareness and no external judgement.
I hope one day I also get to squeeze a tampon into the soup of an English tourist
On that point about self-awareness, it's this quality that allows Welsh's characters to at once navigate their darkest thoughts, recount their worst actions, but still invite you in for more. Renton in particular traverses many sore subjects - Scots vs English, Catholic vs Protestant, black vs white...the real beauty of the book is that as horrible as these characters' actions are, the philosophising from them is nowhere near the eye-rolling slog we've come to expect from white male authors. For a novel set in the 80s and published in 1993, the politics that Renton lingers on are insanely relevant to Scots of the same age here in 2021, and actually verbalises a lot of the apathy, but ultimate rejection of bigotry, you'll hear from any pro-indy Scot under 35 today. These characters may be challenging, disgusting, and morally reprehensible in many ways, but the last thing you can accuse them of is being alienating.

Anyway, this is very much an "If you want to know me, read this" book for me, and I implore you to give it a try if you can handle the content warnings. Just do us all a favour and don't embarrass yourself by trying to write the accent yourself when you come back to leave your review, eh?

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