Trainspotting Book

I must have read the first page of Trainspotting more than twenty times since purchasing the book years ago, and each time I would put it back in fear of all the Scottish dialect. There's no point lying, this is a challenging novel, sometimes you have to read things twice or pause to think about them to fully understand what's being said. But, unlike a lot of books that are difficult to read, this was ultimately rewarding and once you get used to the slang words it becomes a very gritty, moving and funny read.

Trainspotting is a story about a bunch of Scottish heroin addicts (Rents, Sick Boy & others), it's about the dregs of society and it's about prostitutes. If you don't like reading about these kind of people, you won't like the book. If you have problems with the 'C' word, you definitely won't like this book. It's told in several short stories that switch between first and third person narrative and switch between character point of views. Many of my usual rules have been broken for this book: I don't like multiple perspectives, I don't like spending time deciphering the text, I don't like sentences that are made up of profanities. But all of those factors come together to make a great novel in this rare case.

All the characters are oddly likeable in a way, which really says something to me about the author's talent as a writer. Even though they are morally questionable individuals with an ocean of problems, they have a very dark and hilarious sense of humour, and it is this colour and vivacity that makes it all the more heartbreaking when Rents' loses his close friends to HIV and other illnesses.

It won't suit everyone, Trainspotting is about the people at the bottom of the pile who get easily written off as hopeless and a waste of space, but Welsh gives a sense of humanity to these addicts, he makes them people with unique characteristics and personal struggles that we can offer sympathy to. I'm just sorry I put it off for so long.