Trainspotting

I grew up in rural Ireland, so not exactly the gritty urban Scotland of Welsh’s novel, but the first thing that struck me about the book was its savage, semi-feral, intensely real Scottish dialect. I’d never seen anything quite like it in print.

The prose feels almost illegal, a ne’er-do-well that has simply decided to break into the publishing house and force its way onto the page without anyone’s permission. I didn’t consciously plan to steal this technique for my own novel, but how could I not endorse it?

Welsh has written more explicitly psychedelic works, but this book remains… show more.

Self-abandonment. Haud oan a second. Ah wanted tae see Jean-Claude smash up this arrogant fucker.

You don't understand a word? Don't worry; you'll get the hang of it. Scotland is far from the rest of the world, as you can tell by the language. But in a way, this book is about what's happening in the world. It's about how to get lost and not find yourself again in the world. Just like Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo a decade earlier. It is a series of short stories that show the lives of people who follow no career path, who… show more.

As a reluctant reader from a council estate Trainspotting was the book that ignited the literary fire in me and became the gateway book to a multitude of others over the years. For a time everything I read was measured against it. When I taught this book in schools my students salivated on the accurate and relatable depiction of their familiar landscape(s) and national brogue. To me, I’ve always considered Trainspotting an observation about forgotten and voiceless communities; not simply a reductive book about heroin abuse.