2006-09-04 05:43:04 · 13 answers · asked by Hem 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
I tried to read Trainspotting. Found it very hard going as so much of the dialogue is written with a Scottish accent. I gave up and never got round to reading Porno, which I have had a copy of for years. I can think of many authors that I rate higher.
2006-09-07 22:52:44 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think he's a very uneven writer. At his best he is very engaging but a couple of his books have been terrible.
He was unlucky that Trainspotting was such a big hit, as he seems to have struggled to come out from its shadow and write anything else which is half as good. Marabou Stork Nightmares was inventive and showed promise, but Filth and Glue sadly lacked any characters who were half as interesting as Mark Renton, Sick Boy or Franco Begbie, and they visibly suffered for it. Filth was (unfortunately) hopelessly bad, while Glue suffered from trying to be too serious and a lack of sympathetic characters; the only successful part of that novel for me was the sequence in which Terry the petty criminal and waster takes the big-time music star (sorry don't remember her name) to an Edinburgh karaoke bar.
Porno is a partial return to form, but it highlights Welsh's limitations as a serious writer as it really only works when it focuses on how Renton and his former sidekicks are doing, about ten years after the events of Trainspotting. The plot is deliberately over the top and essentially played for laughs, and features a superficially plausible but actually quite wittily anti-sectarian banking scam. However, in esence it's just a retread of Trainspotting, right down to the ending in which Renton repeats his betrayal of Sick Boy.
His short story collection The Acid House is very enjoyable (tellingly, like Trainspotting, these stories were written before he hit the big time), but Ectasy was another poor effort.
I haven't read his latest book, but it's been getting pretty lukewarm reviews. See for example http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/news/article1325482.ece
He seems to be just not that good when he tackles serious themes in his writing. His comedic writing is where he's most consistently successful, and I think he'd do better to concentrate his efforts there.
2006-09-04 08:10:12 · answer #2 · answered by Huh? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
LOVE Irvine Welsh!! only book of his I didnt like was E. Favourite book was either porno or filth.....or maybe the acid house. Favourite character is Frank Begbie.Got his new book, not started reading it yet though.... don't want to rush it after 4 years of waiting!
2006-09-06 07:13:27 · answer #3 · answered by Catwhiskers 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Coincidence - I just finished reading Porno this afternoon, having read it immediately after Trainspotting.
I have thoroughly enjoyed them - I can honestly say that they're a couple of those books that will stick with me, I'll always remember the time I spent reading them because they put me in a frame of mind whilst reading them that I took away with me. I've been thinking in Scottish colloquialisms for the last couple of weeks. Definitely a landmark in my literature life.
In similar veins I'm also into Bret Easton Ellis and Hubert Selby Jr - I'm reading Last Exit to Brooklyn next.
2006-09-04 08:32:58 · answer #4 · answered by reddragon105 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i'm Scottish and positioned it straightforward to study. I a lot favourite the e book to the movie. My mind's eye enable me bypass as faras my abdomen would enable. The movie went slightly too a techniques. in case you loved this e book by technique of Welsh, why no longer attempt maribou Stork Nightmares or dirt?
2016-11-06 10:03:06 · answer #5 · answered by dopico 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I liked Acid House & Trainspotting very much, I read Maribou Stork Nightmares but found it very disturbing and Filth doubly so which is why I never finished it. But yes, despite finding his subject matter increasingly disturbed, I do think he has something rare about his writing that warrants merit.
2006-09-04 05:55:34 · answer #6 · answered by blank 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Filth
2006-09-05 10:30:06 · answer #7 · answered by steven m 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As an author great. As a man of his word, not so great. I went to one of his book readings and gave him a short story I had wrote. He promised to send it back to me. He never did.
2006-09-04 05:55:34 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
One of the greatest writers Scotland has ever produced. Funny, imaginative, fuelled by anger at our rotten society, he is wonderful. I recommend his short stories to everyone -- they are possibly better than his novels.
2006-09-05 08:29:41 · answer #9 · answered by rcampbell_yetholm 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Over rated. Books for people who don't read.
2006-09-05 22:12:29 · answer #10 · answered by hadjama 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋