Trainspotting

Rating:
Summary: Good Readin
Review: Buy it, don't check it out...worth having for your collection..

Rating:
Summary: Deserves to sell more copies than the bible - DEFINITELY!
Review: The best book I've ever read. Just read it too

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably good.
Review: Some people write, other people try to write, Mr. Welsh creates a fantastic world. You never know what to expect next. Between learning a new language, and getting a new glimpse of life, Welsh gives something to the 20 somethingers of English the language that should never leave their sides, it should travel with them everywhere. Read it once, read it twice, read it until it falls apart and then buy another one, then read it until it falls apart. It never quits, it just won't go away. Simply amazing. Everyone that has every even had the slightest hint of doubt, hopelessness, sorrow or pain should read this book, twice

Rating:
Summary: Great stuff.
Review: Yes, the language was giving me a trying time, especially as someone far from Edinburgh. At the same time, the heart was near. The confessinal tone, the use of appropriate dialects at the appropriate moments, the conscious effort on the part of the author to tear the sacred flesh of philosophy through the claws of real language, the Escherian paradoxes and all that is good(or bad) combined to give the feel that,man this is your story.This is the kind of book that feels like a friend whom you were looking for to open yourself up

Rating:
Summary: If you ever choose anything, choose this book.
Review: Irvine Welsh is extraordinary. Put simply, this is the most captivating book one could read. However, to be quite honest, it will take approximately 75 pages of reading before you can master the dialect. As a avid Mark Twain reader, I could easily pick up on the accent, but once you get the nack for reading the book you will learn to trade sleep for reading. I highly recommend the book to everyone and once again I cannot stress enough how you are literally forced into the book, and then you are like "WOW, it's over?" I will read it over and over for years to come.

Rating:
Summary: Trip the mind fantastic
Review: As many others have said, this book is amazing. The dialect is a tad difficult at first, but after the 100th page, I found myself speaking like a Scotsman in real life. Truly moving and intrusive. Welsh does not try to be too pretentious with his prose, as some other contemporary authors usually do. The balance among all the characters is wonderful, and the intensity of their personalities is amazing. A true classic, I'm going to read it again and again.

Rating:
Summary: one hell of a book
Review: Although the Scottish slang is extremely hard to understand at times, it adds to the book's incredibility. I started off reading this book as a school project and I wasn't too inyterested in reading it, especially when i saw the dialect and slang it was written in. After I really starteed to read the book I could not put it down. I got an 85% on my English essay for this book, so i just wanted to thank Irvine Welsh for an amazing mark and an even better book...It is definetly one that I will keep forever and read more than once (maybe then I 'll understand what some of the slang means) Still, very awesome book!!!!!great going!!

Rating:
Summary: worth reading
Review: Trainspotting is a book that deserves to be on your bookshelf at home right next to Cat's Cradle. It will make you laugh like you have never laughed before- with a tear in your eye. You listen to the crazy tales of heroin addicts and boozers like it couldn't happen. The sad thing about this novel is that this can and does happen. I think that was the message Welsh is trying to convey

Rating:
Summary: Welsh creates original and unpredictable work
Review: When I bought my copy of Trainspotting it was a few months before the film came out. I read it with such (I hate to use the trite term) passion; it is really rare that a book grabs me so quickly and keeps me there for hours on end. However, I must admit there were several times during the book that I cursed it for being so damned unclear. Sometimes I wouldn't know what character was speaking until the middle or end of a chapter. Still, I thought the book was amazing ly original and extremely clever. Trainspotting had a very good continuity to it; but, there were some chapters, namely "Bad Blood", that had basically no relavence to the rest of the story. "Bad Blood" in particular was not only completely out of context, it was also thoroughly disgusting until the very end when the reader finds it was all an evil plot of revenge. Even so, Trainspotting was still the most unpredict able book I have read all year. The ups and downs of the drugs and the characters lives are very entertaining and al ways surprising (especially the shit-caked breakfast scene). In comparison, the movie is more outstanding than the book is. The film combines all the humerous and surprising elements with astounding cinematography. At the end of the book, one almost feels something similar to relief. At the end of the movie, one is saddened that it is over so quickly. --TD

Rating:
Summary: Escaping the Downward Spiral
Review: To say that taking heroine is easy would a paradox in terms. Anyone who reads Irvine Welsh, whether they admire his writing, or just because they want to seem fashionable, comes away from his books with the feeling that they have just ridden an unsafe roller-coaster. Trainspotting, is a story that takes the reader to highs and lows in the lives of a group of Glaswegian youths as they try to cope with the pressure of Scottish life, with the help of heroine. The story has so many strong characters that no one emerges as a hero, or villain, as they all deal with their own dilemmas in different ways. Mark Renton is the story's only hope for a happy ending as he tries, without success, to rid himself of the shackles of being a junky. Along the way he receives help, advise, and heartache from all angles. It is the sad comedy of the situation that makes the key players in the book seem to warm to the reader, but it slowly becomes obvious that all cannot be as easy as it seems. The inevitable waste of life is just around the corner. And all in the book are faced with the futile struggle to change their bleak future. The circle of destruction widens as the story unfolds, and the ending is like a release from an urban nightmare of sprawling tower-blocks, dilapidated flats, drug abuse, aids, violence, and eventually, death. It would be hard to not enjoy such a simple, hard hitting story, that is brilliantly written, and strong in it's entirity.