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Book Review of Trainspotting

Trainspotting
Trainspotting
Author: Irvine Welsh
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
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Trainspotting
by Irvine Welsh

Written in phonetic Scottish vernacular, so it takes donks (or is it yonks?) tae raid. And it's first-person narrative from many perspectives, so it's hard to ken which gadge is tellin each chapter--you have to keep an eye (ear?) out for favorite expressions--such as Spud callin gadges "catboy" or Sick Boy's bad Sean Connery impression ("yesh, Shimon")--or hope another character addresses the narrator by name. Set in the late 1980s, Trainspotting is as much about HIV, poverty, racism, sectarian violence, and unemployment as it is about heroin.