Trainspotting A Novel By Irvine Welsh

Trainspotting A Novel By Irvine Welsh

Trainspotting is a captivating story of the random events that occur during a critical time in a group of Scottish junkies' lives. Irvine Welsh illustrates the confusion, anger and turmoil many heroin addicts are subjected to and what happens once they try to quit.

The story is centered around Mark Renton, an ordinary twenty-two year old who was raised by a loving mother and father. He has two brothers: one was catatonic and the other was an overachiever. Through court-mandated therapy he was told he envied his parents and resented his older brother. This was what contributed to Rents (what his friends call him) starting to use heroin.

Bit by bit the reader is introduced to Rents' friends, cousins, friends' of friends, parents, friends' parents, the list goes on. Anyone with relevance to the life of Mark Renton, the reader meets sooner or later.

Irvine Welsh (b. 1958), Scottish novelist

Black tar heroin

English: Pre-war Bayer heroin bottle, originally c...

Everyone in Rents' life is messed up or gets that way somehow. His friend Begbie, for example, is an unhappy little man. He feels he has to make himself seem tough by surrounding himself with "friends" who do nothing but boost his ego by letting Begbie put them down. Aside from being on and off heroin, his good friend Danny Murphy, or Spud (as everyone calls him) is a habitual thief. His friend Simone is nicknamed Sick Boy for good reasons. When he is high he hears voices in his head willing him to do evil things. He likes to shoot dogs as their masters are taking them for a walk, and he enjoys using women for nothing but sex.. Rents' date on occasion, Hazel, was abused by her father when she was young, and she chooses to shoot up to solve her problems. Rab McLaughlin, or Second Prize,