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Trainspotting  By  cover art

Trainspotting

By: Irvine Welsh
Narrated by: Tam Dean Burn
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Editorial review


By Seth Hartman, Audible Editor

TRAINSPOTTING TAKES A LONG LOOK AT THE UGLY SIDE OF MODERN LIFE

Famously, Trainspotting is written almost entirely in Edinburgh slang. This uncompromising decision by author Irvine Welsh forces the reader to play by his rules. Despite the somewhat difficult learning curve, this choice eventually pays off in dividends. By the midpoint of the story, protagonist Mark Renton’s idiosyncratic voice makes sense to the reader in a very visceral and intimate way, to the point where you almost feel like a part of his degenerate friend group. Who would have thought words like "dosh," "skag," and "eywis" could mean so much?

Speaking of uncompromising, the world Welsh drops the reader into is equally brutal. The narrative of Trainspotting sees Renton and his friends Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud, and Tommy trying to get by in the big city while managing their addictions. The Edinburgh experienced by Mark Renton showcases an underserved community crawling with violent criminals and anguished street urchins. Welsh takes great care to highlight the cultural context of this gritty cesspool, displaying his characters as products of their environment. Their lack of education and the normalization of their behavior is front and center in the narrative, occasionally used to comedic ends. These aren’t evil people (except for maybe Begbie), but they are nonetheless drawn to a life of crime in order to get by.

Most people know Trainspotting from the 1996 film adaptation starring Ewan McGregor. But I personally think the book is the true way to experience this story. Despite its heavy subject matter and bleak outlook, Trainspotting actually has a hopeful message attached to it. Through the narrative, Renton seems to want out of his circumstances. Despite having several backslides and committing one or two felonies, he is looking for a way to better himself. As he puts it in one iconic speech, "Choose life."

Continue reading Seth's review >

Publisher's summary

Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing f****n junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total f***n embarrassment tae the selfish, f****d-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.

©1993 Irvine Welsh (P)2012 Random House AudioGo

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Trainspotting

I struggled with the written version of this 20 years ago and gave up at some point in the early chapters. The phonetic spellings were too distracting and I couldn't get into it. With the new movie coming out, I tried again, and once again it didn't work for me.

But as spoken Scots accents are so musical to me, when the lightbulb went off in my head to look for the audiobook, well, it was a no-brainer.

The reader/narrator did a wonderful job bringing the book to life.

The book itself is so much more than the movie (not to take anything away from the movie, though), with emotional kicks to the gut when least expected, and the connection with the characters is on another level entirely.

For anyone who had a hard time reading the book, I strongly recommend trying the audiobook version. Very much worth it.

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Powerful, Profane and Profound

This is a marvelous novel and a wonderful audiobook. Tam Dean Burn manages to capture Welsh's multifaceted characters nicely, and easily navigates some tricky dialects.

As the book is written in dialect, it can be a challenging read. I first read the novel, which includes a glossary of terms, and was very helpful. Before long, I had absorbed the language. I might suggest at least looking at a copy of the book first to get a better idea of Welsh's use of language.

For those readers who make the effort, however, Trainspotting is well worth it. Less of a novel and more of a series of interrelated stories which combine to make a very satisfying whole.

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I didn't even finish it.

The only thing that impressed me about this book was the narrator's accent. If it's not one he was born with, then he did a good impersonation. That said, it was hard to understand if I wasn't giving my full attention to it, and since I like to listen to books while doing other things, this made it hard to read. Get past that, and the actual story didn't impress me either. Kids strung out on drugs, nearly dying for another fix... I think it really lost me at the point where he's digging through sh*t to get a pill out of the feces so he can get high later. I understand this is a reality for some people, it's just not something I want to read about. I guess I'm gonna see how audible's return policy works.

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A Disgusting Masterpiece

This is not for the faint of heart. There's human excrement and fluids alike, and intravenous injection pretty consistently.

But Holy COW is this a great book. It's heartbreaking and touching while still keeping loyal to the gritty reality it portrays. This book has reached into my top 3 or 4.

Also, the audiobook is a savior. I've always struggled through the physical copy because of the dialect, but this makes it not only understandable, but powerful. It feels incredibly real.

Highly, HIGHLY, recommend.

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Fantastic listen.

I'm a sucker for Scots. I could listen to it all day. The story is great and I now feel a need to revisit the movie.

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Classic

Trainspotting, along with most of Irvine Welsh’s catalog, is a visceral experience in both writing and audiobook.

Tam Dean Burn provides, at minimum, a riveting performance that sees him effortlessly maneuver a multitude of raw Scots and British English dialects—both Male and Female—with explosive bursts of passion that make the experience feel completely genuine.

The book presents a very unique style of presentation and prose which characterizes most of Welsh’s work. The chronology is mostly ambiguous due to the presence of some chapters existing originally as short stories and the lack of real dates outside of it being known to be the close to the early 90s. This creates a feeing of existing in real-time without the preconception of period based specificity and allows the listener to feel closer to the characters and their stories.

For listeners who have a difficult time understanding the vernacular of the different dialects spoken, it may help to read along if you also have the book. The book offers glossary as well which can aid in familiarizing yourself with the variety of jargon and slang. You can also adjust the playback speed to less than 1.0x, with 0.8x providing the best comprehensibility without sounding artificial.

I have listened to Trainspotting well over 30 times and read a physical copy at least as many times and still learn new things about Welsh’s writing and this unique piece of post-modern art.

If you enjoyed this then the prequel Skagboys will be even better at double the length with more interesting character development of a Mr. Mark Renton and Young Simon David Williamson.

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Impossible to read, easier to listen to

I checked this book out in college and couldn’t figure out how to read it because of the dialogue... listening makes it way easier, and you get sort of used to it over time and start to understand more. It’s a good story, but for my American ears, sometimes hard to follow.

I have to stick to the movie on this one just because of the slang barrier.

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Tough but rewarding listen.

I tried to read the novel 5 years ago in the original language but it was practically impossible for me at the time, The Scot's slang and the writing made it a hassle to go over the Begbie chapters and reading the book in my mother tongue was not an option, since it was translated using Castilian (and that was very annoying).
However, this is the definitive version to experience this classic. Tam Dean Burn (the narrator) does an amazing performance and I'm really looking forward to listen the other titles narrated by him.

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I Needed a “Fix” After All These Years

I thoroughly enjoyed the walk down memory lane with Mark Renton, et. al. The narrator’s performance was amazing. He did an exceptional job bringing Begbie’s voice to life.

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Brilliant

It's just as good as I thought, if not better. Irvine is a genius. I don't really know what else to say. I'm kind of at a loss for words.

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