Dead Men's Trousers

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Dead Men's Trousers feels like a mad dash through a pre-determined series of events rather than the exploration of character, circumstance and setting which astute readers and fans of the original might be seeking. And, I guess the overarching plot (and especially Begbie's character arc) supports the fact that people change. But everyone other than Spud is comparatively rich – most especially the Miami-based Welsh himself – and they all spend their time in pursuit of the “more” that will finally fill their empty spaces.

A leitura em inglês é recomendada para quem está acostumado com o estilo do autor, repleto de referências à linguagem oral, com muitas gírias e expressões do inglês britânico. In this the latest and apparently last novel in the series, the gang, now all in middle age are thrown together for one last enterprise. The gang from Trainspotting have mostly cleaned up their act…until they are drawn back together to Scotland for one last scheme—a scheme one of them won’t survive. Mi sa che se eri gay-etero io sarei stato un filo geloso, perché avresti avuto più possibilità di chiavata di me» gli spiego.There is a major plot arc starting from a drink spiked with MDMA powder, the consequences of which flow throughout the book and are truly but believably sordid. The jet-setting, the money and the lack of a fixed locale only serve to show that Welsh is wealthy and living a different life now (and, unfortunately, do nothing for the writing).

Characters get drawn into some campy (but enjoyable) crime capers, there is plenty of sex, experimentation with new drugs, and giving the boots to the wideos that deserve it, but the whole enterprise lacks heart. After the meal prepared by Sharon and Marina, we’re kicking back in the cosy cramp of this small room, and the drinks slip down nicely. That leakage of hope, of vision and passion for a better world, and its replacement by a hollow rage, is a sure sign that you’re slowly dying. I was very emotional reading through the epilogue (and some other parts as well, but this will be a non-spoiler review). Many of the scenes are darkly hilarious, especially a certain incident involving Spud, a dog, and an international smuggling operation.This may be a spot-on depiction of how annoying such an occupation may be in reality, but realism alone scarcely justifies such dull subject matter, which seems bent on recreating in the reader’s mind the same irritation and boredom Renton is perennially suffering from. The writing is very funny and there are always quotes that I come across thatI try to remember but never do.

Dead man’s trousers begins in 2015, with Renton, now a successful DJ Manager, when he encounters Begbie (now a big time artist in LA, with a beautiful wife and two kids) on a transatlantic flight. But as they both now have homes in California, they begin to socialise and Renton attempts to pay Begbie back for old debts. Since reading Trainspotting, when it came out in 1993, I have read all of Irvine Welsh's books and, to one degree or another, enjoyed them all, so - full disclosure - I came to Dead Men's Trousers as a massive and long time fan of Irvine Welsh's work. Irvine Welsh is also known for writing in his native Edinburgh Scots dialect, making his prose challenging for the average reader unfamiliar with this style.Spud, as courier for one of said kidneys, takes his wee dog Toto along with him and things go wrong in exactly the way you’d expect.

Heartbreak aside, DMT is a wonderful ending to these stories that span so many years, and another example of just how good Welsh is at what he does. It is the fourth book with the Mark Renton character as the leading man and Sick Boy, Spud Murphy and Francis Begbie in important supporting turns. The evolution of Renton and Sick Boy's characters follows on from the previous installments in a believable and relatable way. My old boy still has a decent posture to him, broad-shouldered, if a little bent over, not too much muscle wastage in evidence. At his best, he manages a sort of ragged glory, a life-affirming comic energy combined with a sense of horror or desperation and the ability to place his lowlife shenanigans in a wider thematic or social context.He is a man of the street who would be making money and getting laid even if somebody airdropped him into Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, I found the sequel Porno to be campy and shallow, and the recent continuing saga of The Blade Artist to have been a disappointing betrayal of Welsh's world: what reader wants Begbie to be a buttoned-down straight citizen? Anyone expecting harrowing junkie trauma probably shouldn't have read Trainspotting in the first place. Welsh is on compulsively readable, searingly funny form in what has been billed as the final Trainspotting novel… What I really like about Welsh’s storytelling is that he makes these amoral misadventures so propulsive, so joyfully awful, that you have to go with the flow… this roués’ romp is about as much fun as you can have between two book covers. Renton beats the cop that's stalking Melanie and about to shoot Begbie near to death with a baseball bat that Begbie got from an old client.