Choose... Review on TrainSpotting - Irvine Welsh

?Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fing big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fk you are on a Sunday morning.

Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fed up brats you spawned to replace yourself.

Choose a future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin??

This passage, in short captures the spirit of this book.

On the surface, this book might seem to be the drug induced ramblings of an addict. A story of a group of dysfunctional urban youth.

But it is much more than that. It is an attempt, a very successful one at that, to delve beneath the veneer of human civilisation. It is a story of that part of us, which we ignore.

And in this the author manages to give an almost Kerouacish quality to his creation. The same urgent search for meaning. The same ability to walk the untrodden path to find out the meaning of life.

The urge within every one of us to rebel. To find a different answer.

Mind you, this book is not an easy read.

The first block is of course the language. It is written in a heavy Scottish dialect. But don?t let it daunt you. Read on for a few pages and you will find out that you will automatically get into the flow.

The second is of course the book itself. Many a times have I kept the book down, sweating and shivering, unable to handle its intensity. But I have picked it up again with almost a fanatical light in my eye. With the feeling that I have to finish it to ostracise the demons in my head.

The book, like most great books, is not for the faint hearted. Neither is it for the judgemental.

But I can assure you, that the book will reward the reader many times over.