Ratings54
Average rating4.3
The seminal novel that changed the face of British fictionChoose 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 fuckin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.
Reviews with the most likes.
Wow, the power this book has oan me!
Tae sais fae the least, it's so brutally honest wi every single anti-social thought ye might huv when ye ur forced tae be born intae this world.
Alright, switch back to normal English. The point I'm trying to make here is, firstly it's the portrayal of Scottish people and the societal conditions during the 1990s, secondly it's about the brooding nihilism and that bit of renegade fight against the system, thirdly it's about life, the philosophy underneath it, maybe you just ought to conform a bit, since it's inevitable, as one of the many sad truths this book has taught us, all fitting very well with my personal philosophy of life. A shame it is.
The writing style is alright, since I don't know why but I've read Dead Men's Trousers first, got a bit used to the dialects.
The most life insights you could ever get from would be mundane life, but isn't a life with mere drug use also a life of mundaneness? It's just the sensual feeling of not getting in touch with reality for a wee bit only.
A very good anti-drug campaign, was it though? I don't think so.
Choose life.
Audible version is excellent. The felly has a good grasp of ‘that accent' and manages the weegie accent well too. In fact it's one of the best Audible reads I've heard. Makes Begbie sound like one mental scary cunt, which is just what he is.
And that big where Renton's got withdrawal and sees the bairn on the ceiling. It's disturbing, and not in a good way.
This book had a LOT of characters and I felt that sometimes it was hard to tell who was narrating, and the voices were often pretty similar. Besides that, and the dialect being a challenge, I thought this was a hard-hitting and realistic portrayal of addiction, and an important read.
Featured Series
5 primary booksMark Renton is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 1993 with contributions by Irvine Welsh and Federico Corriente.