Filth
Another scabrous, lurid, blackly comic novel from America's favorite Scottish enfant terrible, this one does for present-day Edinburgh what James Ellroy does for 1950s Los Angeles. Welsh begins with a detective's investigation into a murder?the death of a Ghanaian ambassador's son?and turns it into a vivid exploration of the detective's own twisted psyche and seedy milieu. Detective Bruce Robertson finds himself preoccupied not with the murder but with his own genital eczema, sadistic sexual antics involving any number of girlfriends and prostitutes, his increasingly chronic appetite for coke, alcohol and greasy fast food and, finally, the parasite that has taken up residence in his intestines. Welsh effectively plays off Robertson's bilious narration with the coolly insistent voice of another entity?the tapeworm, who seems to be the repository of Robertson's childhood memories and what is left of his superego?as the detective spins out of control, wasting himself in increasingly risky games of erotic asphyxiation with one of his mistresses (ex-wife of another detective), machinations to undermine his colleagues, and misanthropic rage: "Criminals, spastics, niggers, strikers, thugs, I don't fucking well care, it all adds up to one thing: something to smash." Even for readers who have mastered Welsh's Scots dialect, such an eloquently nasty narrator can be exhausting. As in the past, Welsh himself sometimes seems rather compromised as a satirist by the glee he takes in his characters' repulsiveness. Yet if this hypnotic chronicle of moral and psychological ruin (funnier and far more accessible than Welsh's last full-length novel, Marabou Stork Nightmares) fails to charm a wide readership, it will not disappoint devotees. Editor, Gerald Howard; author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. - Publishers Weekly
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Comments
just ordered this one offline the other day. i've heaard so much ranting about irvine welsh, that i couldn't hold off purchasing one his books any longer. so i got this one. acid house is more popular, but this book looks more than promising. i hope to finish it soon. so far. it's fantastic. nothing more and nothing less.
- S
bought this a long time ago. haven't picked it up since. i read, "if you liked school, you'll love work" and that was a hilarious, gag-inducing, eye-popping thrill ride. i feel ashamed for not giving this book a try. i think i will...now.
My favorite Welsh novel by a landslade and I've read them all. Robertson is the most disgusting character I've ever had the pleasure to read about. Yet having said that there are moments of heart wrenching humanity within this story.
READ IT, READ IT, READ IT!!
Hilarious. I love to hate Bruce. It's a little terrifying because I found myself agreeing with so much of the bullshit that came out of his mouth.