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Books similar to Trainspotting and other Irvine Welsh

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Plastercast

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It's been a while since I read some fiction as I'm not really bothered with it, never seen the point in reading something if it isn't about something real and relevant to my life, but lately I've needed something to entertain me, and I figured it's better than going on the internet or watching TV, and anyway it's much more engrossing than either of those. Now can't believe the amount of reading I've missed out on. Ideally I would always have a book that I'm reading, getting through one a week or something, but you know what it's like when other more important stuff gets in the way. My reading habits are a bit like buses, I don't read for ages, then I end up reading 3 books in a row like. The last 3 were all by Irvine Welsh, I liked Trainspotting the best, so what other books by other authors would you recommend that I might like? I'm after something set in the UK that's quite harsh and ugly and fucked up like. No fairytale endings.
 
Don Quixote and War and Peace are hugely rated for a very good reason. Both are long but very readable, particularly the latter.

If you want to read stuff that's a bit more like Welsh, then try the novels of Christopher Brookmyre. They aren't great literature by any means, but they are well written, and a load of fun.

I liked David Mitchell's ghostwritten and Black Swan Green. He won a ton of awards for Cloud Atlas but I think that that book is very over-rated.

Alan Warner has written a couple of decent books - Morvern Callar is the best known. Again with the Welsh-ness I recommend his The Sopranos. I don't know if it's an accurate representation of a bunch of Catholic schoolgirls, but it is funny and, at the end, touching.

Going back to novels that can be considered classics I'd go for Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.

I'm sorry that not all my choices are set in the UK, not all are ugly and few have fairy-tale endings, but I've typed this up so I might as well post it.
 
'Don't read this book if you're stupid' by Tibor Fischer has a collection of fairly downbeat but also quirky short storys. I'd liken it to Welsh's 'ecstacy'.
 
How about reading James Kelman? He's where Welsh got a lot of ideas from, plus he's a better writer.
 
Possibly, but Trainspotting was fresh and interesting. Ecstasy was partly a retread of stuff Welsh did far better in his first two books, and then partly a demonstration that he was absolutely incapable of writing about middle- or upper-class characters without resorting to lazy and cliched characterisation.

He should have been shot after Marabou Stork Nightmares. Now, he's the French and Saunders of scheme-lit.
 
bluestreak said:
How about reading James Kelman? He's where Welsh got a lot of ideas from, plus he's a better writer.
Click to expand...
this is very true. 'how late it was, how late' is one of the best books i've ever read. a book of short stories of his was also brilliant but i gave it to my mate and i can't remember its title.
 
Another decent Scottish novelist is Alasdair Gray. His Lanark is rightly respected. Gray wears his influences on his sleeve with this (Kafka, Borges, random SF authors) but it's a damn fine novel that Irvine Welsh has certainly read. I really like his Poor Things too.
 
Maurice Picarda said:
Possibly, but Trainspotting was fresh and interesting. Ecstasy was partly a retread of stuff Welsh did far better in his first two books, and then partly a demonstration that he was absolutely incapable of writing about middle- or upper-class characters without resorting to lazy and cliched characterisation.

He should have been shot after Marabou Stork Nightmares. Now, he's the French and Saunders of scheme-lit.
Click to expand...

Marabou was really good. I can see how people felt a bit let down by everything from ecstasy to bedroom secrets (although I like most of them), but Crime was a return to form.

Welsh is pretty unique in style, imo. Never come across anything really comparable.
 
As Bluey says, James Kelman. Welsh's style is far from unique or particularly original.

I liked Trainspotting. Filth bored the pants off me. Trite nonsense.
 
littlebabyjesus said:
As Bluey says, James Kelman. Welsh's style is far from unique or particularly original.

I liked Trainspotting. Filth bored the pants off me. Trite nonsense.
Click to expand...

Try Crime, the sort-of sequal to filth. A lot more realistic (3 dimensional charecters, cops who have redeeming charecteristics and aren't made out to be fascist anti-working class wankers, and the subject matter, paedophilia, is treated with a lot of sensitivity - none of welshs usual overly graphic depiction of the particularly nasty parts of his storys).
 
cyberfairy said:
I was about to say that! Takes a while to get into the different dialects but his books are very similar in a wasted druggy way. Martin Millar also writes about drug taking, squats and the like.
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Is it just me who thinks the dialect aspect of Welshs books is kind of irrelevant?

But one book which is pretty Irvine Welsh (welsh in bristol!) is Shawnie by Ed Trewavas. Well worth a look.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shawnie-Ed-Trewavas/dp/095479138X
 
When I was at school in the 70's, books published by the New English Library (like "Chopper" and Skinhead") had a lot of fans amongst my classmates. They had a sort of gritty realism about them which someone who's read and enjoyed "Trainspotting" would identify with, but they never enjoyed anything like the same literary acclaim.
 
Jon-of-arc said:
Is it just me who thinks the dialect aspect of Welshs books is kind of irrelevant?

But one book which is pretty Irvine Welsh (welsh in bristol!) is Shawnie by Ed Trewavas. Well worth a look.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shawnie-Ed-Trewavas/dp/095479138X
Click to expand...

Not keen on Welsh so don't know-the Gritts book I referred to is written in about five different dialects, scot, geordie, welsh etc so takes a while to get into as to get used to reading one dialect and then it suddenly changes.
Shawnie looks interesting though:cool:
 
Grits was very good i thought, much better than other things he's written. i reread it recently and it was like meeting old friends :)
 
Just reserved a load of Kelman books from the local library and will bookmark this thread so as I can try the other authors yous suggested, thanks for the suggestions so far.
 
I like James Hawes White Merc with Fins. UK set, about dissafected white middle class twenty-smoethings, a smattering of drugs and a killer heist.
 
Jon-of-arc said:
Is it just me who thinks the dialect aspect of Welshs books is kind of irrelevant?
Click to expand...
I don't find it irrelevant- for me personally, there's a direct inverse correlation between the amount of dialect and the quality of the writing, with maybe 'glue' as a stand-out exception.

Haven't read 'crime' yet...

5t3IIa said:
I like James Hawes White Merc with Fins. UK set, about dissafected white middle class twenty-smoethings, a smattering of drugs and a killer heist.
Click to expand...
aye, 'white merc' is a good read.
 
I'm halfway in on How Late It Was, How Late (James Kelman), bought it from Waterstones as I couldn't wait for the central library to get it in from another branch like. Thanks for that now I can't stop reading it, seriously what the fuck, where's the chapters like? What a strange book but it's good so far, like I say I'm halfway through, which is good for me as I read quite slow normally, should have it finished before the end of the week. and have got a couple of others on order from the library. Not Not While The Giro next and then maybe some of they other authors yous suggested. Thankssss.....
 
Plastercast said:
I'm halfway in on How Late It Was, How Late (James Kelman), bought it from Waterstones as I couldn't wait for the central library to get it in from another branch like. Thanks for that now I can't stop reading it, seriously what the fuck, where's the chapters like? What a strange book but it's good so far, like I say I'm halfway through, which is good for me as I read quite slow normally, should have it finished before the end of the week. and have got a couple of others on order from the library. Not Not While The Giro next and then maybe some of they other authors yous suggested. Thankssss.....
Click to expand...
that's the short story one i mentioned earlier. very enjoyable iirc.
 
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