Glue by Irvine Welsh Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Glue
Book Review: Irvine Welsh's Glue: "Git ootay here if ya dinnae like it!"
Summary: 5 Stars
Anyone who does not appreciate the works of Irvine Welsh has obviously not been exposed to fine literature. His writing transcends the hackneyed words of modern authors. The dialogue? The narration? Just one word is available to describe those factors of the novel--perfect. Any other way of narration would not be acceptable, and Irvine Welsh has accomplished perfection to its fullest. "Glue" spits out truth in the most brutal but beautiful ways. "Sometimes there's a man who is the man for his time."--The Coen Brothers
Book Review: Mair ay the same oany no sae guid
Summary: 2 Stars
With "Glue," the fourth full-length novel ("Trainspotting," "Filth", "Porno") in which he mines the rich seams of low-level criminality and violence of the Edinburgh housing projects, Irvine Welsh has gone to the same well once too often, and this time the bucket only comes up half-full.
Focusing on a quartet of "schemies" or project-dwellers who have appeared as bit players in earlier novels, "Glue" has a wider scope, following the friends from adolescence through early middle age. As they come of age in the economically and socially devastating Thatcher years, we watch the friends struggle with the searing effects of institutionalized unemployment, omnipresent drugs, AIDS and serial, constant infidelity - growing older but not necessarily wiser in the process.
Unfortunately for what could have been a brilliant slice-of-slum-life story, Welsh has done this before, more than once, and he's done it better. As with "Trainspotting," different sections of the book are told from the perspective of each of the characters, in Welsh's trademark more-or-less thick Edinburgh dialect. However, the more equal parceling out of the narration actually serves to weaken the book, as we never get enough of a sense of the story from a unified perspective (such as Renton provided in "Trainspotting") to really hold all the different angles together.
The ending, in which a pair of deaths and an implausible deus ex machina involving a washed-up American diva pulls everyone back together, is redemptive in more ways than one - while re-sealing the bond between the men, it also gives us a glimpse of what "Glue" could have been if Welsh were more interested in telling a story than stacking up shock set-piece after set-piece. Sadly, it's not enough to pull the preceding 460 pages out of mediocrity.
Book Review: Missive from a convert
Summary: 5 Stars
Ever since the 'Trainspotting' movie brought Welsh to the broad attention of Americans, including me, I for some reason thought of him as a flash-in-the-pan talent, someone who got away with writing about 'real life,' using the rankness of his subject matter as an excuse for poor style. This was probably due to the fact that all of his books were on similiar topics - Scottish heroin addicts, Scottish football hooligans, Scottish heroin addicts who are also football hooligans...Of course, I couldn't have been more wrong. When I finally decided to give 'Glue' a try, I had a new favorite author within days. It starts out solidly, then really takes off with the chapters in first person describing the adolescences of the main characters. All four of them are entirely believable, engaging and likeable, in different ways, and their points of view contribute to a general understanding of the society around them. Welsh's command of dialect, though, which seemed like a cheap gimmick to me before, is his real brilliance, and the humor - ranging from satire to jokes made by the characters to outright slapstick - is hysterical. It got so that my roommate had to go out whenever I started reading, as I had no choice but to read out loud, in my horrible put-on Scottish accent, and break down laughing every several pages. One character in particular, Carl Ewart, is brilliant, the kind of guy you'd like to know in real life, and it's no wonder Welsh uses his voice to describe one of the longest episodes. The novel does lose some momentum when it switches out of first person for the later half, and a load of new characters are suddenly introduced, but it survives; the new characters are interesting as well, and the shift seem justified by the direction of the plot. Some sections do seem a little contrived, in a sort of Dickensian way - we have to find out what happened to everyone who appeared in the first part, characters are referenced needlessly by other characters in conversation to remind the reader that they exist - but it does seem Dickensian, more of a throwback to classic literature than a weakness on the author's part. As for the accusation that I would have leveled at Welsh before, that all his books are the same - a lot of people have pointed out already that this is a novel about friendship, while Trainspotting is basically a novel about heroin. It's true, it does feature Renton's moral dilemma regarding ripping off his mates, but it has a lot more insight on the issue of drug use, while this novel deals as profoundly with human relationships over time.
Book Review: My eyes were glued to it.
Summary: 5 Stars
You have to admit, Irvine Welsh knows his audience. I am that audience. Mid-twenties, urban, hip enough to know what's-what, and, above all, hungry. This book is a story of the early lives of four friends who, despite character differences, remain inseperable through early adulthood. Sounds like a chick flick, eh? It is, only the chicks are guys with major sex, drug, and self-destruction drives. We see these guys, as they take turns narrating the story. Each has a very distinct take on things while all are somehow familiar. Welsh is the best writer I know of for putting the reader into the mind of the characters. This novel is even more character-driven than Trainspotting, making it his most effective and, I think, best work yet. 5 stars without hesitation.Book Review: Not your typical buddy book
Summary: 4 Stars
I think one of the reasons Irvine Welsh is one of my favourite authors is because he can get reactions out of me. Generally speaking, horror books don't frighten me or get under my skin in any way, but Welsh never fails to horrify me with his negative portrayals of human behaviour.Glue contains numerous examples of unconscionable actions, but it also shows that even the most horrid people have glimmers of humanity. You can detest one of Welsh's foul characters, but at the same time, he has a way of pointing out characteristics which show you're not as far removed from monsters as you might like to be.
As a buddy book, Glue traces a group of Scottish friends from childhood to mid-thirties. At first, I had a bit of difficulty following the action. I thought it was a collection of unrelated short stories. It took me a little while to clue in that it was merely changing points of view. Once I had that straightened out, I was along for the whole manic-depressive ride.
Glue is not an easy read. The almost unpenetrable dialect is about as easy to digest as a cold, greasy plate of fish and chips. There were one or two parts where I had no idea what was just said, but with patience, I was able to slough it out.
If you're a fan of Trainspotting, you'll recognize some of the characters. Renton, Begbie, Spud, and Sickboy make cameos. Thematically, Glue isn't too far removed from Trainspotting. There is plenty in the way of drug culture, shoplifting, and football hooliganism. Welsh retains his black black sense of humour, and I did catch myself laughing out loud at several points, including what is perhaps the most comical sex scene I've ever read.
The book makes me giggle, and then, a few pages later, it makes me want to bawl my eyes out like a wee bairn. Go figure. Glue is the perfect cure for those Chicken Soup books.