Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11147 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Irvine Welsh has produced more than his share of revolting characters in his short yet spectacular writing career, but in the creation of Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson he has surpassed himself. The protagonist of Filth is, both personally and professionally, utterly corrupt; a thief, drug user, misogynist and racist, with standards of appearance and personal hygiene that are simply beyond belief. It goes without saying that his wife and children have left him but, oddly, he still has few drinking mates, and even some of the women he so hideously abuses are still prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. "The undeniable sexuality which is part and parcel of the complete dominance over another human being", opines the viciously selfish Robertson, is just part of what makes, "poliswork such a satisfying career." But, strangely, as we chart his inevitable decline...from what is admittedly a very low baseline--a solid, almost conventional, underlying morality begins to assert itself. Amid the degradation we come across a hint of reason as Welsh's stunningly direct dialogue and hideously imaginative plot combine in a thrilling, undeniably unsettling novel. --Nick Wroe

Synopsis
With the festive season almost upon him, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson is winding down at work and gearing up socially - kicking off Christmas with a week of sex and drugs in Amsterdam. There are irritating flies in the ointment, though, including a missing wife, a nagging cocaine habit, a dramatic deterioration in his genital health, a string of increasingly demanding extra-marital affairs. The last thing he needs is a messy murder to solve.Still it will mean plenty of overtime, a chance to stitch up some colleagues and finally clinch the promotion he craves. But as Bruce spirals through the lower reaches of degradation and evil, he encounters opposition - in the form of truth and ethical conscience - from the most unexpected quarter of all: his anus. In Bruce Robertson, Welsh has created one of the most corrupt, misanthropic characters in contemporary fiction , and has written a dark, disturbing and very funny novel about sleaze, power, and the abuse of everything. At last, a novel that lives up to its name.

Customer Reviews

interesting........
I have read my share of misanthropic novels - I frequently enjoy journies to the dark side of life. This novel, though, belongs to a different genre entirely. Harvey Pekar is misanthropic. Holden Cauldfield is something of a misanthrope. Bruce Robertson is a bigot. And a sexist bigot at that. Whether he was intended to be a vehicle for Welsh to vent his spleen, or whether Robertson was created as a detestable character who embodies the evil thoughts we all have, I don't know. Nevertheless, his hatred is borne more out of prejudice than of genuine misanthropy derived from observing human nature. He is, as a result, a pretty unattractive specimin. Yet strangely, you do warm to him. A bit. But only in the way you warm to any anti-hero.

Anyway, semantic arguments about the difference between misanthropy and bigotry aside, this novel proved to be somewhat interesting in the end. And it was doubtful there, for a while, because about two thirds of the way in, I began to get strong suspicions that the final third was just gonna be more of the same.

Thankfully, it wasn't.

Basically, the first two thirds consists of a half-arsed attempt at a police investigation interspersed with Robertson's work-avoidance tactics - which include his predilection for charlie, bizarre sex acts and acts of back-stabbery perpetrated against his colleagues. These are all intentionally corrupt and foul but whether you count them as genuinely shocking or not kind of depends on your attitude. Yes, if these were real-life events, I am sure we should all be outraged. As elements of a work of literature? Well, put it this way: Anyone can out-do any act of literary depravity by throwing in a dog,a well-oiled dwarf and.....you get the idea. The main thing would be to determine whether these activities are enough to make you hate Robertson. Most people would probably say "Yes". Sadly, though, these activities are very repetetive and there are only so many times you can read about a man trying to do things with his rotten man-veg before getting bored.

So, the conclusion. I can't decide whether the ending represents a kind of deus ex machina that allowed an uninventive Welsh to end his novel, a deus ex machina that gave his character the kind of background that justified his persona, or whether it was a genuine plot device used to flesh out a character in need of flesh. Either way, it was strangely affecting - and I don't know whether that's a good thing or not. Ultimately, I am giving the book the benefit of the doubt. You do get a good idea of Robertson as a character and your allegiance (to him or against him) does make you question your values. It just takes quite a lot of time to get there - and there's a lot of repetition in the process.

A sick Irvine Welsh character...
Both Bruce Robertson and the tapeworm are sick, classic Irvine Welsh characters. Like a lot of Welsh characters, Robertson shows signs of good as well as evil, and you're never quite sure whether he's at heart a good guy just misdirected - that's what makes the book interesting. There's some really disgusting, hilarious moments in the book that only Welsh could conjure up. A lot of other reviews suggest that the book might be too long, without direction and meandering through the middle part. I'll leave that up to the reader to decide. But I really would recommend finishing the book. The last half a dozen chapters really hit you hard and they'll leave you thinking about it for a few days.

oh yes, it's filthy...
In this book, Welsh brings out something that is not so often shown to the open world: Filth. He shoves it into our face, eyes, ears, hands and hair.
It's the story of an Edinburgh policeman, whose 'temporarily separation' from his wife and daughter builds up the laundry and dishes stacks in his house, whose skin problems Welsh pleases us with (not!), whose drink'n'drug habit leads the reader to a somber, dark, lonely path through filth.

Welsh shows us how life of some people can me miserable, and how they don't know about it, or care to know about it, and even come to like everything about it. Welsh's character is just this sad guy living around the corner who came to lose everything because he was too proud to let go anything, and whose stool in the local pub now got his name on it.