Product Description

Roy Strang is engaged is a strange quest in a surrealist South Africa. His mission is to eradicate the evil predator-scavenger bird, the marabou stork, before it drives away the peace-loving flamingo from the picturesque Lake Torto. But behind this world lies another: the world of Roy's bizarre family, the Scottish housing scheme in which he grew up, his mundane job, a disastrous emigration to Aftrica, and his youthful life of brutality with a gang of soccer casuals. As one world crashes into the other, this potentially charming story of ornithological goodwill mutates into a filthy tale of violence, abuse and redemption.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15762 in Books
• Published on: 1996-02-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Irvine Welsh delivers another grisly yet enthralling insight into the mindset of the Scottish underclass in Marabou Stork Nightmares. This bleak tale is told by Roy Strang, a jug-eared underachiever who happens to be in a coma. As he flits in and out of reality in his hospital bed, we learn about the dysfunctional Strang family--Vet, his well-intentioned dinner-lady mother, John, his violent security guard father, half-brothers Bernard and Tony, disabled brother Elgin and naive little sister Kim.

Growing up on a housing estate in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, Roy unavoidably gets into scrapes with other kids and, as his crimes eventually become more serious, the police. Welsh expertly interweaves into this base reality Roy's surreal hallucination of his time spent in South Africa with "Sandy Jamieson"--the fearless hunter (a figment of his troubled mind) with whom he goes in search of the vicious but elusive Marabou Stork, a beast that isn't what it seems to be. Roy trains his mind to shut out the present and finds comfort in his African escapism--anything to avoid dealing with the consequences of his actions in real life, and his mother's singing.

The Strangs move out to South Africa in the hope of making a better life for themselves and to raise their "prospects", but they are disillusioned when, in a country where white skin is considered superior, they still fail to achieve their desires. Back in Muirhouse Roy works his way up to systems analyst from a trainee, but in his own time gets his kicks from football hooliganism; he gets involved with a bad crowd whom he finds himself joining in the docks before long.

The exercise and abuse of power is a consistent theme throughout the book: it's depicted between the hunters and animals, nurse Patricia Devine and Roy, Roy and the family dog, uncle Gordon and Roy, Lochart Dawson and the black South Africans, rapists and their female victim. Having been abused in his early years--physically, verbally and sexually--Roy, in a comatose state, is unable to fight anymore and is rendered a victim as well as a perpetrator in his state of limbo.

Using style nuances now familiar in his work, such as writing in dialect and eschewing quote marks, Welsh presents a modern-day Kafka-esque tale of exaggerated realism, told with dark humour and making sure to blunt any polished edges. --Angela Boodoo

About the Author
Irvine Welsh is the author of eight previous works of fiction, most recently Crime. He lives in Dublin.

Customer Reviews

Without doubt, the best Irvine Welsh book
If you're reading this review still undecided whether to buy this book or not, I won't be offended if you stop reading now if it means that you click what you need to click to get this book sent to your door.
I read Trainspotting, The Acid House and Ecstacy in that order and was beginning to think that Welsh had done what most writers dream of in his first novel, but had failed to live up to the hype in the next two books (despite them not actually being novels as such). Then, I read Marabou SN and realised I was very wrong.
This novel captures everything that is good about literature generally. The twists and turns that keep you off balance and wondering whether you are being taken down blind-alleys or being allowed to see the real picture. Dream-like sequences that magically juxtapose his painfully recognisabley references to the "Schemes". Characters so rich in idiosyncracies without becoming some League of Extraordinary Gentlemen extra...
The tale itself is typically Welsh in that it probes the most shyed-away from topics in life and gives them the honest, gritty glamour that they deserve.
How many authors can make you empathise with a thug like Begbie? Welsh manages to send chills through my soul as he points out the similarities between us all by showing you the worst possible incarnation of yourself. He does it again in Marabou SN in such a way that holding yourself responsible for the heinous act that is the catalyst for this tale, seems almost reasonable.

Beautifully grotesque, this is my favourite novel by any author. I have read it time and time again without it losing any dimensions and I feel that if I could convince just one of you, maybe you in particular, to buy this book, I would have done my good deed for the day.

An excellent book
As with 'Trainspotting' I was amazed at how often I found myself nodding my head in acknowledgment of the basic human truisms Welsh delivers through a sordid cast of characters. This is a story about a young man, Roy Strang, brought up in a squalid - but altogether unexceptional - environment. He narrates the major events of his life to us from the disjointed angle of his near-comatose form as he lies in a hospital bed. The violence of his inner-city life is vividly painted. This is a book about the type of people we've all known at one time or another. Highly recommended.

Welsh proves himself a world-class talent.
I've read Trainspotting, and Ecstasy and bits of Acid House, and loved the author's work from day one; but when I read Nightmares, I was awestruck. Welsh's talent is amazing. The sheer depth of the piece inspires admiration and humility. I've read nothing to date which so successfully achieves a layering of elements such as consciousness, truth and reality, within a story that one feels honored to have read. Not only is the author's technique flawless, but he has created characters you can actually believe- ones who may not be admirable, but who remain fascinating until the end. I recommend this book to everyone with an appreciation for the art of the English language.