Product Description

Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fuckin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4332 in Books
• Published on: 1994-07-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
'Welsh has certainly described the world surrounding Edinburgh's underground drug movement with a most amazing intimacy'.
--www.bfkbooks.com

Review
`A complex, episodic read'

From the Publisher
The seminal novel that changed the face of British fiction

Customer Reviews

Better than the film
If you've read any other of Irvine Welsh's books and are looking for another hit of his hard-edge and often funny writing style then go to the source, the original, train spotting. Seeing the film will not spoil your experience nor will any comparisons stop you flying through the book, it's simply the most addictive book i've read to date. The characters are, as allways, jumping straight out from the page and are well pictured giving a good dynamic between them. I've never enjoyed a book more and thoroughly recommend the book to anyone who fancies a good read.

Amazing - visceral slices of life from the Edinburgh streets
The first thing to point out is that the book is very different from the (excellent) film.

This is an amazing book; essentially a collection of vignettes about Edinburgh street life among the heroin users strung together by a common cast and a narrative about Renton escaping.

Making heavy use of the local patois, the book can be difficult to read but it is well worth preserving because the language is an essential element in bringing the amazing cast of characters to life.

The film does have an impact here - as the casting affects your image of the characters - this is not really a problem as the casting was generally excellent - Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller fitted my mental images of Renton and Sick Boy very well. Robert Carlyle did not conform to my mental image of Begbie but that doesn't really matter as in many ways he was even more terrifying.

Also note that this is not a book for the faint-hearted - it is often graphic and disturbing in its portrayal of drug addiction (particularly the places you might stick needles) and violence (you will certainly think twice before insulting a waitress).

Essential reading

Excellent
As a reader currently accustomed to standard paperback bestseller crap "Trainspotting" was a welcome change. I admit, I didn''t discover this book in its obscurity but was influenced to read it after the great media-hype surrounding the film, but I still feel gratitude I read the book before watching the movie. This book, unlike other mind-numbing American novels later turned into films, intrigues the reader and teases his thoughts and his perception of border lines and what is acceptable and unacceptable. The novel never urges the reader to try any drug but rather shows the real side of drug use, the ups and downs of mainly Heroine and alchohol, in a funny and provokingly interesting way. With the use of intricate scottish slang Welsh manages to expose the dark realities of hopeless junkie lives and bring out the humor of those empty lives, while still incorpporating hilarious sex scenes, harsh violence and drug use. A definate must-read, this book will hopefully open the minds of its readers, if there is any hope in the youth of this great world of ours!