Trainspotting Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Irvine Welsh (Author), Tam Dean Burn (Narrator), Random House Audiobooks (Publisher)

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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 f****n junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total f***n embarrassment tae the selfish, f****d-up brats ye've produced. Choose life.

Listening Length

12 hours and 1 minute
Author

Irvine Welsh
Narrator

Tam Dean Burn
Audible release date

13 September 2012
Language

English
Publisher

Random House Audiobooks
ASIN

B08K1RJQNB
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	12 hours and 1 minute
Author	Irvine Welsh
Narrator	Tam Dean Burn
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com.au Release Date	13 September 2012
Publisher	Random House Audiobooks
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B08K1RJQNB
Best Sellers Rank	12,626 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) 29 in Dark Humour Literature & Fiction 38 in Urban Fiction 142 in Dark Humour

Customer reviews

5 star		76%
4 star		14%
3 star		5%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Tony Vickery

I recommend one of his other books Glue

Reviewed in Australia on 3 November 2014

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Absolutely outstanding! ! I found myself laughing out loud. I recommend one of his other books Glue.

2 people found this helpful

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barbara gorman

A window into drug culture...

Reviewed in Australia on 28 February 2021

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I'd put this author alongside William S Burroughs and Hunter S Thompson as THE books to read on drug culture. It's a harrowing book but masterful with its anecdotal, uncensored style.

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Craig

His Best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 June 2019

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'rhetorical questions are the stock and trade weapons of women and psychos' - a paraphrased quote from this admittedly flawed novel that can't be shifted from the upper tier of my favourites.

When I first read this book as a teenager, many years ago now, it was an awakening, a realisation that books don't have to be like the ones at school, and that the written word can be genuinely shocking. I thought it was genius and it turned me onto a lifetime dedicated to reading, studying and teaching literature. So on a personal level, this text remains tattooed into my brain and is often a stock answer when asked what my favourite novel is - though I have undoubtedly read better prose, better plots and more skilled attempts at tackling similar themes since.

If you are unfamiliar with Welsh (and if you've not read Trainspotting and are familiar with him, you've read the wrong book. This one is head and shoulders above anything else he has penned) then you may be unfamiliar with his version of Scots - most the of the novel is narrated in a phonetic representation of language used by Edinburgh's underclasses. As a 14 year old working-class Dundonian, I regarded this as genius. Readers from outwith Scotland, or those unfamiliar with the accents portrayed in here, may find it difficult or grating; think Scottish People Twitter on Reddit.

Whilst the positive feelings associated with the use of hard drugs are described in this book, these pages are undoubtedly a warning about the dangers of heroin, alcohol and cocaine - nobody can surely read this and think 'that's the life for me'. The biggest issue with this book is not the sentimentality surrounding the use of recreational chemicals, it's the faux political preaching of it's author. Yes the Tories are total unguided toe punts, and have never shown anything but complete and utter disregard for Scotland, but the political views, educated language, and projected reasoning for some of the principle characters decent into addiction is too liberal and ham fisted. What percentage of junkies in Scotland are truly politically motivated academics?

I think the author and I share many similar views, I just don't think he is subtle enough in portraying them - which is why a teenage me slavered over it's simplistic philosophising I suppose. That is a small bugbear - this book is tragic, beautiful, disgusting and poignant in equal measures. It is difficult to read because of how real it is - yes the stories are far fetched, but the setting and lifestyle is so real that it becomes too much for many.

A snapshot of Scotland's underbelly that the world would have ignored had it not been put to paper. Far better than the film adaptation, if you know or have the patience to work through Welsh's language style.

19 people found this helpful

M. Dowden

A Cult Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 January 2021

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I should think that a number of people have read this before, after all this originally came out in 1993 and was quite popular. If however you are coming to this for the first time then I should point out that this is not a novel as such, but instead a series of interconnected short stories. With various characters who are related in one way or another, either as friends, lovers and so on so we find ourselves mainly in Leith and entering at times the more central part of Edinburgh, with a few brief excursions to London. Written in various voices so there is a mix of accents and speech here, which some may find a bit off-putting, but it does work well within the context of the stories that we are presented with.

With our groups of characters so we are taken into the dregs of society, with heavy drug use, violence, strong language and sex. Also this takes in HIV and various crimes that goes on with regards to things like stealing and benefit fraud, and we even have revenge and murder along with other problems that many have arising in their normal lives. Despite however this obviously showing off the bleak lives of those at the bottom of the ladder it does have to be admitted that there is actually a lot of humour here, albeit of the darker kind. After all we read here of a waitress who gets her own back on a group of obnoxious men, by what she does to adulterate their food and drink, there is a quite dark and surreal scene when one character needs to use the toilet, which is not in the best of conditions, and also waking up to find that the young lady you pulled the night before is much younger than you thought.

Despite the different accents and ways of speech it does have to be admitted that at times some characters do wax lyrical and there are certain psychological as well as philosophical insights. We are reading ultimately about a group of people who are neglected by society, and either by their own actions or just caught up in those of others become social outcasts and have to rely on drugs and drink to get through the days and thus life. At times quite poignant and with most of the stories working really well together there are a few where things are perhaps a bit repetitious and some that jar and could have been left out without any problems.

Originally this was longlisted for the Booker but due to it apparently upsetting the sensibilities of a couple of the judges on the panel that year, never made it to the shortlist, however since then this has gone on to reach cult status, possibly helped by the film that was made.

3 people found this helpful

Luke Dennison

Choose life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 May 2019

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Like many, I have watched the movie on a number of occasions and really liked it but had never read the book. Although I have found Welsh's books inconsistent (love maribu stork nightmares, didn't like filth) I was looking forward to reading this and I wasn't disappointed. The film is very faithful to the book and the chances are of you like the film you'll enjoy the book. Some reviewers find the local dialect hard to follow but I didn't and found it really adds to the characterisation of the main protagonists. The reason it doesn't get five stars is that when characters change it is not always clear who is narrating and I found that slightly off-putting.

One person found this helpful

Ronald Fraser

Gritty and funny whilst also depressingly accurate and harrowing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 July 2021

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If you liked the film then seriously give this a read. Makes the film feel watered down once you've read this. I know Irvine Welsh isn't everybodies cup of tea, and fair enough, don't buy/read the book. Done. But if you are partial to dizying accounts of drug misuse, gritty counter culture and how friendship can be both won and lost within a push of a plunger... Then you might be into this and other works by Irvine Welsh!

Warren Stalley

Offski

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 August 2015

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Trainspotting is one of those difficult books where the native language can very much be a barrier to the reader but where it is also the central core to the novel, the glue binding the fragmented narrative pieces together. Author Irvine Welsh uses multiple character episodes to create a bleak tale of Scottish drug addicts swirling around in the deprived areas of Edinburgh. Hilarious and sickening vignettes chronicle the lives of Mark Renton (Rents), Sick Boy, Spud, Begbie and various associates in a whirlpool of social observation, booze, battles and grim addiction. But can true friendship really exist when you’re an addict? Although written in the 1990’s this is still a modern topical novel which doesn’t flinch when showing the filth and despair of all too realistic characters. This isn’t a cool or inspiring lifestyle, it’s real and depressing. A necessary read.

2 people found this helpful

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Trainspotting Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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