A book review-"Glue" by Irvine Welsh.

I don't read loads of books. I'm not a "booky" type, but just occasionally I go on a little spurt and read three or four in a month. I don't do books which are difficult to get into, or ones which you need a degree in phsycology/talking bollocks to understand. I don't read sci-fi either, I detest it, rather stick wasps up my arse to tell the truth. I do like a bit of Irvine Welsh though I must admit. If you've never read "Trainspotting" for instance, then your life is incomplete.

"Glue" isn't really part of the "Trainspotting" series (there's also "Porno"), but it's set in the same areas of Edinburgh and one or two of the Trainspotting characters make walk on appearances. It's written in Welsh's familiar fenetic style (at least I think that's what you call it) whereby much of it is in a broad Scottish accent. This takes a bit of getting used to (if you're Australian for instance I'd just forget it), and also he switches first person all the time so different sections are spoken through the eyes of different characters. Once you've got your head around all that though, he's a fantastic writer.

In this book, he talks of four blokes growing up in Leith, their families, their backgrounds and what ties them together. I suppose loosely this is the "Glue" of the title. As we watch them grow up, and grow with them, we get to know the characters really well as they experience football violence, their first shag, drink, drugs and all manner of life changing experiences. All the way through the book is funny, really funny, as well as being dark and moving to the point where it gets a bit heavy on occasions. At the end the whole thing comes together in a beautiful conclusion, and although it takes ages to read as it's so thick, this is a book which is well worth the effort.

I'm probably biased because I really like this author, but I'd give this book a 10/10. I bought my copy from the second hand shop for a quid. You can look in your second hand shop for it, or look on Amazon or something. If you're really stuck, you can bob down the Alex and have my copy. It's a fantastic read and I know you'll enjoy it, unless you're Australian.