Posted in
|
Irvine Welsh
|
|
||
|
Genre
|
|||
|
Media
|
Book
|
||
Publisher | Vintage | ||
ISBN | 9780099285922 | ||
|
Reviewer
|
David C
|
Synopsis
"Glue" is the story of four boys growing up in the Edinburgh schemes, and about the loyalties, the experiences - and the secrets - that hold them together into their thirties. Four boys becoming men: Juice Terry, the work-shy fanny-merchant, with corkscrew curls and sticky fingers; Billy the boxer: driven, controlled, playing to his strengths; Carl, the Milky Bar Kid, drifting along to his own soundtrack; and the doomed Gally - who has one less skin than everyone and seems to find catastrophe at every corner.As we follow their lives from the seventies into the new century - from punk to techno, from speed to Es - we can see each of them trying to struggle out from under the weight of the conditioning of class and culture, peer pressure and their parents' hopes that maybe their sons will do better than they did. What binds the four of them is the friendship formed by the scheme, their school, and their ambition to escape from both; their loyalty fused in street morality: back up your mates, don't hit women and, most importantly, never grass - on anyone.
Irvine Welsh by Steve Double
Review
Given the subject matter of Irvine Welsh's other books, you could be forgiven for misunderstanding the title of his novel, Glue. It actually refers not to substance abuse but to bonds of friendship and focuses on four main characters from Edinburgh: Terry Lawson (‘Juice Terry'), Billy Birrell (‘Business Birrell'), Andrew Galloway (‘Gally') and Carl Ewart (‘DJ N-Sign'). Terry is a womanising layabout, Billy is a focused and ambitious boxer/businessman, Andrew is one of life's perennial victims who serves two terms in jail, Carl is the most well-adjusted of the four, eventually striking it big as a DJ.
Starting in 1970 and ending at the turn of the century, the novel traces their development from childhood through adolescence to adulthood (or something vaguely resembling it.) Along the way there is violence, petty crime, promiscuity and lots of black humour. But the plot isn't just an excuse for Welsh to indulge in his celebrated taste for the grotesque. There is a larger theme at work here, evident in the fact that the two boys who benefit from stable family backgrounds - and, most crucially, positive male role models - thrive, while the other two never seem able to break out from a cycle of poor choices.
Glue, with its complex structure and time scheme, is probably the most self-consciously ‘literary' of all Irvine Welsh's novels. But this, in a way, is where it's at its weakest. Any part of the book written in East Lothian dialogue is vivid and powerful. But other sections, written in standard English, are more uncertain. None the less, it's commendably powerful and keeps you involved in the fates of the lead characters right until the end.
If you enjoy what we provide, please consider making a donation.
