Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh or Danny Boyle?

On one side, a surprising, dark-humoured and trash writer: Irvine Welsh. On the other, a brilliant film director who recently gave us "Slumdog Millionaire" and of course the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony!

Whenever a book is interpreted into a movie, you cannot resist comparing which one is better. Sure sometimes it's obvious (the first example that comes to my mind is "The Da Vinci Code" a good movie but deceiving compared to Dan Brown's book), but tonight I would like to avoid any comparison and mainly focus on the genius of both versions.

Trainspotting, the story of young Scottish lads who deal with the very complicated problem of heroin. The story is all about a search for identity and what is the use of living. We follow Mark Renton, the protagonist, who goes through life, wondering who the hell has the right to say their lifestyle is better. Through his hilarious relationship with his friends and family, we discover as well the hard life of unemployed and drugged young Scottish adults.  

Let's start from the beginning. Irvine Welsh is a Scottish writer who gave us many great books such as "Porno" or "If You Liked School, You'll Love Work" (which I am currently reading and will soon be reviewed). In this book and in every other book I read written by him, you discover a writer who is extremely agile with comparisons and similies. The best and funniest example I found recently is this one: "her look of judging compassion makin me feel like the teenage daughter of the house who stormed out screamin 'fuck you' only to return in tears with a swollen belly six months later" (extract from "If You Liked School, You'll Love Work").  His harsh style really takes you with breath-taking efficiency, either making you frown in disgust or laugh out loud with his unexpected jokes. His other great strength, is how he depicts the environment around his stories. Should it be the Arizona desert in "Miss Arizona" or Scotland in "Trainspotting" he has the ability of showing us the unseen side of these places, mostly focusing on their magnificently destructive natures. He manages to underline beauty in a deadly desert, as well as the disgust felt by the Scottish lads in their dump of a city.

In Trainspotting, the main particularity you discover is the way the book is written. It is written in English... with a Scottish accent! As I started reading the first five lines, I thought i had taken a celtic version of the book,but soon realised it was simply how it was. To give you an idea, the first lines go like this: "The sweat wis lashing oafay Sick Boy; he wis trembling. Ah wis jist sitting thair, focusing oan the telly, tryin no tae notice the cunt. He wis bringing me doon".

But as I started reading it out loud, thinking I would understand better, I was struck to hear myself speaking with a real Scot's accent! It is incredibly accurate, and as you fly from a narrator to another the style changes, warning you of a swap in character. It might take you a few pages to get used to it, but the overall result is very impressive and adds realism to the story (my hardest word to understand was "ken" which means the verb "to know").

The book is a real masterpiece and brings together many different little stories, all joined by Renton's overall adventure. I reccommend it strongly for readers in search of something different (not for the faint of heart though!)

Now about Boyle's movie, there isn't much to say apart from the fact that it is a perfect representation of the atmosphere conveyed in the novel, through "Requiem for a Dream" kind of scene takes. Mark Renton is very well played by Ewan McGreggor. This movie will make you laugh as well as strike you with its hard subjects of drug, and dealing as well as its effects on life. The music used is also excellent and portrays well this generation.

Conclusively, I recommend you read the book and watch the movie, which I have both enjoyed a lot.

I leave you tonight with the trailer and my favorite quote of the book, as I think it summarizes the search for identity portrayed in Trainspotting.
Guid nicht! (Good Night in Scottish Gaelic)

Trailer:

"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday night. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life . . . But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"