Amazon.deIrvine Welsh's controversial first novel, set on the heroin-addicted fringe of working-clas s youth in Edinburgh, is yet another exploration of the dark side of Scottishness. The main characte r, Mark Renton, is at the center of a clique of nihilistic slacker junkies with no hopes and no poss ibilities, and only "mind-numbing and spirit-crushing" alternatives in the straight world they despi se. This particular slice of humanity has nothing left but the blackest of humor and a sharpness of wit. American readers can use the glossary in the back to translate the slang and dialect--essential , since the dialogue makes the book. This is a bleak vision sung as musical comedy.0

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Personen: Welsh, Irvine