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praises Welsh for the power of his fiction and writes: "Here was a voice, out of
Edinburgh by way of Hades, that would never have a problem with energy, wit or compassion. Finding the right form for all this incendiary talent might prove trickier." Tonkin suggests that Welsh does not know what to do
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One day, the gang's rape victim visits him in the hospital. She tells him that she has been murdering her rapists one by one, and now she has come for him, revealing that he was by far the most brutal. She then cuts off his penis and stabs him to death. In his final moments, Strang realizes that the
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Roy Strang narrates the book from an (at first) unexplained coma, which he has been in for the previous two years. His life in this state is a miserable affair, surrounded by uncaring doctors and his extremely dysfunctional family. In his fantasy life, he is an adventurer in the wilds of South
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The novel's other, more stream-of-consciousness narrative, intertwined with the story of Strang's past, takes place in the fantasy world he creates for himself in the coma. At first a bizarre but rousing adventure, it gradually becomes darker as Strang reveals the uglier parts of his life and
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There is a strong message against violence towards women from men in the book; one passage is in fact set out in a capital "Z", which is the symbol for Zero
Tolerance, a women's rights group based in Scotland.
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Strang grows into a violent, misogynistic thug. He maintains a full-time job as a systems analyst for the fictional investment group, "Scottish
Spinsters" (a reference to
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her; Strang is horrified but also takes an active part in her rape, justifying it to himself by contemplating how the gang would turn on him if he didn't.
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only person he has ever really hated is himself, and makes peace with everyone he has wronged and who has wronged him.
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bombing, the
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with his fatalism, but that the story "gives a shockingly funny shape to that impasse".
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The gang evades prison, but Strang is stricken with guilt and withdraws completely into
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account of an otherworldly present. Like many of Welsh's novels, it is written in
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When not hallucinating, Strang tells his life story, beginning in a "scheme" (
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personality, involving surreal images of brutality and sexual violence.
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Africa, where he and his loyal guide, Sandy
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The book's narrative is split into two styles: a conventional
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189:surreal
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162:Filth
110:Pages
66:(UK)
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119:ISBN
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