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Marabou Stork Nightmares by: Irvine Welsh

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Rating: - Irvine Welsh's finest.

This is his best book by far and away.

Roy Strang is evidence of what happens to a depraved youngster with obscure morals. Floating between his conscious and semi-conscious state this story is about a young schemie growing up in a highly dysfunctional family. There is so much involved in the story however it is too hard to analyse everything, altough Welsh manages to incorporate humour into a story that involves gang rape, football hooliganism and blowing up pets. Roy may be involved in it all but you can't help but forgive him.

The dialogue and characterisation here is what makes this book a masterpiece. Welsh portrays his characters in such a lifelike way that you find yourself re-reading parts of this book having sworn that he took a direct excerpt from your own life. Buy it now!

Rating: - I have to inform you how good this is

This book is amazing. The story is broken up into different aspects,firstly the central character( Roy Strang) lies in a coma. The reader is told that he can awake but only when he kills the "Marabou stork" which exists in Roys weird dreamy world. Then there is the present day, Roys family visiting etc and that leads us into Roys murky past right up to how he came to be in a coma. All the above come together for a great finale.

Rating: - Oh Dear!

This is the second Irvine Welsh book I read and is by far my favourite. The subject matter is not only disturbing and vile, but the pictures painted in the surreal quest for the Marabou Stork are some of the most vivid imaginary I have come across.

Flitting from semi-conscious dream world to semi-conscious reality, the main character is one you will sympathise with and despise for having ever existed.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who hasn't read Irvine Welsh before. He can be hard to deal with, as his use of vernacular and twisted (by this I mean depraved!)story lines can be a tad nauseating. So if this is your first time, let The Acid House or Trainspotting ease you in.

Rating: - Without doubt, the best Irvine Welsh book

If you're reading this review still undecided whether to buy this book or not, I won't be offended if you stop reading now if it means that you click what you need to click to get this book sent to your door.
I read Trainspotting, The Acid House and Ecstacy in that order and was beginning to think that Welsh had done what most writers dream of in his first novel, but had failed to live up to the hype in the next two books (despite them not actually being novels as such). Then, I read Marabou SN and realised I was very wrong.
This novel captures everything that is good about literature generally. The twists and turns that keep you off balance and wondering whether you are being taken down blind-alleys or being allowed to see the real picture. Dream-like sequences that magically juxtapose his painfully recognisabley references to the "Schemes". Characters so rich in idiosyncracies without becoming some League of Extraordinary Gentlemen extra...
The tale itself is typically Welsh in that it probes the most shyed-away from topics in life and gives them the honest, gritty glamour that they deserve.
How many authors can make you empathise with a thug like Begbie? Welsh manages to send chills through my soul as he points out the similarities between us all by showing you the worst possible incarnation of yourself. He does it again in Marabou SN in such a way that holding yourself responsible for the heinous act that is the catalyst for this tale, seems almost reasonable.

Beautifully grotesque, this is my favourite novel by any author. I have read it time and time again without it losing any dimensions and I feel that if I could convince just one of you, maybe you in particular, to buy this book, I would have done my good deed for the day.

Rating: - A REAL CRACKER

I read marabou stork nightmares for the second time recently and loved every minute, such a very dark humor and the complete understanding of how the underclass mind works is brilliant, how the three differnt plots were concieved is a mystery to me...a very clever and at times touching and funny, funny book.
well worth a read!

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