Glue - Irvine Welsh

Violence, Football, Football Casuals, Edinburgh, Aids, Schemes, Drugs, Alcohol, Sex. Jumble them up together and you will come out with an Irvine Welsh book. I can't really call them ‘Novels’ as so few of the ideas are novel. I used to really like his stuff; I enjoyed Trainspotting and Marabou Stork Nightmares immensely and was vaguely impressed by his short stories. This all stopped when I read filth and was horrified by it. Not in a ' Oh that's terrible’ way, but more in a 'what is the literary value of this’ way. I swore never to read his books again, but I read good reviews of Glue and after seeing in on sale for a fiver- was ...  Read the complete review

Glue - Irvine Welsh Description: Author: Irvine Welsh / Genre: Fiction / Glue, the story of 4 close friends growing up in Edinburgh, is a very funny, very realistic and very moving book. My copy has a bright pink cover with a cracked egg on the front, but there are This book begins by introducing us to the 4 main characters, Andrew Gallacher, Terry Lawson, Carl Ewart and Billy Birrell AKA Carl, 'Juice' Terry (so called because he works on a lorry selling juice), Billy and Gally. These boys have grown from children into young adults together in the poorer part of Edinburgh. As they grow up, they discover the world ...  Read the complete review

A degree of anticipation has been hanging over me whilst waiting for Mr Welsh’s latest book, and following Filth, his previous novel, it was mixed with trepidation as I can’t really say I liked Filth very much. It was too, well, filthy for want of a better word. Glue is a lot better though. It’s a step up for Welsh as he’s knocked out a respectable 464 pages and has looked beyond the slums of Edinburgh, well a bit, anyway. It still has the same wise cracking, dialect, drugs, love, sex and violence as usual, but with a bit more structure and maturity. The only major doubt is this, and it would be cowardly not to say it – Is this ...  Read the complete review

For so long now I have been going from book to book, wanting to put it down half way through because of sheer boredom. So you can imagine my relief when I get into this book. WOW!!! By the end I could feel depression looming as I really didn't want it to end. I have never read anything by Irvine welsh before but I certainly will be doing straight away, that's for sure. The story is about four children in the 1970's and their paths through life together up until the present, here is a brief synopsis of each character (Juice) Terry Lawson: This Character left school earlier than the rest in the hope that having a ...  Read the complete review

Ever since I read 'Filth' whilst working in a call centre I fell in love with Irvine Welsh's books. Glue is a classic Welsh novel, football, drugs, sex and violence told in a way only Welsh could. The book focuses on 4 friends, Carl, 'Juice' Terry, Billy and Gally who seem to equally love and hate each other and they grow up together in Edinbrugh, each having their own story told from teenage years to adulthood, the way Irvine Welsh writes his novels is unique, he writes them with a Scottish twang, replacing words like 'know' with 'ken' and 'football' with 'fitba', you soon figure these out and the book almost becomes a Scottish lesson by the ...  Read the complete review