Stork of the Town!!!! (Marabou Stork Nightmares - Irvine Welsh)

Member Name: Pulsebeat

Product:	Marabou Stork Nightmares - Irvine Welsh
Date:	22/11/01 (127 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: big ears

Disadvantages: ugly face

I remember, back in the heady days of 1995, thinking that 'Trainspotting' was just about the coolest book ever. However, recently, I have been thinking just how good it really was. Maybe, I was just swayed by the zeitgeist....maybe, I was just young and impressionable....maybe I just thought it was cool because it was about drugs. Anyway, this is besides the point. Up to a couple of weeks ago, I was convinced that Irvine Welsh was a one dimensional writer, with not a great deal to say, and a very outmoded way of saying it...........But that was a couple of weeks ago, and after reading 'Marabou Stork Nightmares', my opinion has drastically changed.

When I picked up the novel, I thought 'Oh, it'll be another one about drugs, and Scottish, working class losers', and in part it is; but there are much more pertinent points to be made by Welsh in this exceptional novel. 'Marabou Stork Nightmares' takes place in the mind of Roy Strang, who is, funnily enough, a working class Scottish loser. He has big ears, an ugly face, and somewhat unfortunately is in a coma. Why he is in a coma, I cannot tell you, because, it would spoil things, but trust me, he is in a coma. Remember this point, it is crucial.

The action of the novel takes place on three levels. Firstly, there is the action that is goin on immediately around Roy in the hospital, which by far takes the subordinate role. Then there is Roy's recollection of his life, starting as a child and working right up to the present. Third, there is a metaphysical trip into Roy's subconscious where he finds himself in South Africa, desperately hunting the Marabou Stork, with an imaginary friend. As Roy unravels the story of his life, set alongside the journey into his psyche in his dreams about South Africa, it becomes clear that the Marabou Stork is a representation of Roy's malignant character. He wishes to kill the stork so that he may be absolved of all the bad th
ings that he has done in his life.

In many ways, 'Marabou Stork Nightmares' can be viewed as a postmodern novel. The text is written in shapes across the page
a
bit
like
this.
Undermining, tradtional literary conventions and interweving Roy's different levels of consciousness at the same time. Whilst the action that takes place immediately around Roy, and the recollections of his life seem to be based firmly in the realist tradition, there are revelations that challenge accepted notions of truth and meaning. The journey into South Africa in Roy's mind plays an allegorical role, whereby various issues, such as postcolonialism, prejudice, and the sense of self are played out. The postmodern world can often be characterised, by a lack of true meaning, and more by sign value, and therefore the allegories that take place in Roy's subconscious become very important to interpreting Welsh's view of the world.

Roy Strang is born in Scotland in a working class family. His father is somewhat 'hotheaded', shall I say, and ofetn threatens to shoot people who cross his family. One of Roy's brothers is hugely popular and respected, one is autistic, and the other, Bernard, is gay. The retelling of Roy's life seems to be rooted in the realist tradition, but as events unfold, it becomes clear that this is not the case. From his childhood, Roy stabs a fellow classmate; grapples with his own sexuality, and then as he grows up, he resorts to football, hooliganism, sex and drugs in order to find his sense of self. It seems perhaps that Welsh, is trying to show how we try and form our own sense of identity through various means, as a response to various events, rather than from a cultivation of the self from inside. Viloence, sex, and drugs are all portrayed as hopeless ways of fulfilling inbedded des
ires, caused by the fractured and meaningless postmodern society.

There is a section in the novel, where Roy and his family relocate to South Africa, from Scotland, to stay with his uncle, and this is a turning point in the book. It obviously provides the basis for his coma-dream, but it also can be seen as a means of explaining his repugnant actions later in life. (I won't reveal what happens, because it might spoil things). The dream that is inspired by South Africa, is another attempt for Roy to reclaim his identity, but in actual fact, seems more real than anything that happens in the material world. This may be a technique of Welsh's to show how all the multiple meanings of the modern world fit together to form nothing, and therefore, the only way to truly seek our identity, is to remove ourselves from it.

The novel also, plays with our preconceptions in one other way. Despite the fact that Roy Strang is a despicable human-being, and is in no way likeable, as a reader, you totally sympathise with him. He is a classic anti-hero, and this is a device of Welsh's to show how difficult living in the modern world can be. Even the most thoughtless, self-centred dickhead, has to go through the same turmoils as everyone else, and it is all because we are reaching - in futility - to find our sense of self in a meaningless world.

'Marabou Stork Nightmares' is by far the deepest, and most profound novel that Irvine Welsh has written. It isn't the best starting place for new-comers perhaps, but it is ultimately very rewarding. Quick not though - its not really for the squeamish.

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