Book #64: The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh
Number of pages: 273
Jim Francis is an artist living in California with his family; he seems to be a perfect family man with a perfect life, but early on in the novel he and his family are threatened by two men. Soon after, Jim also learns that one of his sons, Sean, from his first marriage has been murdered.
What you will probably guess, and which is made clear early on, is that Jim Francis is actually Francis Begbie, the most notorious character from Trainspotting. He appaears to be completely reformed in this book, and states several times that he wants to put his violent past behind him, while he attempts to find out who murdered his son, after he travels back to Edinburgh for the funeral.
However, back in the US, Melanie learns that one of the men who approached them has been found brutally murdered, hinting that Begbie/Jim may not be the reformed character that he appears to be.
I wanted to read this book as soon as I read it, and I really enjoyed reading a book that centred entirely around Begbie, who takes centre stage, although other characters including Renton and Spud do make fleeting appearances.
My first thought was that this book was going to be a lot easier than previous books in the Trainspotting series that I've read; rather than being written from several points of view, it was written as a straightforward third person narrative, with only spoken dialogue written in the thick Scottish brogue that was used for the previous books; it is also considerably shorter in length.
I wasn't entirely correct about the ease of reading, as the book is littered with flashbacks, during which I had to pay attention, and occasionally I had to re-read several pages because I missed an important point, and flick back to earlier chapters in the book to fully make sense of something I had just read.
The structure of the book was quite good though, as it delved into Begbie's youth, particularly the way it portrayed his unpleasant Granddad, who was probably one of the main reasons that he ended up the way he did, and also the story of how he met his second wife, and their passion for Tango. There were a few other flashbacks that showed the adult Begbie acting more like he did in the older books, mostly through him having a brazenly homophobic attitude, even in front of his young sons.
I wasn't sure exactly what to expect from this book, but I suspected there would be violence, and there was. The violence gradually increased to a crescendo at the end, as the novel turned into a revenge story; just as it seemed that the most brutal violence was over, there would be more, and it would be more graphic than before.
I was really glad to have read this book, and would love it if Irvine Welsh were to write books that centred around some of his other characters. As for the last few paragraphs, I'm going to have to check the earlier chapters again, to make sure I understood what was happening - and maybe re-read Porno.
I definitely wanted to know what happened next.
Next book: Square Mile (Paul Kilduff)