TY - JOUR T1 - <em>BJGP</em> Library: <em>Trainspotting</em> JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 154 LP - 154 DO - 10.3399/bjgp16X684145 VL - 66 IS - 644 AU - Euan Lawson Y1 - 2016/03/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/66/644/154.abstract N2 - Trainspotting Irvine Welsh Vintage Publishing, 1994, PB, 448pp, £7.99 978-0099465898There is nothing cosy or comforting about Trainspotting. Published in 1993 it follows the lives of a collection of characters based in Leith, Edinburgh. Four main characters shine through: Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie. Mark Renton could be described as an antihero: a junkie vegetarian who hates the world and hates himself in equal measure. Welsh portrays the junkie lifestyle in full brazen technicolor complete with vomitus, urine, faeces, and other excreta. Trainspotting started life as a series of short stories and its origins remain obvious. It skips around characters, backstory is often missing, and there’s no narrative arc, just the see-saw of relapse and abstinence, abuse and misuse. There is misogyny, racism, casual and senseless violence. It’s also bleakly comic but it tests the limits of … ER -