With the Christmas season upon him, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson of Edinburgh's finest is gearing up socially―kicking things off with a week of sex and drugs in Amsterdam.
There are some sizable flies in the ointment, though: a missing wife and child, a nagging cocaine habit, some painful below-the-belt eczema, and a string of demanding extramarital affairs. The last thing Robertson needs is a messy, racially fraught murder, even if it means overtime―and the opportunity to clinch the promotion he craves. Then there's that nutritionally demanding (and psychologically acute) intestinal parasite in his gut. Yes, things are going badly for this utterly corrupt tribune of the law, but in an Irvine Welsh novel nothing is ever so bad that it can't get a whole lot worse. . . .In Bruce Robertson Welsh has created one of the most compellingly misanthropic characters in contemporary fiction, in a dark and disturbing and often scabrously funny novel about the abuse of everything and everybody."synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Our hero, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson, is a cross between Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant and John Belushi in Animal House. His task is to nab a killer who has brained the son of the Ghanaian ambassador, but bigoted Bruce is more urgently concerned with coercing sex from teenage Ecstasy dealers, planning vice tours of Amsterdam, and mulling over his lurid love life. He's also got a tapeworm, whose monologue is printed right down the middle of many pages. Here's one of this unusually articulate parasite's realizations: "My problem is that I seem to have quite a simple biological structure with no mechanism for the transference of all my grand and noble thoughts into fine deeds."
Welsh's real strength is comic tough talk and inventive slang. The murder mystery helps organize his tendency to sprawl, but the engine of his art is wry, harsh dialogue. At one point, his books hogged the entire top half of Scotland's Top Ten Bestsellers list--and half the buyers of Trainspotting had never bought a book before. The reason is not that Welsh is the best novelist who ever got short-listed for the Booker Prize. It is that he is that rarest of phenomena, an original voice. --Tim Appelo
But as Bruce spirals through the lower reaches of degradation and evil, he encounters opposition -- in the form of truth and ethical conscience -- from the most unexpected quarter of all: his anus. In Bruce Robertson, Welsh has created one of the most corrupt, misanthropic characters in contemporary fiction and has written a dark, disturbing and very funny novel about sleaze, power, and the abuse of everything. At last, a novel that lives up to its name.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780393318685
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New. Seller Inventory # 9780393318685
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 460813-n
Book Description Condition: New. Buy with confidence! Book is in new, never-used condition 0.75. Seller Inventory # bk0393318680xvz189zvxnew
Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published 0.75. Seller Inventory # 353-0393318680-new
Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # newMercantile_0393318680
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0393318680
Book Description Condition: New. . Seller Inventory # 52GZZZ00CRU5_ns
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 392 pages. 8.50x5.75x1.00 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __0393318680
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # V9780393318685