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Marabou Stork Nightmares
by: Irvine Welsh

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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780099435112
ISBN: 009943511X
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: February 29, 1996
Publisher: Vintage
Studio: Vintage
Sales Rank: 12609

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
Irvine Welsh delivers another grisly yet enthralling insight into the mindset of the Scottish underclass in Marabou Stork Nightmares. This bleak tale is told by Roy Strang, a jug-eared underachiever who happens to be in a coma. As he flits in and out of reality in his hospital bed, we learn about the dysfunctional Strang family--Vet, his well-intentioned dinner-lady mother, John, his violent security guard father, half-brothers Bernard and Tony, disabled brother Elgin and naive little sister Kim.

Growing up on a housing estate in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, Roy unavoidably gets into scrapes with other kids and, as his crimes eventually become more serious, the police. Welsh expertly interweaves into this base reality Roy's surreal hallucination of his time spent in South Africa with "Sandy Jamieson"--the fearless hunter (a figment of his troubled mind) with whom he goes in search of the vicious but elusive Marabou Stork, a beast that isn't what it seems to be. Roy trains his mind to shut out the present and finds comfort in his African escapism--anything to avoid dealing with the consequences of his actions in real life, and his mother's singing.

The Strangs move out to South Africa in the hope of making a better life for themselves and to raise their "prospects", but they are disillusioned when, in a country where white skin is considered superior, they still fail to achieve their desires. Back in Muirhouse Roy works his way up to systems analyst from a trainee, but in his own time gets his kicks from football hooliganism; he gets involved with a bad crowd whom he finds himself joining in the docks before long.

The exercise and abuse of power is a consistent theme throughout the book: it's depicted between the hunters and animals, nurse Patricia Devine and Roy, Roy and the family dog, uncle Gordon and Roy, Lochart Dawson and the black South Africans, rapists and their female victim. Having been abused in his early years--physically, verbally and sexually--Roy, in a comatose state, is unable to fight anymore and is rendered a victim as well as a perpetrator in his state of limbo.

Using style nuances now familiar in his work, such as writing in dialect and eschewing quote marks, Welsh presents a modern-day Kafka-esque tale of exaggerated realism, told with dark humour and making sure to blunt any polished edges. --Angela Boodoo

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- The best one so far.
This is Welsh's best novel. An excellent book written in Welsh's Scottish slang style with an absorbing story line. This book, more so than the rest, really leaves the reader in awe of Welsh and his extraordinary talent as a writer.

Rating:

- 5 stars is not enough
You will have got the gist of the plot from the other reviewers, so I won't bore you with that.
What I will say is that book shows us that Welsh is a genius. How he can lead us through the life of such a complex character as Roy Strang in such detail in relatively few pages, and make it intensely readable puts Dickens to shame.

M.S.N. shows how someone can be good, but be totally evil. The Roy Strang of Edinburgh & the Roy Strang elsewhere are poles apart but very much the same character. I believe that Welsh clearly shows us here how repression & denial of oneself can totally warp a character. Welsh puts you so firmly in his characters head that you can be homophobic while enjoying dreams of homosexual acts, feel ... Read More:

Rating:

- amazing
There is no way you can prepare yourself for this book, you just have to read it and see where it takes you. There are so many issues and themes raised in this book and how peoples actions have knock on effects and change peoples lives, often without realising until later looked back on them.
Definately one for multiple reads as well!
Thank you Irvine Welsh!

Rating:

- Welsh's best piece - but not for the faint hearted
Im a big Irvine Welsh fan and this book is, as others suggest, his best one. Ive read it 3 times over the years, with Summer 06 being the most recent time. Its a book that covers a lot of typical Welsh subjects, drugs, drink, sex, violence - usually all at the same time !!. However with this book it twists and turns and has the reader on a roller-coaster of emotions and feelings. It would make a great movie but with the pivotal 'scene' being so shocking any attempts to dilute it would negate the power and meaning/acceptance of the final acts in the book - possibly why its not been a movie ??

Rating:

- It's not a Pretty Read
This is a book which hypnotises you but yet leaves you feeling a little sick.
I think it is Welsh's best work making books such as Glue look petty and insignificant but I have friends who found it quite simply disturbing.
I dont care what my girlfriend and her appreciation of post moderist literature says - this book highlights what a lame waste of paper American Psycho is.

Books : Marabou Stork Nightmares