Review: Marabou Stork Nightmares

Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irving Welsh

About: In a hospital room in Edinburgh Roy Strang lies in a coma - which doesn't save him from reliving the sordid developments that brought him to this state. He seems at times to be engaged in a strange quest in a surrealistic Africa to eradicate the evil predator-scavenger bird the marabou stork before it drives away the peace-loving flamingos from Lake Torto. But Roy's hallucinatory adventures keep being interrupted by troubling memories of his bizarre family, the housing project in which he grew up, a disastrous emigration to South Africa and his youthful life of casual brutality as a club-hopping soccer thug. (from goodreads)

Review: I must say first off, I've never read or seen anything written by Irving Welsh. Conclusion, real, raw, intimate, amazing and fantastic piece of work. On the other note, it's not for the light of heart. A bit of a different swing from Peter Pan but Marabou was a good change up. I began the story with a basic idea on the back of the book. Man in coma finds himself in deep Africa hunting a Marabou Stork with his good friend Sandy Jamison, but all the while is so close to the surface. I enjoyed the way the book was written, Irving took the words and built them up and down bring your eyes and reading along this backwards journey with Roy Strang. The story started out light, adventurous, I actually like Roy. My relationship with Roy was a lot different than most main characters. It was as interesting and backwards as the book. At the beginning I like Roy, I found him interesting, kinda felt bad for him that he was bullied and his weird family. As the story progressed I found myself feeling more hatred towards him that sadness, I didn't like him. Roy was dumb and arrogant and an ass. I honestly hated him. Near the end you started to feel bad for him again, just a bit of sympathy was sent his way. But by the end my relationship with Roy Strang was mutual. We had finished the book together and I felt like the more I knew about him, the less I liked him. But I enjoyed the journey and story of his life, the Scottish humor and language Welsh put into his book. It was a great, interesting read. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with a light stomach. I must say it gets a bit hard to handle. Overall, so glad I purchased it. Now on to buying Trainspotting and Acid House.