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kyleblackwood's review against another edition
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
dumbmaddie's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
mkat303's review against another edition
3.0
I wasn't sure if I should give this book 3 or 4 stars because Irvine Welsh is an awful cunt about fat people, and, while he's ridiculed and made obnoxious comments about fat folks before, he takes it to a new level in A Decent Ride. Normally, I'd stop reading an author's books for this reason and just call them a cunt, but seeing that I'm kind of addicted to Welsh's writing at this point, I guess I'll just bitch about it here.
So, other than the above, I enjoyed the book. "Juice" Terry Lawson from Glue reappears, now driving a cab and shagging all the lassies he can. He's joined by Ronald Checker, a kind of pseudo-punk Southern version of Donald Trump who arrives in Edinburgh and gets in Terry's cab, not knowing what a wild ride Terry will give him over the course of several months. The other character is Wee Jonty, an intellectually challenged man who has been shacked up with Jinty, who is working in a brothel unbeknownst to him. A hurricane arrives, and Jinty disappears. I'd say more, but I don't want to give any spoilers. Let's just say at times I was cracking up, and at times I was horrified (and cracking up). A Decent Ride is no Trainspotting or Skagboys, but it's given me a lot of enjoyment over the past few weeks (even if I think Irvine Welsh can be a cunt).
So, other than the above, I enjoyed the book. "Juice" Terry Lawson from Glue reappears, now driving a cab and shagging all the lassies he can. He's joined by Ronald Checker, a kind of pseudo-punk Southern version of Donald Trump who arrives in Edinburgh and gets in Terry's cab, not knowing what a wild ride Terry will give him over the course of several months. The other character is Wee Jonty, an intellectually challenged man who has been shacked up with Jinty, who is working in a brothel unbeknownst to him. A hurricane arrives, and Jinty disappears. I'd say more, but I don't want to give any spoilers. Let's just say at times I was cracking up, and at times I was horrified (and cracking up). A Decent Ride is no Trainspotting or Skagboys, but it's given me a lot of enjoyment over the past few weeks (even if I think Irvine Welsh can be a cunt).
stevenk's review against another edition
3.0
Terry "Juice" Lawson, the main character of this novel, is cab driver, small time drug dealer, and porn star cruising the streets of Edinburgh looking for his next shag, and the next and the next...and he is the nicest character in this book. There are great yet depraved characters in this book that keep doing bad things and when you think that you have read the worst, then something even more shocking happens. It also took me about a hundred pages to get in the groove of reading the heavy Scottish accent in which most of this book is written but once I got used to that my reading pace picked up. I liked this book but it's full of terrible situations and a ton of bad language that were a part of a story involving ultra rare whiskey, missing prostitutes and dimwitted boyfriends, multiple inappropriate sexual relationships, theft, deaths and other shocking situations. I received a free ARC of this book through Goodreads First Reads giveaways.
chalicotherex's review against another edition
5.0
"Ah've goat a bookcase wi some books Rab Birrell lends ays which ah nivir fuckin read but ah keep tae impress the student birds. Moby-Dick, Crime and Punishment, that sort ay shite. That Dostoyevsky cunt, ah tried tae read um but every fucker hud aboot five different names, n ah left the scheme tae git away fae aw that!"
Irvine Welsh novels ranked:
1. Skagboys
2. Trainspotting
3. Glue
4. Filth
5. Porno
6. A Decent Ride
7. The Blade Artist
8. The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins
9. Marabou Stork Nightmares
10. Crime
11. The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs
As for his short story collections, they all kind of meld together in my head. Reheated Cabbage and If You Liked School, You'll Love Work had interesting novellas, I think.
Irvine Welsh novels ranked:
1. Skagboys
2. Trainspotting
3. Glue
4. Filth
5. Porno
6. A Decent Ride
7. The Blade Artist
8. The Sex Lives of Siamese Twins
9. Marabou Stork Nightmares
10. Crime
11. The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs
As for his short story collections, they all kind of meld together in my head. Reheated Cabbage and If You Liked School, You'll Love Work had interesting novellas, I think.
melanie_page's review
5.0
I have had a somewhat quiet literary love affair with Scotsman Irvine Welsh since 2004, when I first read his debut novel, Trainspotting, set in Edinburgh. If you’ve seen the movie of the same name, bravo; if you haven’t read the book, though, you are missing out of some of the most gawd-awful and disgusting moments you would think possible. But with Irvine Welsh, things can always get worse, more depraved, more disgusting. If the movies were absolutely true to the books, they couldn’t be released in theater. Welsh’s most recent novel, A Decent Ride, which takes readers back to Edinburgh, stars “Juice” Terry Lawson, cabbie, occasional drug delivery guy, occasional porn actor, and always-all-the-time sex maniac with a huge penis. Terry is told by doctors that his heart is under too much strain and that he cannot stress it, or he will die. This includes no sexual activity of any kind!
While the synopsis of the novel suggests this is Terry’s story, Jonty, too, plays a big role. Jonty is a dopey “slow” guy trying to get through life, happy with his McNuggets, painting houses, and girlfriend, Jinty. But then, Jinty takes too much cocaine in a pub bathroom, heads home to their apartment across the street, and promptly dies on the couch. I agonized over which was the case: Jonty is too stupid to know she’s dead, or he knows she’s dead and is pretending it’s not the case. There are many subplots in the novel that are not hard to remember, but keep the novel from getting one-track and predictable.
No matter where you turn in a Welsh novel, there are no good people. None. You simply look at the principles of the characters and find the ones that do less evil. For instance, Terry has fingers in ever shady part of society, but he doesn’t have sex with minors, he never pays for sex, he never forces women into sexual activity, and he (almost) always wears a condom on account of the AIDs epidemic of the 1980s (a topic Welsh covers in Trainspotting). Granted, he has four kids (at least four the government has pinned on him) from going “bareback” a few times, but if you imagine this guy who has sex with multiple women every day, it’s not so bad, right?! Your brain gets twisted by Welsh into thinking this makes Terry a good person.
Sometimes readers get a kick in the shins to remind them that Terry’s a bad guy, like the time he describes what lengths he would have gone to to abort those fetuses (it’s disgusting). He “tries” to connect to his kids when their moms yell at Terry. He takes the two youngest, Guillaume and the Ginger Bastard (he doesn’t even tell us this kid’s name), to see Up, the Disney film, and Terry is all complaints (and also fricken’ funny):
Jonty, due to his slow mentality, is a character you feel bad for the whole way through. He has standards, too: no drugs, especially “the devil’s poodir”; no doing bad things; and no making people feel bad. He’s so simple that you want things to go right for him. After Jinty is clearly (to the reader) dead, Jonty goes to the McDonald’s a lot. He thinks his McDonald’s is the best, and even tells a millionaire later on that the McDonalds’ in New York City can’t be nearly as good as his. As if anyone cares about the quality of a McDonald’s! When the fast food chain stops selling the “After Eight” McFlurry (a flavor not found in the U.S.), Jonty is upset. The lady at the counter tells him it was promotional food, to see if there is interest. Jonty wants to know how he can express his interest in having more, and the cashier doesn’t know. He wants to fill out a form or something to get his ice cream back. Meanwhile, I’m rooting for this simpleton, even though I know that interest is show in the number of people who bought the product while it was available. But, no Welsh character is a good person. Here are just a few of Jonty’s other activities:
● Bombing
● Necrophilia
● Incest (he’s not the only one in the book who does it)
● Grave exhuming (not legally, not the only one)
● Hiding a dead body
Irvine Welsh’s language gives the novel nuance and brings people to life. Fans everywhere wet themselves when Welsh sets his books in Edinburgh, possibly because it means we are guaranteed to read some dialect. But the voices aren’t all the same. Jonty, originally from the countryside, has a much more muddled-looking dialect than Terry, who is from the city. Sick Boy, a main character from Trainspotting who is a minor character in A Decent Ride, is from Scotland, but has lived in London for over a decade, so he speaks in a more standard English. American businessman Ronnie, who we’re basically told is a fictitious Donald Trump, speaks in standard English, but that doesn’t mean he’s the “correct” speaker. When he tells people where he is, it’s spelled “Edinboro,” which is exactly how I say it (and now I’m positive I say it wrong and stupidly).
Now, if you struggle in general with dialects, you’ll definitely feel frustrated with A Decent Ride. I know there are copies of Welsh’s books that come with a Scottish slang dictionary in the back, but my library copy of A Decent Ride does not. Here’s a test of whether or not you need a dictionary: “Ah ken how she feels cause studyin must be awfay hard. Like whin ah wis at the skill. Ah found it hard tae concentrate, n that’s whin a wis thaire!” Did you get that Jonty was thinking, I know how she feels because studying must be awfully hard. Like when I was at school. I found it hard to concentrate, and that’s when I was there!
The last thing, which I’m sure every reviewer will mention, is Welsh’s treatment of women. In A Decent Ride, you’ll find few women (despite all the sex) because they are prostitutes, cab riders with no names, Jinty (a prostitute who almost immediately dies), a couple of horrible mothers in minor roles, “Suicidal Sal” (a girl who’s going to kill herself but is cured by Terry’s giant penis), and fat Karen (also cured with penis). What does this mean? It reassures me that Welsh is a boys’ club sort of writer, making his immersive, hilarious, revolting novels my dirty secret.
Review originally published at TNBBC.
While the synopsis of the novel suggests this is Terry’s story, Jonty, too, plays a big role. Jonty is a dopey “slow” guy trying to get through life, happy with his McNuggets, painting houses, and girlfriend, Jinty. But then, Jinty takes too much cocaine in a pub bathroom, heads home to their apartment across the street, and promptly dies on the couch. I agonized over which was the case: Jonty is too stupid to know she’s dead, or he knows she’s dead and is pretending it’s not the case. There are many subplots in the novel that are not hard to remember, but keep the novel from getting one-track and predictable.
No matter where you turn in a Welsh novel, there are no good people. None. You simply look at the principles of the characters and find the ones that do less evil. For instance, Terry has fingers in ever shady part of society, but he doesn’t have sex with minors, he never pays for sex, he never forces women into sexual activity, and he (almost) always wears a condom on account of the AIDs epidemic of the 1980s (a topic Welsh covers in Trainspotting). Granted, he has four kids (at least four the government has pinned on him) from going “bareback” a few times, but if you imagine this guy who has sex with multiple women every day, it’s not so bad, right?! Your brain gets twisted by Welsh into thinking this makes Terry a good person.
Sometimes readers get a kick in the shins to remind them that Terry’s a bad guy, like the time he describes what lengths he would have gone to to abort those fetuses (it’s disgusting). He “tries” to connect to his kids when their moms yell at Terry. He takes the two youngest, Guillaume and the Ginger Bastard (he doesn’t even tell us this kid’s name), to see Up, the Disney film, and Terry is all complaints (and also fricken’ funny):
“Ya cunt, ah wis nearly fuckin greetin when the auld bastard wis talkin aboot ehs deid wife n how they wanted bairns n couldnae huv them! Ah felt like telling um, shoutin at the screen: take these two wee fuckers, cause ah’m n wantin thum! Popcorn, hoat dogs, ice cream, Twixes, the fuckin lot, the greedy wee cunts!”Did I mention most of the book is written in dialect? No? I’ll get back to that. Basically, Welsh lets readers believe that some of the horrible things his characters do are normal--to a surprising extent even--but then brings us back by making us feel bad occasionally, often in situations involving children.
Jonty, due to his slow mentality, is a character you feel bad for the whole way through. He has standards, too: no drugs, especially “the devil’s poodir”; no doing bad things; and no making people feel bad. He’s so simple that you want things to go right for him. After Jinty is clearly (to the reader) dead, Jonty goes to the McDonald’s a lot. He thinks his McDonald’s is the best, and even tells a millionaire later on that the McDonalds’ in New York City can’t be nearly as good as his. As if anyone cares about the quality of a McDonald’s! When the fast food chain stops selling the “After Eight” McFlurry (a flavor not found in the U.S.), Jonty is upset. The lady at the counter tells him it was promotional food, to see if there is interest. Jonty wants to know how he can express his interest in having more, and the cashier doesn’t know. He wants to fill out a form or something to get his ice cream back. Meanwhile, I’m rooting for this simpleton, even though I know that interest is show in the number of people who bought the product while it was available. But, no Welsh character is a good person. Here are just a few of Jonty’s other activities:
● Bombing
● Necrophilia
● Incest (he’s not the only one in the book who does it)
● Grave exhuming (not legally, not the only one)
● Hiding a dead body
Irvine Welsh’s language gives the novel nuance and brings people to life. Fans everywhere wet themselves when Welsh sets his books in Edinburgh, possibly because it means we are guaranteed to read some dialect. But the voices aren’t all the same. Jonty, originally from the countryside, has a much more muddled-looking dialect than Terry, who is from the city. Sick Boy, a main character from Trainspotting who is a minor character in A Decent Ride, is from Scotland, but has lived in London for over a decade, so he speaks in a more standard English. American businessman Ronnie, who we’re basically told is a fictitious Donald Trump, speaks in standard English, but that doesn’t mean he’s the “correct” speaker. When he tells people where he is, it’s spelled “Edinboro,” which is exactly how I say it (and now I’m positive I say it wrong and stupidly).
Now, if you struggle in general with dialects, you’ll definitely feel frustrated with A Decent Ride. I know there are copies of Welsh’s books that come with a Scottish slang dictionary in the back, but my library copy of A Decent Ride does not. Here’s a test of whether or not you need a dictionary: “Ah ken how she feels cause studyin must be awfay hard. Like whin ah wis at the skill. Ah found it hard tae concentrate, n that’s whin a wis thaire!” Did you get that Jonty was thinking, I know how she feels because studying must be awfully hard. Like when I was at school. I found it hard to concentrate, and that’s when I was there!
The last thing, which I’m sure every reviewer will mention, is Welsh’s treatment of women. In A Decent Ride, you’ll find few women (despite all the sex) because they are prostitutes, cab riders with no names, Jinty (a prostitute who almost immediately dies), a couple of horrible mothers in minor roles, “Suicidal Sal” (a girl who’s going to kill herself but is cured by Terry’s giant penis), and fat Karen (also cured with penis). What does this mean? It reassures me that Welsh is a boys’ club sort of writer, making his immersive, hilarious, revolting novels my dirty secret.
Review originally published at TNBBC.
barrybooks's review against another edition
4.0
Great characters, fun story to immerse yourself into
thebobsphere's review
3.0
there are two types of welsh novels. The experimental ones, which are interesting and the ones which feature the trainspotting gang, which are fun. A decent ride focuses on Juice Terry, who has been mentioned in glue, porno and gets namecheked now and then. Terry is a taxi driver and lover extraordinaire until a heart attack puts a stop to that and Terry goes through an existential crisis and reevaluates his life. This being an Irvine Welsh novel there are the usual things one encounters in his novels; gross details, lots of subplots and the usal twisted vulgarity. In this case it all feels like familiar territory and at times I did get a little bit bored. The idiotic ending did not help. There are some inspiring moments, the bit with guillaime and the red headed bastard are pure gold, but not many. Solid but could have been better
rosseroo's review
3.0
Some 15 years after his appearance in the ensemble cast of [b:Glue|23960|Glue|Irvine Welsh|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1357448113s/23960.jpg|24880] and [b:Porno|23965|Porno|Irvine Welsh|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1167484379s/23965.jpg|1087464], "Juice" Terry Lawson pops up as the protagonist in this latest by Welsh. As readers of those previous books may recall, although Terry's life is basically fueled by booze and sex ("spice ay life!"), at his core, he's a decent guy. These days he drives a cab, deals a little coke, and basically bangs every woman he sets eyes upon.
The plot is pretty shaggy, propelled initially by the appearance of a American Donald Trump clone named Ronnie, who's full of bluster, cash, and an odd appreciation for Terry's willingness to talk to him straight. The American enlists him as a henchmen in his efforts to secure ownership of a insanely rare and valuable bottle of scotch. Meanwhile, he's also been asked to keep an eye on a massage parlor / brothel (can't recall if it's the same one that was in Porno or not), and one of the girls goes missing. This ties in with the life of a somewhat simple semi-relative, who was her boyfriend.
After establishing all this, there comes a big crisis in Terry's life, which threatens all that holds dear. Unfortunately, it's an incredibly creaky and obvious plot device that most readers will spot a mile away, so any intended dramatic tension just never really germinates. There are some attempts to integrate real-life 2011 events into the plot: Hurricane Bawbag is an inciting incident, and the Hibs/Hearts Cup Final provides some colorful backdrop.
At the end of the day though, whether or not you enjoy the book is probably down to whether or not you find the sex-mad Terry's inner Scots dialogue funny -- and/or whether or not you're on board for story that includes plenty of drugs and sex (including incest and necrophilia), a murder, digging up a corpse to inspect its penis size, etc... It's definitely a sloppy bit of storytelling, but if you enjoy the Trainspottingverse, probably worth a read.
The plot is pretty shaggy, propelled initially by the appearance of a American Donald Trump clone named Ronnie, who's full of bluster, cash, and an odd appreciation for Terry's willingness to talk to him straight. The American enlists him as a henchmen in his efforts to secure ownership of a insanely rare and valuable bottle of scotch. Meanwhile, he's also been asked to keep an eye on a massage parlor / brothel (can't recall if it's the same one that was in Porno or not), and one of the girls goes missing. This ties in with the life of a somewhat simple semi-relative, who was her boyfriend.
After establishing all this, there comes a big crisis in Terry's life, which threatens all that holds dear. Unfortunately, it's an incredibly creaky and obvious plot device that most readers will spot a mile away, so any intended dramatic tension just never really germinates. There are some attempts to integrate real-life 2011 events into the plot: Hurricane Bawbag is an inciting incident, and the Hibs/Hearts Cup Final provides some colorful backdrop.
At the end of the day though, whether or not you enjoy the book is probably down to whether or not you find the sex-mad Terry's inner Scots dialogue funny -- and/or whether or not you're on board for story that includes plenty of drugs and sex (including incest and necrophilia), a murder, digging up a corpse to inspect its penis size, etc... It's definitely a sloppy bit of storytelling, but if you enjoy the Trainspottingverse, probably worth a read.
stephend81d5's review
4.0
welsh returns with a funny dark comedy and filthy too but back on top form with a return to the streets of Edinburgh with terry Lawson and this book doesn't let you down. not for the faint hearted though as we follow terry through his exploits and his heart condition and worried about his decent ride.
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