Reheated Cabbage by Irvine Welsh

Published: September 14, 2009
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Genre(s): Literary Fiction, Short Stories
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288

This is the second book I’ve read by Irvine Welsh. The first, Ecstasy, disturbed me to no end back in the day even though I’ve always been a huge fan of the movie version of Trainspotting. Even still, I was willing to give his fiction another chance.

None of the stories in this collection are nearly as disturbing, but as with any collection of disparate works, some were better than others. Several of them were fairly modern (read: elliptical) which I don’t always like, but I did like the book enough to keep reading them.

I think my favorite of the stories is the last one, “I Am Miami”, which does a good job of sharply drawing a flawed but sympathetic character, and is also the rare example of redemptive themes in the collection. I actually grew to care about the bitter old school teacher at the heart of that story, and worried for his future. My second most favorite was “The State of the Party”, which had several classic moments that juxtaposed Scottish vernacular with crisp, proper narration in a way that made me laugh out loud.

I do think that this book is best if you are at least familiar with the world of Trainspotting, simply because two of the stories are directly related to that book in some fashion. It also helps to be able to decipher the written form of Scottish dialect or you will be thoroughly lost through much of the collection.