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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
The further decline of Irvine Welsh, 20 Dec 2006
This is another novel by Irvine Welsh following pretty much the same trajectory as his others. Like "Marabou Stork Nightmares", "Filth", and "Porno", it's a story of a man working towards a breakdown. There are lots of drugs taken; this time it's mostly alcohol, and there's some welcome reflections on the destructive slow descent from social drinker to alcoholic. There's good use of mulitple perspectives to show each of the main character's thought processes, though not for any other real reason. There's some graphically-described sex, and one truly revolting scene (as always). Relationships and the banal malevolence of office politics are acutely described - Welsh has a razor-sharp eye if nothing else.
The conceit of the novel is that, after Dorian Grey, a man suffers the consequences of another's substance abuse. Quite what this is meant to suggest I don't know. Apart from some musing on the symbiotic nature of enemies and nemesis', it's not really an allegory or a metaphor for anything, it's just a conceit to allow some highly vivid descriptions of physical decay.
The thing is, it's not only following a law of diminishing returns (so that these retreads on familiar material get progressively worse, "Porno" excepted because of his all-too-evident fondness of the old characters). To progress with your art you have to struggle. There's no struggle here, no development. It's slightly more "literary" in that there are more allusions and quotations, but far less literary than "Trainspotting" because there's no depth to the novel. It's in present-tense, this-this-this style which allows no reflection and no real substance.
Welsh really must get out of his comfort zone. If he would write about street culture as its happening now, or about the corruptions of power without resorting to bodily metaphors, or about the class war from the post-modern perpective, I'd be interested. But he's not pushing himself, and it's getting boring.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
A quality read!, 9 Jul 2007
A quality read!
What really did this for me is the writing, the language was incredible. The use of strong words that flowed together like a dream, and at the same time keeping Welsh's prominent style of laugh out loud, alcoholism, and the usual debauchery.
The story line is interesting and also quite meaningful, the comparison between the two characters Danny Skinner and Brian Kibby was masterfully created into two extreme personalities that Welsh had described with complete preciseness. Kibby is a totally nerd, goes to Star trek conventions, loves model railways and plays the lamest computer game on earth...Harvest Moon. Yet we get drawn extremely deep into his life, and at times i was hating him, feeling sorry for him and other times actually liking him.
In my opinion this is one of Welsh's best books, definitely worth a read!
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
More of Welsh's Dark Spaces, 14 April 2007
This book has received poor reviews. I'm an Irvine Wesh fan , found it a good read . Welsh has neutralised the Scottish dialect as compared to his other novels , and introduced characters with obvious influences from those in his others such as Marabou Storks Strang and Filths Police Officer to create this dark diverse tale ,which has Welsh's usual elements of toilet humour alcoholism, drug addiction in this case further insites in to sexuality, identity and sex and depravity. In Master Chef's Welsh delves in to some of his most darkest spaces in a modern day perverse working class Jekyl and Hyde/ Dorian Gray in Edinburgh's Leith. I found it quite strong in his new area's of viewpoints, similies , metaphors, stream of conciousness. The Bedroom Secrets of The Master Chef is one of Welsh's best and blends horror humour with Welsh's obscene and bizarre. Don't listen to the negative reviews read it !
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