Hardback by Jonathan Cape, priced £12.99 (ebook £6.49)
Back in Juice Terry Lawson’s Edinburgh then for Irvine Welsh’s latest novel A Decent Ride. Resurrected from Welsh’s early Noughties novel Glue, The Juice T is back on deliciously filthy form, outrageously bed hopping around his home city where he works as a cabbie, and seemingly getting away with insulting everyone in sight.
But with a natural disaster threatening to shake the city, Terry’s own life collides with that of Penicuik country lad Jonty MacKay and his fortunes take a slide. Welsh’s skill as a novelist lies in his ability to immerse his readers into his character’s worlds through his masterful capacity for dialect and slang.
Best of all though is when Welsh sidesteps the plots and allows room for the characters to breathe, offering up their thoughts on McDonald’s McFlurry, Moby Dick and hurricanes, among other things.
Fantastically funny and well drawn, the plot to A Decent Ride peters out towards the end, but is enjoyably pulled back by the strength of the characters and the plentiful humour throughout.
