On the needle (novel)

The plot of the work revolves around the ordinary life of young people in Edinburgh , more specifically its port area - Leith. Most major and minor characters suffer from heroin addiction. The novel consists of several short stories with headlines that sometimes do not comply with the time sequence in the development of the action. The novel takes place in Edinburgh, London and along the road between them.

Mark Renton - the main character on whose behalf the main part of the story is conducted. Mark is a vegetarian, but he does not like animals. He suffers from heroin addiction, which he tries to get rid of several times. He lives with his parents, does not work, trades with petty theft, for which he once ends up in the dock, but receives only a suspended sentence (unlike Murphy's current term). Mark is fond of literature, politics and philosophy, stealing books from the shops from which he collects a whole library at home. He believes that heroin is his conscious choice, which is an alternative to the no less joyless and senseless existence of "normal" people, and in his thoughts casts doubt on the normalcy of the middle class life. It is also one of the main characters in the novel " Porn ".

The novel contains a large number of scenes of violence, the heroes constantly take drugs and commit various asocial acts. There is no author’s speech in the novel and everything that happens is conveyed from the words of the main characters.

All chapters are a stream of thoughts and memories of the hero, currently leading the story. For example, Murphy's speech is very confused, contains many appeals and questions to the intended listener; Begby’s narrative contains especially a lot of profanity, stands out for its aggressive mood towards others and everything that happens; Simon often turns in his monologues to Sean Connery and imitates his response cues; when conveying Renton's thoughts during heroin withdrawal, the author purposefully places does not use punctuation marks and writes some words and phrases using upper case.

A special place in the novel is music. Heroes often mention various groups, singers and songs, express their attitude to a particular composition, album, singer - this feature is also characteristic of other works by Welsh, music always occupies an important place in the lives of heroes.

• On the Needle is a 1996 film directed by Danny Boyle .

In 2002, the novel “Porn”, which is a sequel, was released, and in 2012, the prequel “Boys on the Dose” (Skagboys) was released.

Some heroes of the novel become characters in other works of Welsh or are occasionally mentioned: thus, Lexo becomes one of the main characters in the novel “The Marabou Nightmares”; Begby is repeatedly mentioned in the novel “Shit” and is the main character of the novel “Mad Artist”; some heroes (Murphy, Renton, Begby) occasionally appear in the novel "Clay".