Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
The characters are working-class anti-heroes, sociopaths. There are no holds barred and parts of the book are grotesque. But it’s also one of the few books about drugs that has a semi-happy ending.
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh.
People who aren’t in the circle of heroin or other drugs don’t necessarily know much about them, which is perhaps why the film and the book had such a cult following. The characters are working-class anti-heroes, sociopaths. There are no holds barred and parts of the book are grotesque. It’s not an easy book to get through. But it’s also one of the few books about drugs that has a semi-happy ending.
It’s interesting in the way it explores why people get into drugs, which is mostly because they feel alienated. The book provides graphic details of how it causes dysfunction, crime and anti-social behaviour.
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Social psychologist Shazia Omar is the author of Like a Diamond in the Sky, a novel about Bangladeshi addicts. Omar is a founding member of Writers Block, an organisation that aims to promote the works of Bangladeshis writing in English. Drug addiction, she says, is a growing problem here. Many people are taking a drug called yabba, which comes from Thailand and is similar to speed. ‘It’s an expensive drug so it’s the well-off young people who are doing it. A lot of those I met while researching the book didn’t realise they were going to get hooked. None of them knew how harmful it is,’ she says. Having spent a month doing research in a rehab centre in Mumbai, she concludes that love, and not a punitive approach, is the answer to overcoming addiction.
