Filth

by Welsh, Irvine

• ISBN13: 9780393318685
• ISBN10: 0393318680
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-09-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

There are some sizable flies in the ointment, though: a missing wife and child, a nagging cocaine habit, some painful below-the-belt eczema, and a string of demanding extramarital affairs. The last thing Robertson needs is a messy, racially fraught murder, even if it means overtime'”and the opportunity to clinch the promotion he craves. Then there's that nutritionally demanding (and psychologically acute) intestinal parasite in his gut. Yes, things are going badly for this utterly corrupt tribune of the law, but in an Irvine Welsh novel nothing is ever so bad that it can't get a whole lot worse. . . .In Bruce Robertson Welsh has created one of the most compellingly misanthropic characters in contemporary fiction, in a dark and disturbing and often scabrously funny novel about the abuse of everything and everybody. "Welsh writes with a skill, wit and compassion that amounts to genius. He is the best thing that has happened to British writing in decades."'” Sunday Times [London] "[O]ne of the most significant writers in Britain. He writes with style, imagination, wit, and force, and in a voice which those alienated by much current fiction clearly want to hear."'” Times Literary Supplement "Welsh writes with such vile, relentless intensity that he makes Louis-Ferdinand Céline, the French master of defilement, look like Little Miss Muffet. "'”Courtney Weaver, The New York Times Book Review "The corrupt Edinburgh cop-antihero of Irvine Welsh's best novel since Trainspotting is an addictive personality in another sense: so appallingly powerful is his character that it's hard to put the book down....[T]he rapid-fire rhythm and pungent dialect of the dialogue carry the reader relentlessly toward the literally filthy denouement. "'” Village Voice Literary Supplement , "Our 25 Favorite Books of 1998" "Welsh excels at making his trash-spewing bluecoat peculiarly funny and vulnerable'”and you will never think of the words 'Dame Judi Dench' in the same way ever again. [Grade:] A-. "'”Charles Winecoff, Entertainment Weekly

Table of Contents

Prologue	1	(2)
The Games	3	(6)
The Crimes	9	(12)
Wheels Of Steel	21	(15)
Investigations	36	(6)
Carole	42	(2)
Equal Opportunities	44	(25)
Coarse Briefings	69	(14)
I Get A Little Sentimental Over You	83	(18)
At Home With The Blades	101	(4)
Turning Off The Gas	105	(16)
Carole Again	121	(2)
Infected Areas	123	(11)
The Lie Of The Land	134	(16)
Our Cover Is Blown	150	(7)
Cok City	157	(8)
Still Carole	165	(2)
The Nightwatch	167	(4)
The Rash	171	(4)
Goals	175	(6)
`...the essentially depraved nature of the creature that she married...'	181	(3)
Post-Holiday Blues	184	(12)
A Testimonial	196	(6)
Surprise Party	202	(9)
More Carole	211	(2)
Private Lessons	213	(14)
Ladies Night	227	(12)
Carole Remembers Australia	239	(3)
Worms and Promotions	242	(12)
Masonic Outings	254	(16)
Christmas Shopping	270	(3)
Not Crashing	273	(12)
Car Stereo Chews Up Michael Bolton Tape	285	(5)
To Lodge A Complaint	290	(6)
A Society Of Secrets	296	(6)
A Sportsman's Dinner	302	(19)
Come In Charlie	321	(20)
More Carole?	341	(15)
The Tales Of A Tapeworm	356	(31)
Home Is The Darkness	387