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Glue

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About this listen

 Glue is the story of four boys growing up in the Edinburgh schemes, and about the loyalties, the experiences, and the secrets that hold them together into their 30s. Four boys becoming men: Juice Terry, the work-shy fanny-merchant, with corkscrew curls and sticky fingers; Billy the boxer, driven, controlled, playing to his strengths; Carl, the Milky Bar Kid, drifting along to his own soundtrack; and the doomed Gally, who has one less skin than everyone else and seems to find catastrophe at every corner.

As we follow their lives from the '70s into the new century, from punk to techno, from speed to Es, we can see each of them trying to struggle out from under the weight of the conditioning of class and culture, peer pressure, and their parents' hopes that maybe their sons will do better than they did. What binds the four of them is the friendship formed by the scheme, their school, and their ambition to escape from both; their loyalty fused in street morality: back up your mates, don't hit women and, most importantly, never grass, on anyone.

Despite its scale and ambition, Glue has all Irvine Welsh's usual pace and vigour, crackling dialogue, scabrous set-pieces and black, black humour, but it is also a grown-up book about growing up, about the way we live our lives, and what happens to us when things become unstuck.

©2001 Irvine Welsh; (P)2001 Random House Audiobooks Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Comedy

Critic reviews

"Full of incident, mad, crackling dialogue, attractively appalling characters, and some of the funniest and rudest sex scenes." ( Sunday Times)
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The title speaks for itself. Out of the two books Porno is the better. 3 stars is a bit harsh but I am giving Porno 4, and its not as good. One thing I like is the way the books interlace ever so slightly.

I think Porno is bettter!

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Believable characters in crazy situations, as you'd expect from Welsh.
Well performed, slightly off-putting if you're a listener to Athletico Mince at first because it really sounds like a 'Scottish Tale!', but Tam Dean Burn brings the Scots dialect to life

Dark, funny and filthy in every respect

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I love this book, but a shame it's a shortened version, it still has the same story but a bit more concise

My favourite book. a few bits missed out tho

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Obviously abridged but still a good story. Wish we could get the full version. Tam Dean Burn one of the best.

Great

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Loved this book in its entirety, to meny memorable moments and narration was Barry Barry. Author is fantastic too.

Magnificent

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