Gah! I hated myself for laughing as I read this obscenely funny dark comedy. Even though it was 'Juice' Terry's story the chapters from wee Jonty and Ronald (Donald Trump) Checker's POV were my favorites.. They added elements of absurdity and parody that kept the raunchiness under control. Well...almost.

I received this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways. ( )

"Ma questa è la Scozia
E a nessuno frega un tubo
Della Scozia"

"There's a controversial new app on the market, called Clean Reader, which removes naughty words from books printed in electronic form.
Confronted with the e-book of A Decent Ride, it would quickly collapse through overwork" - J. Cape, Herald Scotland

Un libro che doveva finire 150 pagine prima. La storia è ben costruita, anche se l'adattamento italiano non rende al massimo, purtroppo però alla lunga i personaggi diventano ripetitivi. ( )

A Decent Ride – A Good Old Laugh

Jonathan Cape call A Decent Ride, Irvine Welsh’s tenth novel, as his ‘filthiest book yet’, it may be his filthiest and the laughs are from the pit of your stomach. What I enjoyed about A Decent Ride is that it is written in the vernacular and if you cannot get your head around that then stay out of this book. The use of the vernacular is one of the strengths of this book as it brings it to life and you can visualise Terry ‘Juice’ Lawson in his black cab around the streets of Edinburgh giving you the guided tour.

A Decent Ride can be seen as an extended monologue by Terry, who first appeared in Glue and a mention in Filth with a sub-monologue by Jonty who is a ‘simpleton from Penicuik’. We learn from the book that Juice loves shagging birds and making porno movies for Sick Boy with a side line of running drugs and looking after The Poofs ‘sauna’.

At the same time Juice picks up a fair at the Airport who happens to be a reality star and a sideline on being a billionaire. He is in Scotland to buy some very expensive scotch and play some golf and get some good PR especially after his recent development in Scotland had turned him in to a bad guy.

The main part of the action takes place during December 2011 during the event that became known is Scotland as Hurricane Bawbag. While Bawbag caused disaster something worse happens to Juice he has a life changing event that means he can no longer have his decent ride, and replaces his loss with golf, something about middle aged men, golf and sex metaphors.

While A Decent Ride is a work of fiction one cannot help thinking of certain American developers that could do with improving their PR after building a golf course in face of opposition. There are some wonderful questions that Welsh poses throughout the book, such as who actually owns Scotland and not all of them are English and should Scotland be independent (yes I find myself saying).

A Decent Ride shows that Irvine Welsh has never lost touch with what made us like his writing twenty years ago. Yes there is misogyny there are plenty of comic capers that writing in the vernacular really illustrates far better than if it has been written in Standard English. Irvine Welsh really is on form with A Decent Ride and you cannot help loving Juice especially when he turns to golf to take his mind off sex. There is something of every one of us in the book, and the great thing is this book is unashamedly not politically correct – I love it! ( )