Trainspotting

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, 344 pages

Welsh's signature plotless novel is composed entirely of brief vignettes, only tenuously connected by the common characters, that are sometimes humorous, sometimes hideous, sometimes horrifying, but most often some combination of the three.  The protagonists are a circle of lowlifes, petty criminals, drug abusers, and thugs, who survive if they do not thrive in the maze of Leith's streets where even the minister is a time-serving functionary at the crematory.  The total effect is that of a three dimensional portrait of life under "the law ay the dragon".  And when you're trapped in the dragon's den with no hope of escape, why not get comfortable as the dragon eats you, from the legs up even?