Welsh (left) and Hornby (right) |
Nick Hornby’s new novel is about a boy. Not About a Boy. That one, published nine years ago, was written in the third-person and dealt with adult immaturity and pre-adolescent anxiety. This one, Slam (Putnam), is told in the first-person and deals with a decidedly post-adolescent problem. It’s a teen novel, published by a teen imprint, and is meant to be read by teens.Meanwhile, Irvine Welsh’s new short story collection is filthy. Not Filth. That one, published nine years ago, dealt with a character of debased appetites and malicious mien. This one, If You Liked School, You’ll Love Work (Norton), contains many such characters. It also contains scenes of graphic, forced sex; a lightning-fast, blood-spurting decapitation; a chilling new use for the art of taxidermy; and a little dog who may or may not become dinner. It’s a book, emphatically, that is meant to be read by adults.
A decade or so ago, in the mid-’90s salad days of Blur and Blair, Welsh and Hornby were twin titans of Cool Britannia’s literary wing. Trainspotting. The Acid House. Fever Pitch. High Fidelity. Sex. Drugs. Music. Sport. Addictions. Obsessions. Welsh and Hornby were heralded as vigorous new voices, their novels as popular stateside as they were in the UK.
They come from opposite ends of the island. Hornby is from Surrey, south of London. He’d gone to Cambridge and spoke in the well-heeled tones of a BBC presenter. He’d been a teacher. Welsh is from Edinburgh. He left school at 16 to become a TV repairman. He speaks in a barely decipherable Scots burr. He’d been a druggie. Hornby is a fan of cosmopolitan Arsenal football club. Welsh supports Irish-Catholic Hibernian.
Today, as each stares down age 50, these Brit Lit standard-bearers have some things in common. Both are hugely successful. Both have had more than one book adapted into big-budget films. Both, presumably, are wealthy. Both are bald.
And when it comes to their new books, these middle-aged men, who made their bones writing about youth culture, are each bravely taking on new thematic challenges — even if their choices of subject matter could hardly be further apart.
If You Liked School, Welsh’s first short-story collection since 1994’s The Acid House, treads unfamiliar terrain. While the author’s scabrous, scatological wit is the same as ever, its five stories find him exploring characters, classes, dialects, and locales far removed from his usual Edinburgh stomping grounds.
