So english is not my native language and these books are not translated to mine and I’ve been thinking if Im’m even gonna be able to read them. My level of english is not bad, I’d be able to communcicate with anyone I guess, I know some slang language around the world. But are these books filled with very hard language or syntax that will be very tough to get through?
(Also, I’m not sure if this post belongs in this sub, so feel free to point that out, and if you’re familiar with any other subreddit that I could turn to, I’d be thankful!)
I’ve read both and you are correct, the verbiage is difficult for different reasons.
Maribou Stork Nightmares- Most of the book is in a Scottish dialect. You get a feel for it after awhile and it becomes easier to understand. I forget if it was this one or Trainspotting that has a glossary at the end. I suggest checking out the sub scottishpeopletwitter to see a lot of easier examples. Irvine Welsh switches between dialect often for different characters
American Psycho- Many of the passages require a knowledge of not only American popular culture but also RICH American culture, in the 1980’s. Brett Easton Ellis’ work focuses on the upper class and says real names of clothing designers, restaurants, cosmetics, music, if it was a status symbol in that time period it is in there. Importantly this suggests the conformity of the characters. I would suggest doing an internet search on the unfamiliar stuff. I think it paints a bigger picture to know what these things looked like, what they were, whatever it was. His last book The Shards had so many music references, often he uses them to say something implied in the characters or the story. Or it was a red herring. You never know with him, he does make a few things up. I made a playlist of all the music references in his last book The Shards and it was huge. I liked checking out what was popular in the world of those characters that I was unfamiliar with, and the places they were at in the novel gave a little more illumination on the vibe. I’m not saying you need to deep dive everything in there but probably looking something up once in awhile will give you some extra insight
This brings us to: both novels have the Unreliable Narrator. Do you believe the things they say? Are there contradictions showing up? Are they the hero? Are they the villain? Checking out online literary sites should have good examples of this Unreliable Narrator trope
My favorite Irvine Welsh is Maribou Stork Nightmares. I think the story wove together in such an interesting way. My favorite Brett Easton Ellis is Lunar Park, and American Psycho is further down the list despite how well known it is. He casts himself as a character in Lunar Park and it plays out like a horror movie. I met him once and said that to him, and he told me that was everyone’s favorite lol. Like it wasn’t cool that was mine. 10/10, exactly the interaction I thought it would be