Dead Men's Trousers
2018 • 432 pages

Ratings3

Average rating4.7

15

I think i would very much like to give this a five-star rating but then, to be a bit more objective, the answer would be no. So there it is 4-star.

When you mix life philosophy and mid-life crisis and old problems with drugs, the chemistry is so endearing that it either becomes a masterpiece or just some hollow Big Beat sort of literature, i.e. On the Road, which does not hold enough truth in it to make it a guide of life. But this, with its very subtle usage of FUCKs and SHITEs and scottish dialects that need some brainpower to digest, it certainly pulls off as a masterpiece in concluding the fates of the fellow characters that have been mingling with one another for more than half their lives. Here it is about social structure and that agency to say fuck no to the system, and that even-though-im-a-fucking-scumbag-but-i-still-gonna-choose-life-and-not-let-the-rich-get-to-me-and-the-authorities-too ideology. Very convincing indeed. The only possible fallacy probably is the dirty bit of the plot, which seems a bit too grim, but thinking it as something that is usual in that sphere, it is nothing unrealistic.

Here's to the shady bits of life, cheers!

March 20, 2023Report this review