The Young Team

Trainspotting comparisons are inevitable, as it is written in dialect, set in Scotland and features the drug scene and culture. In both books the overall narrative is about escaping the lower class schemes, escaping the hold drugs have on you, and growing up. But Welsh's Leith in the '90s and Armstrong's Lanarkshire in mid 2000's are different propositions.

That aside, where Trainspotting (which I also think is excellent) keeps a distance from the day to day, The Young Team is ultra-realistic, and goes into the minutiae of everyday life. Graeme Armstrong has described it in a sentence - It is based on my real lived experience of gang culture in Lanarkshire [just beyond Glasgow's east end] and centres around a gang-conflict, violence and drugs. And the autobiographical nature centrally enhances the raw reality. The narrative here is centred around the protagonist Alan ‘Azzy' Williams, and his life from about age 13 to 22 in The New Team a gang of youths from the estate, and their ongoing battles with rival gang The Young Toi.

Fully written in dialect, but a slightly different dialect to Trainspotting, I don't think it makes this a hard read, providing the reader has some understanding of the Scottish accent and pronunciation. It takes just a short time to adjust your reading to pick up the rhythm. I am not sure the book would have the same impact if it was not written in dialect, as for me it puts the reader in place.

The most compelling aspect of this book is explaining the social culture by showing the reader the depth of understanding that Azzy develops as he gets older, and explaining the reasoning behind his actions as he navigates through a life with many challenges. Alcohol, drug addiction (and not necessarily the hard drugs Welsh's boys are into) and violence are the obvious themes, but unemployment, poverty, mental health, relationships, lack of opportunity, pressure to conform all combine to form an almost unbearable pressure on young people in this setting. In Azzy's case the difference between his internal thoughts and what he is prepared to verbalise is contrasting.
It is impossible not to feel sympathy for those trapped in the confines of this life, and to feel admiration for those who make their way out of it.

Usually I try not to read too many other reviews before I write my own, but I wasn't sure where to head with this one, and did read a number of reviews. It seems clear that this is a book well received by people with far more contact and knowledge of the setting and the people. That readers can associate so closely with the characters and the lifestyle shows this books is steeped in reality and is authentic, and not a fictitious or unnecessarily embellished series of situations says a lot about the skills of the author.

Currently with a little over 1600 reviews and an average rating of 4.5, it is clear this book is receiving high praise from its readers (Trainspotting has almost 160,000 ratings - with a 4.08 average rating). Dialect will inevitably have an effect of the audience width, but this book deserves more acknowledgement.

The writing is excellent, the pacing and the way the tension is drawn out in anticipation make this book hard to put down. Without giving too much away, the book also provides hope. It shows a pathway out; that there is some hope for the disaffected; but also it shows the damage caused on the way - those who cannot rise to navigate their way from youth to adult, and stay trapped.

5 stars.