Rating: 
Summary: Different >> But Excellent
Review: A little more offbeat that the other Welsh works, this one goes into the head of coma-beset thug, Roy Strang. He's passing time in his coma by inventing a fantasy world where he is on a mission in Africa to eliminate the evil predator marabou stork. This world is depicted in a old-fashioned boy's own adventure-style language, however, it keeps getting interrupted by real-life visitors talking to him. This sets him off on reflections on his dysfunctional upbringing and the horrific Scottish slums he comes from. Over the course of the book, Roy reveals his maturation and a transformation from bullied kid to violent "casual," culminating in an awful crime. If it sounds whacked-out, it kind of is, but it all makes some terrible kind of sense when you read it... Welsh demonstrates his usual written pyrotechnics in switching voices back and forth between the upper-crusty tones of the African story with the gritty realistic ramblings he's displayed elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the weak-stomached
Review: From the author of Trainspotting, this story is told on three levels: the world around the main character in the hospital room where he lives in a coma, the flashbacks to his life in his mind, and the deeper dream world in which he and a fictitious friend hunt the terrible marabou stork. The main character is not a very likable fellow, and the story gets pretty hardcore at times, once making me physically sick. But if you like a book that has a visceral effect on you, as I do, this might do.
Rating: 
Summary: Warning
Review: I can't tell you if this book is good or bad but it is written in a hard to read dialect. I'm not telling anyone not to read this, but if you can't read poetry, you probably wont be able to read this.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm still shaking after finishing this
Review: I just finished 'Marabou Stork Nighmares'. After reading 'Trainspotting'I didn't think another book could compare. I was wrong. MSN is the most interesting book I have ever read. From the start to the insane finish, MSN gives you an awsome ride.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: i read trainspotting while i was living in england and had to put it down because it was just too far over my head, two years later i picked it up again and was lost to reality for a couple days. unfortunatly i lost the book while high on my way to rehab on BART. i was left with a hole that needed to be filled, so i aquired the marabou stork nightmares. for eight hours i sat on a couch and lived as our misguided main character for that time. when i finished, i put it down and walked around still lost for about a week, unable to get the end out of my head. the style of writing is classic welsh and the characters are just as pitiful in their delusions as the gang from trainspotting, but their actions even more despicable because of their wanton violence. the scariest thing about it is that these characters were probably based on actual people welsh ran into during his adventures.
...This book will grab you by the balls and pull you down into hell, it will spit you out in the only way possible... insanity. READ THIS BOOK
Rating:
Summary: Only Welsh could pull off a plot like this
Review: I really dont understand how Welsh gets his ideas for his books. Each of them is so complicated yet so captivating, and the story is extremely original. A man that is in a coma, imagining that he is actually in africa hunting a stork, while telling us about his life and how he got into the situation he is in, mixed with some of the dialoge that is happening right there in the hospital where he is at. The plot is all combined, and the stories seem to blend as the book goes along. I really enjoyed reading Marabou Stork, I rate it the best between Filth and Acid House, which are the other Welsh books Ive read, I will definetely try to enjoy more of Welsh's books.
Rating:
Summary: The flowering of a sociopath
Review: Irvine Welsh doesn't just write words, he directs them, places them and arranges them into attention grabbing, authentic sounding and stylish prose. More amazing is the fact that this whole novel reads like the uncensored thoughts streaming from a brain of a very troubled individual. His writing resembles a film director who combines style and substance into a devestating whole. He tells the story of Roy Strang, no actually Roy Strang tell the story of Roy Strang. He is lying a coma now, and his story takes place on three different levels of consciousness. When close to the surface, he hears the people around him, circling his hospital bed. But he always wants to go deeper, to escape that pathetic world. The next level of consciousness is his memories, undoctered and vicious, his memories of growing up in the schemes(or projects) of Edinburgh and his uncle's house in South Africa are both morbidly funny and frightening. Deeper still is a bizzare fantasy in the African safaries where hunts his demons personified in a particularly ugly bird called the Marabou Stork. If you've read Welsh's equally brilliant Filth you'd know that his novels are basically a coat of nihilism covering a deeply tragic core. You may laugh now and then, but there is always a general unease. This is the story of how a funny looking kid with big ears became a social atrocity. And the ending of this tale, which I wouldn't dare reveal here will leave you shaken. This is a superb novel, that connects like a blow to the gut, and when Roy narrates in reference to his actions "You do this because you think if you're hurting them you can't be hurt." You realise that this seemingly brutal story is infact the story of his redemption.
Rating:
Summary: Only Welsh could pull off a plot like this
Review: Once again Irvine Welsh delivers another brillant book deplicting the struggle of everyday life. As the book summary says Roy Strang is in a coma and fantasizes about hunting the Marabou Stork in Africa. It also tells his life leading up to his coma and the hardships he endured while growing up. A great book.
Rating:
Summary: Dark but good
Review: Probably not for everybody, but for those who can take ventures on the dark side, and can deal with Scottish slang ... this is a must read. Darkly funny sometimes, abhorrent, pitiful, and sad ... it takes you through a number of places ... some of them not at all pleasant. But you are taken there in a style that is completely Welsh's.
Rating:
Summary: A Complex, Dark, Disturbing Masterpiece!
Review: This book is disturbing yes, but brilliant and captivating at the same time. I am a fan of Welsh's writing and am accustomed to the darkness present in his novels. This book, however, was the darkest of them all. The main character is deeply troubled and prefers the nightmares of his own imagination than the nightmares of the reality he has lived through. As he is on the verge of awaking from his comatose state he fights to go deeper into his coma to avoid facing real life. I confess to being disturbed and a bit depressed by this book but the concept was so brilliant and geniusly executed as only Irvine Welsh can. I recommend this book to anyone who can think beyond two dimentions. It is a complex, dark, disturbing masterpiece!
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