Irvine Welsh's Sixth Book Reviewed
The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs
Scottish health officers engage in paths of self destruction and exploration, but tired motifs drag down an entertaining premise.
Those familiar with Irvine Welsh’s catalogue should be well versed in new wave soaked Edinburgh dance clubs. While there are references to the party scene in Bedroom Secrets... the book serves as a unique standout in comparison to previous titles (Trainspotting, Glue, etc.). Most noticeably the literary devices employed are much closer to classics than contemporary.
Main Characters and Plot Outline
Daniel Skinner and Brian Kibby work together in Edinburgh as restaurant health inspectors. Skinner provides the antagonist role almost too easily, inheriting almost every bad habit available. His heavy drinking, cocaine use, and womanizing nature give the reader every reason to despise him, and yet because his counterpart is so mercilessly pathetic one cannot help but relate to the villain.
Kibby is a drawl, innocent, man who still lives with his family and spends much of the book commiserating the loss of his father. Skinner takes pleasure in humiliating him repeatedly at work, and goes out of his way to ruin his self image be it through his love life or otherwise. This is where the book takes a turn to the fantastic, and the true themes are put on display.
Inexplicable Relationship Occurs
Through a mysterious bond in which the two characters share numerous converse traits, a direct physical presence plays out. Literally speaking, for every vice Skinner indulges, Kibby is to take the punishment for. Thus despite a stay at home lifestyle, Kibby acts and begins to transform into a grizzled drug addict. Where as the true perpetrator of these actions is in perfect health. While Skinner is benign to any skin deep repercussions, he soon finds his lifestyle has destroyed the most important things he possesses.
After being dumped by his longtime girlfriend, he realizes that the largest emptiness within himself is his own absence of a father figure. Through a series of trial and error adventures, going so far as San Francisco, it is revealed that Skinner and Kibby are derived from the same paternal lineage. The climax, and ending to the story, is reflected as the two nemesis face off and our anti-hero is destroyed in a fiery wreck by his no longer so inept opponent. Ambiguously one figure emerges from the flames, reflecting not only the relation of the two characters, but another physical reaction in which the two may have symbiotically joined to form one balanced character.
Analysis
Despite the thick spelled out accents and seemingly unnecessary detours from the plot, the book reads quite smoothly. It requires a patience though, as many characters are introduced without a full relation to the story, and at times seem to only be pawns of Welsh’s obscenity. Not for the faint of heart, there’s plenty of sex, drugs, and even punk rock to remind us that this is indeed a Welsh creation. However, it may leave the reader feeling nostalgic of his previous writings, as The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs can be quite heavy handed in the themes. What appears as a delicious taboo laden adventure, turns out to be a bit hard to swallow.
400 Pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton; Reprint edition (May 7, 2007)
