Glue (novel)

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**Glue**

Author	Irvine Welsh
Country	Scotland
Language	English, Scots
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	W W Norton
Released	2001
Media Type	Print (Paperback)
Pages	469 p. (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-393-32215-7 (paperback edition)

Glue is a novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. Glue tells the stories of four Scottish boys over several decades, through the use of different perspectives and different voices. Glue addresses sex, drugs, violence, and other social problems in Scotland through the lives of four boys. The title refers not to the abuse of adhesives, but the metaphorical glue holding the four together through changing times.

The four main characters of Glue are Terry Lawson (Juice Terry), Billy Birrell (Business Birrell), Andrew Galloway (Gally), Carl Ewart (DJ N-Sign). We first meet them as small children in 1970, then as teenagers around 1980, as young men around 1990, and as men in their late thirties around 2000.

[edit] Trivia

The famous anorexic singer Juice Terry meets is called Kathryn Joiner, a reference to either Karen Carpenter who would have been long dead in the early nineties when the character appears in the book or more likely Mary Chapin Carpenter who was then near the twilight of her career and would have played to sell out audiences at Ingleston. Carl Ewart's nickname is derived from a well-known Edinburgh pub called the Ensign Ewart.

Some of the characters end up in the novel Porno, making it a sequel to both this and Trainspotting.