What do you think?
Rate this book
Grits
In the late 1990s, a group of young drifters find themselves together on the coast of Wales. They explore and attempt to overcome the yearnings and addictions that brought them this promiscuity, drugs, petty crime, and the angry search for the meaning.
- GenresFictionContemporary
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
6 people are currently reading
325 people want to read
About the author
Niall Griffiths
33Ìýbooks98ÌýfollowersNiall Griffiths was born in Liverpool to a Welsh/Irish/Romany lineage. He’s been a labourer, a barman, a server of fish and chips, a burglar, a farmhand, a tree feller, a factory worker and many other things too tedious to relate. Now, he’s a full-time writer, living at the foot of a mountain in mid-Wales, with seven novels published, several works of non-fiction and more short stories and radio plays and travel pieces and reviews than he cares to, or possibly even can, count. His fourth novel, Stump, won the Wales Book of the Year Award. A film adaptation of his third novel, Kelly+Victor, won a BAFTA. He’s now working on the screenplay for his sixth, Wreckage. His latest novel is Broken Ghost.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
February 3, 2025
I have read and enjoyed many of Niall Griffiths books. He does a fine line in young wastrels and drifters, with a side order of occasional violence. This one left me cold though. I think that it was the multitude of voices, each written in a different form of dialect - I just couldn't get to grips with it and the book dragged as a result.
There is not much of a plot. Young uns eking out a pitiful existence from day to day, looking for the next high and the money to get there - usually cadged, cajoled or stolen. Grits was Griffiths first book and it seems to me that he was feeling his way with this one.
As is often the case with Griffiths characters from other (in this case future) books make a fleeting appearance - Ianto from Sheepshagger and the protagonist from Stump.
Griffiths has written better books - try Sheepshagger, Kelly + Victor or Stump.
There is not much of a plot. Young uns eking out a pitiful existence from day to day, looking for the next high and the money to get there - usually cadged, cajoled or stolen. Grits was Griffiths first book and it seems to me that he was feeling his way with this one.
As is often the case with Griffiths characters from other (in this case future) books make a fleeting appearance - Ianto from Sheepshagger and the protagonist from Stump.
Griffiths has written better books - try Sheepshagger, Kelly + Victor or Stump.
August 9, 2011
Niall Griffiths� novel about a group of wasters spending almost 500 pages getting drunk, high, beaten, depressed and then sleeping with each other is riddled with problems.
The main issue is that almost none of it is original.
Described as a ‘welsh Trainspotting�, this is more of a wholesale rip-off. The characters spend most of their time waiting for their next fix or coming down off their last one, like in ‘Trainspotting�. One member of the group is a violent, sadistic monster with no regard for anyone else, like in ‘Trainspotting�. And at the end, one character takes his things and runs away in the direction of London, again just like in ‘Trainspotting�.
It truly beggars belief that Irvine Welsh himself gave Griffiths his endorsement. He should have given him a court order.
Even if you haven’t read ‘Trainspotting�, there are numerous flaws.
First, you never find yourself really caring about any of the characters. The story just lurches from incident to another with no sentiment or pathos at all. You would expect to feel at least some kind of sympathy for these people but you just end up hating them, waiting for the end of the book to come in the hope that they might die. I certainly did.
Things aren’t helped by clumsy structuring. Each character gets a chapter to themselves, only to recount the events that everyone else tells in almost exactly the same order. This can work (like in ‘The Rules of Attraction�) but not when the same ground is raked over time and again by several different people. It just creates confusion and leaves the reader bored.
The other problem is the book’s setting. You really need to have a good knowledge of Aberystwyth’s geography to get anything from the book. I was lucky enough to live there for 3 years while at University but I imagine anyone who hasn’t would enjoy the book even less.
To sum up, it’s hard to find any real point to the book. It lacks the humanity and flair of the book it is so desperately trying to emulate (yes, ‘Trainspotting�) and shows nowhere enough quality or creativity to stand alone as a novel in its own right. I often found myself bored, wishing I was reading something else.
I can only really recommend this to people who know Aberystwyth and want to revisit familiar locations or people who enjoyed ‘Trainspotting� so much that they will read anything that even remotely resembles it.
For the rest of you, just say no. It’s really not worth it.
The main issue is that almost none of it is original.
Described as a ‘welsh Trainspotting�, this is more of a wholesale rip-off. The characters spend most of their time waiting for their next fix or coming down off their last one, like in ‘Trainspotting�. One member of the group is a violent, sadistic monster with no regard for anyone else, like in ‘Trainspotting�. And at the end, one character takes his things and runs away in the direction of London, again just like in ‘Trainspotting�.
It truly beggars belief that Irvine Welsh himself gave Griffiths his endorsement. He should have given him a court order.
Even if you haven’t read ‘Trainspotting�, there are numerous flaws.
First, you never find yourself really caring about any of the characters. The story just lurches from incident to another with no sentiment or pathos at all. You would expect to feel at least some kind of sympathy for these people but you just end up hating them, waiting for the end of the book to come in the hope that they might die. I certainly did.
Things aren’t helped by clumsy structuring. Each character gets a chapter to themselves, only to recount the events that everyone else tells in almost exactly the same order. This can work (like in ‘The Rules of Attraction�) but not when the same ground is raked over time and again by several different people. It just creates confusion and leaves the reader bored.
The other problem is the book’s setting. You really need to have a good knowledge of Aberystwyth’s geography to get anything from the book. I was lucky enough to live there for 3 years while at University but I imagine anyone who hasn’t would enjoy the book even less.
To sum up, it’s hard to find any real point to the book. It lacks the humanity and flair of the book it is so desperately trying to emulate (yes, ‘Trainspotting�) and shows nowhere enough quality or creativity to stand alone as a novel in its own right. I often found myself bored, wishing I was reading something else.
I can only really recommend this to people who know Aberystwyth and want to revisit familiar locations or people who enjoyed ‘Trainspotting� so much that they will read anything that even remotely resembles it.
For the rest of you, just say no. It’s really not worth it.
July 20, 2012
I have never read book with more finely realised characters in my life. Living breathing people, acting like living breathing people, not for the sake of moving the plot forward. And in all their human flaws, they drew me in and I did care in the end, and you have to because there is no real plot. Just the tragedy of genuine, funny, hopeful, bitter, excited and sad people destroying themselves.
Yes it would be hard to read for anyone not familiar with the regional dialects, but considering it's message of identity, nationalism and living at the bottom of the heap, how could it have been written in clear comprehensible English? It would have completely missed the point.
It was a political decision by Griffiths and if politics in literature turns you off, you have no business reading this book. It's too serious for you.
And for fucks sake. It's not a rip-off of Trainspotting. A few vaguely similar characters and plot elements, don't make two novels with different themes and language the same.
All this and I've never been to Wales in my life.
Yes it would be hard to read for anyone not familiar with the regional dialects, but considering it's message of identity, nationalism and living at the bottom of the heap, how could it have been written in clear comprehensible English? It would have completely missed the point.
It was a political decision by Griffiths and if politics in literature turns you off, you have no business reading this book. It's too serious for you.
And for fucks sake. It's not a rip-off of Trainspotting. A few vaguely similar characters and plot elements, don't make two novels with different themes and language the same.
All this and I've never been to Wales in my life.
February 2, 2016
Ar cudnay uyndastarnd wut der wer awl tawkin abuwt, nor ard der patience tur figure it art. Sor jusht wurn star
June 5, 2010
Nope. Not going to read it. I have to concentrate way too much and read passages out loud just to understand the dialect, not to say anything about the content. It's tiring and frustrating and I still don't understand some of the words.
May 22, 2017
Good book. Some excellent writing in places. I don't think he nailed the female characters, the dialogue wasn't quite there. Excellent use of phonetic English, but at nearly 500 pages this novel is just too long.
May 18, 2015
Holy shit, this book. Whoooo boy. It is incredible. A better version of irvine welsh.
January 24, 2024
The vilest, most disgusting book I've ever read. No question. The sheer depravity of this book floored me. It is grim and nihilistic... but so are the agonies of poverty and drug addiction. This is hell in book form.
But there are glimpses of beauty and humour and love amidst the horror. The realism and the detail blew my mind. These are people at their lowest, emotionally and socially. This book shocked me to my core. Bonus points for Welsh representation. More points for it being set in Aberystwyth, where I'm studying.
If you're thinking of reading this, read Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh first. It will give you at least a slight hint of what to expect. Trainspotting is a masterpiece, too. This book is also written in dialect - it's almost impossible to read sometimes.
I can't believe this book doesn't have more recognition. This novel is a wretched, sickening wonder.
But there are glimpses of beauty and humour and love amidst the horror. The realism and the detail blew my mind. These are people at their lowest, emotionally and socially. This book shocked me to my core. Bonus points for Welsh representation. More points for it being set in Aberystwyth, where I'm studying.
If you're thinking of reading this, read Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh first. It will give you at least a slight hint of what to expect. Trainspotting is a masterpiece, too. This book is also written in dialect - it's almost impossible to read sometimes.
I can't believe this book doesn't have more recognition. This novel is a wretched, sickening wonder.
June 13, 2020
Read this again recently, 18 years after I first read it as a teenager in college and despite being 20 years old, Grits has lost of it's potency.
Ostensibly, Griffiths' debut novel is a visceral account of a group of drifters' life of drug abuse, promiscuity and petty crime set in Aberystwyth on the west coast of Wales. Among the subtext Griffiths explores through the points of view of 11 characters themes such as hedonism, sexuality, identity, isolation, poverty, camaraderie and nihilism.
Each character's pov is presented via stream of consciousness in the dialect of their origin. There is no linear plot driving the novel, although it covers events over a roughly two year period in the lives of the protagonists.
Influenced by the likes of Trocchi, Ron Berry and Faulkner, Griffiths' focus on the marginalised through their lived experience gives potency to the characterisation. Although many of the same events are covered by each character, each point of view is different. The reliability of each testimony is questionable but uniquely revelatory and ultimately the full degradation and devastation of the group doesn't become clear until the closing pages.
There are lazy comparisons to be made with other novels with similar themes, but a distinction of Griffiths' novels are how rooted they in location and the claustrophobia of this area around Aberystwyth, hemmed between the expanse of the Irish Sea and the encroaching Cambrian mountains, is very much pervasive in the existential disorder of the characters.
Grits burst off the page and at times the nearly 500 page binge of booze, drugs, sex and violence is exhausting and disconcerting. But it's not intended as an easy read and is still one of the eloquent tellings (in their own voice) of the nihilism of the dispossessed and left behind in neoliberal, Thatcherite Britain.
Ostensibly, Griffiths' debut novel is a visceral account of a group of drifters' life of drug abuse, promiscuity and petty crime set in Aberystwyth on the west coast of Wales. Among the subtext Griffiths explores through the points of view of 11 characters themes such as hedonism, sexuality, identity, isolation, poverty, camaraderie and nihilism.
Each character's pov is presented via stream of consciousness in the dialect of their origin. There is no linear plot driving the novel, although it covers events over a roughly two year period in the lives of the protagonists.
Influenced by the likes of Trocchi, Ron Berry and Faulkner, Griffiths' focus on the marginalised through their lived experience gives potency to the characterisation. Although many of the same events are covered by each character, each point of view is different. The reliability of each testimony is questionable but uniquely revelatory and ultimately the full degradation and devastation of the group doesn't become clear until the closing pages.
There are lazy comparisons to be made with other novels with similar themes, but a distinction of Griffiths' novels are how rooted they in location and the claustrophobia of this area around Aberystwyth, hemmed between the expanse of the Irish Sea and the encroaching Cambrian mountains, is very much pervasive in the existential disorder of the characters.
Grits burst off the page and at times the nearly 500 page binge of booze, drugs, sex and violence is exhausting and disconcerting. But it's not intended as an easy read and is still one of the eloquent tellings (in their own voice) of the nihilism of the dispossessed and left behind in neoliberal, Thatcherite Britain.
November 8, 2021
I really struggled to know how to rate this book. As an avid Irvine Welsh fan it’s difficult to not conclude this is a blatant rip-off in so many ways. It’s inferior too in the weaker way it tackles it’s themes and the general lack of coherence. But at the same time I found myself wanting to pick it up and read, which is typically the mark of a 4 star book for me. I do think in the final third it does develop into a subtly different take on the ‘underclass� life that is Welsh’s typical domain. It’s slightly less sensationalist (i.e. arguably more boring) but it’s there. The book is too long though and I think ultimately I only upgraded it from a three star because I loved the setting of Aberystwyth, being a big fan of the place myself. So, perhaps just about worth reading as a Welsh fan if you are open-minded about originality, and definitely worth reading if you’re also a fan of Aber the place. Otherwise if you have doubts though then avoid.
February 1, 2021
Trainspotting in Wales.
Ok, that's a bit unfair. Although the book is written in phonetic form following the different accents of the characters, and centres on 90s hedonism (heroin), the book is effective at capturing Aberystwyth as a home of drifters and professional dole scroungers. The characters in it feel mostly realised and relatable, although some of them come off as a bit one-note. There is no central plotline to speak of, rather a set of vignettes from the perspective of different characters. However, we do move slowly through time and it leads to an effective conclusion as the characters leave the naiviety of their youth and have to contend with the negative consequences of their lifestyle. We end the novel not with a Requiem for a Dream style comeuppance where the characters try drugs once and immediately ruin their lives, but a more honest portrayal where the characters are ultimately ruined by their sustained negative decisions and self-sabotage over years of ignoring life.
Parts of this novel are exceedingly bitter, however, and uses awful things happening to the characters such as sexual assault as merely a means of creating conflict which is one of my least favourite tropes. There are a few too many characters as well, and this sometimes distracts from the main dynamic of the housemates. This novel is honestly quite a challenging read, especially with its prose style, however if you battle through some of the more repetitive monalogues there are moments in the novel that are rewarding. It's certainly made me to want to have a night out in Aberystwyth, even if I then never return again.
Ok, that's a bit unfair. Although the book is written in phonetic form following the different accents of the characters, and centres on 90s hedonism (heroin), the book is effective at capturing Aberystwyth as a home of drifters and professional dole scroungers. The characters in it feel mostly realised and relatable, although some of them come off as a bit one-note. There is no central plotline to speak of, rather a set of vignettes from the perspective of different characters. However, we do move slowly through time and it leads to an effective conclusion as the characters leave the naiviety of their youth and have to contend with the negative consequences of their lifestyle. We end the novel not with a Requiem for a Dream style comeuppance where the characters try drugs once and immediately ruin their lives, but a more honest portrayal where the characters are ultimately ruined by their sustained negative decisions and self-sabotage over years of ignoring life.
Parts of this novel are exceedingly bitter, however, and uses awful things happening to the characters such as sexual assault as merely a means of creating conflict which is one of my least favourite tropes. There are a few too many characters as well, and this sometimes distracts from the main dynamic of the housemates. This novel is honestly quite a challenging read, especially with its prose style, however if you battle through some of the more repetitive monalogues there are moments in the novel that are rewarding. It's certainly made me to want to have a night out in Aberystwyth, even if I then never return again.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 4, 2023
It's completely un-readable! I mean from a technical standpoint. The words are spelled phonetically as opposed to correctly and there is no flow to be found because, as a reader, I had to stop twice per sentence to try and decipher what word was actually intended. When words like "for" are replaced with "fuh" and "you" replaced (bizarrely) with "ee" as well as some others which I still haven't figured out - how can anyone expect to make sense of what this is? Normally if I leave I bad review, I like to go in depth to explain why I thought something was bad, but with this I'm unable to because I don't know what this story is about. I get the impression its "Trainspotting" but set in the Welsh Valleys. I'd looked forward to this but it seems that was misplaced.
Read
June 12, 2021I have given up on this pretty quickly. It is written in dialect and that is something I haven't got the time to read now, I'm more interested in a story, and find this style difficult. A bit like reading subtitles when watching a drama... Irvine Welsh promoted it and I had read IW previously. Like IW it is largely based around a drug community. Again it's not the sort of story I'm interested in these days.
March 5, 2021
I have to give up on this book as there are only so many episodes of substance abuse I can continuously read. A poor man's Irvine Welsh set in Wales, written in English with phonetic written conversation. There is no story beyond drug and alcohol abuse but it is well written albeit with boring similar characters. I am not worried that something will happen to give the book a storyline
June 26, 2017
Better than Trainspotting in many ways, although sometimes the books seem to complete each other.
January 1, 2018
Bloody brilliant. loved reading in different accents throughout. difficult to remember at the start but loved it. Can't recommend enough.
July 24, 2022
Glad I read Trainspotting first....
January 28, 2021
Griffiths' debut novel about a group of drifters intimately bound together by much more than just their shared lifestyles keeps you in thrall to his prose from beginning to end. Part social documentary, part cautionary tale, this novel is abundant with life as its characters are prostrated by the throes of addiction, excess, and the disenfranchisement amid the aftermath of the Thatcher years. In nearly 500 pages, Griffiths unsurprisingly touches on a wide array of issues such as national identities, class, cultural deracination and material and social precarity, all interrogated by the novel's ensemble of characters.
Grits is a trans-British plurality of voices in which Aberystwyth acts as the symbolic melting pot of cultures. This poses a striking counterimage to that offered by the notion of a monolithic 'Britishness'. One of the things the book is so good at doing is de-homogenising the culturally homogenous Britain so often seen in print and on screen. The demotic speech reflects this and the microcosm of cultural hybridity dictates the text's structure - each character is allocated a chapter and no one voice is privileged over another. Colm, a Liverpudlian of Romany-Irish heritage is fully realised and given as much dutiful consideration by Griffiths as Malcolm, an Essex boy, and Sioned, a native of Aberystwyth. Indeed, that term - 'native' - seems to undergo some scrutiny by Griffiths.
While the incessant raving, drinking, snorting and questing for the next fix adds to the text's entertainment, they really hammer home another point about the characters. The material and social conditions under which they live are expressive of their cultural liminality, their marginal status within Britain's cultural representativeness. Nearly 20 years on since publication, I wish I could say things have improved. Nevertheless, Griffiths breathes life into his characters, their anxieties and philosophical musings. Lazy comparisons to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting should be resisted. Obviously, the similarities are there, but Griffiths' work is so much more than some vacuous imitation. His is an important voice, illuminating not only Welsh political, social and cultural life with shrewd insight, but those neglected voices all over the British archipelago. Grits is the crucible in which these voices meld and in which something exciting is birthed.
Grits is a trans-British plurality of voices in which Aberystwyth acts as the symbolic melting pot of cultures. This poses a striking counterimage to that offered by the notion of a monolithic 'Britishness'. One of the things the book is so good at doing is de-homogenising the culturally homogenous Britain so often seen in print and on screen. The demotic speech reflects this and the microcosm of cultural hybridity dictates the text's structure - each character is allocated a chapter and no one voice is privileged over another. Colm, a Liverpudlian of Romany-Irish heritage is fully realised and given as much dutiful consideration by Griffiths as Malcolm, an Essex boy, and Sioned, a native of Aberystwyth. Indeed, that term - 'native' - seems to undergo some scrutiny by Griffiths.
While the incessant raving, drinking, snorting and questing for the next fix adds to the text's entertainment, they really hammer home another point about the characters. The material and social conditions under which they live are expressive of their cultural liminality, their marginal status within Britain's cultural representativeness. Nearly 20 years on since publication, I wish I could say things have improved. Nevertheless, Griffiths breathes life into his characters, their anxieties and philosophical musings. Lazy comparisons to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting should be resisted. Obviously, the similarities are there, but Griffiths' work is so much more than some vacuous imitation. His is an important voice, illuminating not only Welsh political, social and cultural life with shrewd insight, but those neglected voices all over the British archipelago. Grits is the crucible in which these voices meld and in which something exciting is birthed.
October 26, 2012
Lyrical, intense and beautifully written, this book draws you chapter by chapter into the inner world of each one of the characters, a group of drifters, junkies and seemingly lost souls who have ended up at the end of the line in Aberystwyth.
One of the things I most admired about the book is how skilfully a variety of British and Irish dialects (from Dublin, to Liverpool, to Merthyr, to Lancashire by way of Essex) are all brought to life on the page, so that, especially if you have ever heard those accents in real life, you will seem to hear that character's voice speaking to you as you follow their thoughts and perceptions.
Yes, there are similarities to Trainspotting in theme and form but this novel is actually deeper, more poetic and more ambitious in its scope.
One of the things I most admired about the book is how skilfully a variety of British and Irish dialects (from Dublin, to Liverpool, to Merthyr, to Lancashire by way of Essex) are all brought to life on the page, so that, especially if you have ever heard those accents in real life, you will seem to hear that character's voice speaking to you as you follow their thoughts and perceptions.
Yes, there are similarities to Trainspotting in theme and form but this novel is actually deeper, more poetic and more ambitious in its scope.
August 18, 2016
A well-written, yet sad, cross-section of the underground mid-90s, of which I was very much a part of and reminds me how far I have progressed since that lost period. From the music to the geographical landscape, Griffiths captures it perfectly with such accuracy that it could only have come from a detailed diary he kept of that period. Grits is an exciting, comic and grotesque rollercoaster but the most laudable quality of the book is its softening sense of empathy for the hardest of characters. I hope in time there will be a sequel to this and see how they live twenty years down the line.
August 7, 2007
i thought it was very intriguing and at the same time gave the obvious impression that the story was just a stagnant series of anecdotes creating a strong feeling the characters are trapped in their world; in fact the only progress there is in the book is in the three last pages which increases the shock and goes to prove how unstable the characters' relationship is.
April 24, 2007
everyone so often i read a book that i get totally lost in, and this was one of them. i maybe didn't learn much about life or humanity, but it was definitely an escape.
February 5, 2008
reading this book makes me want to move to wales, be twentysomething, have no job, lots of loser friends, and just bum around for a while.
October 24, 2008
I loved this once I got the rhythm of the lingo. Griffiths is a smart cookie.
June 2, 2009
A very well written book, capturing the various experiences of a rag tag bunch of drifters and dejected individuals who come together in and around a Welsh coastal village in the late 90's.
March 9, 2010
Like kicking jesus
Read
November 18, 2012gave up reading this. bit too depressing!
October 6, 2014
Read. This. Book.
September 23, 2018
Çakma Trainspotting :/
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.