61 pages • 2 hours read
Irvine WelshA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Part 1, Chapters 1-3
Part 1, Chapters 4-6
Part 1, Chapters 7-10
Part 2, Chapters 11-13
Part 2, Chapters 14-17
Part 3, Chapters 18-19
Part 3, Chapters 20-21
Part 4, Chapters 22-24
Part 4, Chapters 25-28
Part 5, Chapters 29-31
Part 5, Chapters 32-33
Part 6, Chapters 34-36
Part 6, Chapters 37-39
Part 6, Chapters 40-42
Part 7, Chapter 43
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Chapter 7 returns to Mark’s point of view. He is awakening from the haze of a high in another person’s apartment. It’s the sound of screaming that brings him back to earth. Mark is still high, and it takes him time to process what’s happening, but it’s clear something is seriously wrong. Simon emerges from another room in the apartment and “his voice reminded us ay the demon’s in the film The Exorcist. It shit us up” (52).
Lesley, the woman whose apartment they are in, just found her baby girl, Dawn, dead in her crib: “Ah can feel death in the room before aheven see the bairn. […] That wee. So fuckin small. Wee Dawn. Fuckin shame” (52). It appears to be a “cot death” (55), meaning Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The junkies react in mixed ways. Some suggest they should stay with Lesley, while others believe they should leave.
Simon seems the most shaken up of all, which at first confuses Mark. Then, he realizes that Simon is the father of baby Dawn. Simon claims he will get clean. The chapter concludes with Mark deciding to cook up a fresh hit, and the dead child’s mother, Lesley, asking if he can prepare one for her as well.