Roy Strang is in a coma, but his consciousness is overflowing with memories. Some are more real—about life on the outskirts of Edinburgh—and are conveyed in a grotesquely vulgar, stiff, lifeless language. Others are a fantasy about hunting an African marabou stork, told in vivid, image-rich language like an English gentleman. Both stories are fascinating on their own, as well as in contrast with each other: a sharp juxtaposition between real life, full of dirt and violence, and an invented one—noble and elevated. Roy Strang’s story is a shocking trip into the life and mind of a modern English lout.