Talk:Marabou Stork Nightmares

He does join in the rape

The version where he describes being an unwilling witness is a case of the old unreliable narrator. Through his fantasy world and his account of events he is inching closer to the truth, but lying as he goes. Eventually we get the real story.

Do thugs normally work as systems analysts?

Maybe they do, I don't know. See extract below. Going from the first sentence you expect the second to be on theme of his thuggery not the straight facade he can (almost) maintain on the job. Maybe something like, 'Although he maintains a full-time job...he also joins a gang of football hooligans' ... or something like that.

Over the next few years, Strang grows into a violent, misogynistic thug. He maintains a full-time job in as a systems analyst for the fictional investment group, 'Scottish Spinsters' (a probable reference to the real Scottish Widows firm). He joins a gang of football hooligans, led by the fearsome Lexo. He enjoys his life as a "top boy," feared by the entire town, until the gang kidnaps a young woman who rejected their advances and gang rapes her; Strang is horrified but too intimidated to try and stop them, although he himself does not join in.

Anyway, glad to see this book up on Wikipedia. Lucy1958 (talk) 08:42, 15 October 2009 (UTC)