The Acid House

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It's a hit!

It's amazing! The Acid House is filled with mind blowing classic short stories that only Irvine Welsh could deliver. They are all very different a... (show more)

It's amazing! The Acid House is filled with mind blowing classic short stories that only Irvine Welsh could deliver. They are all very different and very dark. I am very interested in seeing the film adaptation now. The short novella at the end was the books weakest point, because it relied too heavily on what made Trainspotting such a great book, but still was a good little read. However the high marks all go to the short stories. I think this collection is better than the ones I had read from Palahniuk or Murakami. Very disturbing and full of lost lonely characters who spend their days engulfed in sex and drugs (like all his novels) these stories deal with lots of issues and are quite short, yet all brilliant. It's a masterpiece of a book that anyone new to the author should read first if they can't find a copy of Trainspotting. Brilliant. (show less)

 

 

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No, it's a flop!

Not a lot of people will admit this, but when you strip this book of all the shook value there really isn't much else to Welsh's writing. Really, a... (show more)

Not a lot of people will admit this, but when you strip this book of all the shook value there really isn't much else to Welsh's writing. Really, anyone can come up with some crazy disturbing shit but without any insights or a deeper reason it just comes across as slightly retarded.

Trainspotting was a flawed novel, but it at least had a plot and characters you cared about while they were doing obscene things, and made you wonder how their lives would up. The Acid House has no narrative pull, just a collection of misanthropic people doing over the top ridiculously "bad" things until the story ends.

I'm not a prude; I just expect more from my filth. (show less)

 

 

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  Got a bit bored near the last half, but on the whole, interesting stuff. Almost everything in the book is written like you'd hear it from a guy nursing his drink at the bar, a vocal sort of real-time storytelling, like it's all being recanted from memory right off the bat. Feels really genuine.

  There's a number of great, self-contained short stories in the first half, my favorites of which would likely be "A Soft Touch" and "Snowman Building Parts for Rico the Squirrel"... (show more)

  Got a bit bored near the last half, but on the whole, interesting stuff. Almost everything in the book is written like you'd hear it from a guy nursing his drink at the bar, a vocal sort of real-time storytelling, like it's all being recanted from memory right off the bat. Feels really genuine.

  There's a number of great, self-contained short stories in the first half, my favorites of which would likely be "A Soft Touch" and "Snowman Building Parts for Rico the Squirrel", both genuinely hilarious and charming as hell. "A Smart Cunt" takes over after that, and while it's got a habit of going nowhere, his characters are going nowhere, so it makes weird sort of sense. It's a realistic and sometimes interesting look at national disaffection and the self-sabotaging cycle of drug binging and bar hopping, but still, it has the unfortunate and arguably necessary side-effect of boring you through its depiction of life without direction. The only constant that builds and remains in their lives are the sins they've committed. There's a good line near the end that sums up a pretty major theme:

  "Gleaves, May, even Darren, Avril, Cliff, Sandra, and Gerard; they all constituted a set of expectations which snapped around me like a sprung trap. You can only be free for so long, then the chains start to bind you. The answer is to keep moving."

  This isn't the life he wants; he doesn't really WANT a life, so he keeps moving around and away from anything that might hold him in place. (show less)

   

   

  by Jason on Jul 16, 2009 at 12:32AM

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  21 short stories and one novella. Welsh explores the world of Edinburgh junkies, drunks and low-lifes.

  Violent, nasty, clever and occasionally very funny. Welsh mixes up his hyper-realistic uber-grit with occasional weird turns into fantasy - such as the boy who turns into a fly, and the acid-head who gets reborn as a baby but who still remembers his previous life. Good stuff.

  The 122 page novella - "A Smart Cunt", descends to new levels of grimness and griminess without any ... (show more)

  21 short stories and one novella. Welsh explores the world of Edinburgh junkies, drunks and low-lifes.

  Violent, nasty, clever and occasionally very funny. Welsh mixes up his hyper-realistic uber-grit with occasional weird turns into fantasy - such as the boy who turns into a fly, and the acid-head who gets reborn as a baby but who still remembers his previous life. Good stuff.

  The 122 page novella - "A Smart Cunt", descends to new levels of grimness and griminess without any redeeming clever narrative tricks.

  According to the back cover the Scotsman on Sunday says "Welsh strafes the airwaves with a cacophonous range of voices". I can just imagine one of Welsh's characters responding: "Strafes the fuckin airwaves? D'ye ken what this fuckin radge's orn about?". (show less)

   

   

  by Alan Wightman on Sep 19, 2009 at 02:51AM

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