Product Description

Rebecca Navarro, best-selling authoress of Regency romances, suffers a paralysing stroke. Assisted by her nurse, Rebecca plans her revenge on her unfaithful husband. But will Freddy Royle, hospital trustee, celebrity and necrophiliac, thwart those plans? Dave Thornton, soccer thug, has lost his heart to flawed beauty Samantha Worthington. Together they go in search of the man who marketed the drug that crippled her - in order to cripple him. Lloyd from Leith has a transfiguring passion for the unhappily married Heather. Together they explore the true nature of house music and chemical romance. Will their ardour fizzle and die in the grim backstreets of Edinburgh, or will it ignite and blaze like a thousand suns?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20364 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Irvine Welsh is the author of six previous works of fiction, most recently Porno. He lives in San Francisco.

Customer Reviews

Fortune's Always Hiding
I'm half way through reading Ecstasy, after having read Trainspotting and seeing the film. I've also seen the film Green Street and can't stop seeing the parallels between the story of Green Street and the second story, Fortune's Always Hiding... I've looked around online to see if there's a reason for this but have come up with nothing... Has anybody else noticed this?

A collection of entertaining yet sadistic stories
"Ecstasy" is a hard read. It explores the likes of sadism, drugs, ultra violence, necrophillia, rape, and disturbing writing. Yet, it is somehow funny and entertaining. It explores three stories, all revolving around the "Acid House" scene, which involves a lot of partying, smoking, drinking, sex, and taking drugs (they varify from light-weights such as weed, to heavy-weights like heroin and ecstasy). It explores the same culture as "Trainspotting" and the similiar "The Acid House".

The first story, entitled "Lorraine Goes To Livingston", involves the life of Rebbeca Navarro, a best-selling romance novelist, discovers the truth about her corrupt, pornography-loving husband. With the help of Lorraine, her sexually confused nurse, she plots her revenge. Another nurse at the hospital, Glen, has been secretly admiring Lorraine but after a night at a club, decides to pursue her friend Yvonne instead. Meanwhile, Glen has been accepting money from Freddy Royle, a necrophiliac TV personality. The hospital trustee's turn a blind eye to Freddy's nefarious pastime but have to do some fast talking when the new coroner begins asking questions.

"Fortune's Always Hiding" is the 'Tenazedrine'. It's about a victim and her lover whom seek revenge on the drug's marketing director.

The longest story, The Undefeated, presents slice-of-life episodes from the lives of two recreational drug users. Lloyd, an aging clubber, begins to question his life and considers the possibility of falling in love.

The stories are always intresting, and sometimes gripping to read, however, I did have trouble with the annoying encounters of the books in the first story. Rebecca's stories are not crucial to the storyline, or in fac the character(s). They get irritating and annoying, but that is however the only downfall, for me, of the entire work. I think it's a fantastic piece of literature of a brilliant working-class writer.

it's not just about ecstasy
I can see why people would be dissappointed with this book if they wanted an insight into MDMA. The real focus in the book are the characters, not the drug.

In my opinion this book is up there with trainspotting, the plots move at such a speed that it is hard to put down, with the narrative styles changing to keep things interesting. Yes it is at times shockingly twisted, especially near the beginning, but this leads you to empathise with the far more normal charcters presented in the last tale. Highly Recommended.