Product Description

Nominated for a BAFTA award. From the author of Trainspotting, an adaptation of another of his best-selling works - a collection of short stories - The Acid House Trilogy The Acid House Trilogy is made up of three of Welsh's most powerful stories; The Granton Star Cause (starring Stephen McCole and Maurice Roeves), The Acid House (starring Ewen Bremner, Martin Clunes and Jemma Redgrave) and A Soft Touch (starring Kevin McKidd and Michelle Gomez). All three stories come from the rough, tough badlands of the schemes of North Edinburgh and take us into a dark but hilarious world of drugs, deviant sex and football hooliganism fired by Welsh's passion and fierce steaming rock and roll.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1309635 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 81 pages

From the Back Cover
'He strafes the airwaves with a cacophonous range of voices, comic, sad, abusive, recalcitrant' Scotland on Sunday

'Another season in hell with Irvine Welsh, and god it's invigorating...The collection as a whole is sick, horrific, occasionally moving and very funny' New Statesman

An unsettling, shocking and very funny collection of stories. The characters in this extraordinarty book are often - on the surface - depraved, vicious, cowardly and manipulative, but their essential humanity is never undermined. Two professors of philosophy turn pugilists; Leith removal men become the objects of desire for Hollywood goddesses; God turns Boab Coyle into a house-fly; and in the novella, 'A Smart Cunt', the drug-addled young hero spins off on a collision course with his past.

The Acid House is a bizarre, disturbing and hilarious collection from one of the most uncompromising and original writers around.

'Told with such vigour and alertness, such scathing, unmerciful humour, such compassion and such reserves of linguistic and structural invention that nobody could come away from them without feeling thoroughly elated' Jonathan Coe, Sunday Times

About the Author
Irvine Welsh is the author of several works of fiction, most recently Crime. He lives in Dublin.

Customer Reviews

I found this book in Shanghai
I live and work in Shanghai. In China its no secret that media is tightly controlled by the government. That is why I find it strange sometimes to find books like "the acid house" lurking in a second hand book store just behind the Bund. For example I also found Mian Mian's "Candy" in a book store (the english language version of course). The chinese version of that book was banned, I guess the Chinese government is counting on the fact that most Chinese people can't read English - I understand that, although I still find it amusing to find such books in Shanghai's book stores.

Anyway to get to the point. I love the short stories, I read them on the bus, in my lunch break, whenever I have a free moment. Like the drugs and chaos portrayed in the stories which the likes of Euan in Stoke Newington Blues are consuming, each short story is like a drug that releases me from the tedium of daily life. (You should try taking a bus in Shanghai!)

Irvine Welsh's ability to conjure a gripping story within such a short number of pages, and build characters which are totally believable is, for me, his best talent. I can only imagine that he really knows what he is writing about - apart from this being a work of fiction - he has described aspects of life with such vivid detail that I can only conclude he is a writer of great experience and great compassion.

The next book store I find hiding amongst the streets of Shanghai that stocks a book by Irvine Welsh is definately going to be able to sell it to me!

Irvine Welsh - Super cool, ya radge!
My God, has Irvine Welsh ever written a bad tale? Never to my opinion.
The Acid House is a great book because it shows that Welsh can write a short story just as well as a novel.
Stories in this book like 'The Granton Star Cause' and 'The Acid House', are very different to Welsh's usual style of 'real life' gritty tales. The idea in both stories is that someone has changed into something else and is living that life. In 'Granton..', it is because the main character 'Boab' has angered God in a pub, in 'Acid House', the character 'Coco Bryce' is tripping on acid, and then hit by lightening. They will have to be read to understand. 'A Smart C***', the novella at the end is just as compelling as 'Trainspotting', though, not as scummy. A few of the stories have interlinking characters from the last, and 'Smart...' has Spud (Trainspotting). This is a trait commonly used in Welsh's books however. ie. Glue

Superb, Welsh is a literary genius
I dont rate this book as Welsh' best by no means. Any writer would find it hard to top Trainspotting & The Marabou Stork Nightmares, both contemporary classics not to be overlooked. At the same time though this is a great book and disgustingly funny. I may be deamed warped but I love this collection and cant wait for more.