Book #48
The Acid House by Irvine Welsh
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.
Another wee collection of short stories! I'm really getting through these this year. I realised two stories into this that I had already read it as a teenager, but I'd forgotten almost everything that happened in the stories, so it wasn't a great loss.
In true Irvine Welsh fashion, everything about this collection is vile, dark, disturbing and vomit-inducing. It really is spit your dinner out material, but it grips you unbelievably hard.
Welsh explores a lot of different themes and styles here, it's a good expression of his various literary abilities. There were some particularly insane sections that did make me wonder for a while what actually goes on in that baldy head of his, but his style is intriguing more than anything else.
His characters are, as always, flawed and vicious, but mostly wonderful. I do love it when characters from Welsh's other novels make an appearance, this time Spud from Trainspotting cropping up in the novella A Smart Cunt.
Twisted as he may be, Welsh remains one of my favourite authors, and going back to some of his older works helps to remind me of this. I'd recommend this to anyone who can handle something that's on the wrong side of macabre.