The Acid House (1994)

Once again you need to be able to read "Scottish" but if you can get your head around the vernacular this is a really great collection of often profoundly shocking short stories told in the inimitable Welsh style! Well done Irvine! ( )

I admit I had very little idea what to expect when I picked up THE ACID HOUSE, but TRAINSPOTTING worked for me so I thought why not.

Welsh does bizarre, in your face scenarios; flawed, mad, bad, unlucky or just flat out odd characters; and he does a great line in Scottish venacular. What he doesn't do is pull any punches.

As with many short story collections from a single author, there are some that will work better than others for all readers. But to be a reader of this book you're going to have to have a high tolerance for "language", in your face drug taking, and being dragged backwards through the wild side.

The only proviso I'd make is if you've not read other collections or books, this may not be the best place to start. ( )

I never really got into the book.
First it was difficult to read because of the bits written in scots. It felt like hours just to read a single page. Besides I didn't care much for most of the stories. A lot of them seemed random and pointless, especially the ones with supernatural storylines thrown in. They were either too carefully crafted and artificial or too random. I don't normally mind the bizarre, but in these stories I found it to be neither original nor funny.
I had my occasional laughs and I liked Eurotrash and most of the Smart Cunt, so I'll give it 6 points.

Welsh's overuse of dialect often drives the reader to distraction in this collection of short fiction. ( )

These short stories are so brutal and so funny in the same time that I think only Welsh can do that and make a fantastic collection. Some of the stories are really disgusting, but I like them :) ( )