Misogynistic boring nonsense, forcefully made to be more controversial but in style that reminds of a middle schooler. For all that the characters of Trainspotting lurked on the perilous fringes, they were at least young enough for the slogan “choose life” to be an option. Welsh's writing often explores themes of urban life, addiction, crime, and the struggles faced by working-class individuals.

Irvine Welsh, the feted laureate of the gutter ever since the blistering Trainspotting hit the shelves back in 1993, is back with a sequel to that odyssey of debauchery, despair, and quasi-redemption. Rab "Second Prize" McLaughlin - a recovering alcoholic, the fifth of the gang robbed by Renton at the end of Trainspotting (though not in the film). Welsh's third book (and second novel), Marabou Stork Nightmares, alternates between a grim tale of thugs and schemes in sub-working class Scotland and a hallucinatory adventure tale set in South Africa. One night, a DJ from his hometown (Carl Ewart from Welsh's previous novel Glue) plays at one of his clubs and recognises him.Sam Leith, writing in the Financial Times, argues that: "Welsh's concerns are with sin and salvation, with the exercise of free will and with the individual soul. In 2001 he directed a 15-minute film for Gene's song "Is It Over" which is taken from the album Libertine. This is the only vein running through the three; they are incredibly unlike each other, and all brought something original to the table. The first one was sick and twisted and made me laugh, the second one made me cringe a bit and feel slightly depressed, and the last one I thought was a very sweet love story. In the new book, Lennox is tasked with solving the murder of a Tory MP found castrated in a Leith warehouse.

Unlike many addicts, he says, he was not self-medicating to escape the horrors of life; for him, heroin was purely hedonistic. His next book, Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance (1996), became his most high-profile work since Trainspotting, released in the wave of publicity surrounding the film.Although I wouldn't recommend this as a starting point for Welsh beginners, it's twisted, it's clatty as fuck, and it's the boy's true early stuff. For example, in Chapter 25, Spud narrates, "So ah'm downcast git intae the library, thinkin tae masel" ("So I'm downcast when I get into the library thinking to myself"). I like to have somebody I love and am loved by, but at the same time I’m always running away from them, too. He ends up murdering the sex offender Chizzie, effectively destroying the plans of all the characters, though he sees his own actions as heroic.

A corrupt police officer and his tapeworm served as the narrators for his third novel, Filth (1998).Irvine Welsh, 63, grew up in Muirhouse, north Edinburgh, and lives in Oxfordshire, having spent most of the 2010s in Chicago and Miami. The original Trainspotting was compelling, it was satisfying; T2 Trainspotting— while certainly very readable — is neither of these things. In the past, interviewers have suggested that his stories tend towards the tall; that they can’t tell when he’s telling the truth and when he’s making things up. Lloyd is a drug dealer and user going about his business with his druggie mates whilst starting to realise that he's getting older and has never really experienced love.

In the novel Filth, the tapeworm's internal monologue is imposed over the top of the protagonist's own internal monologue (the worm's host), visibly depicting the tapeworm's voracious appetite, much like the "Climax of Voices" in Gray's novel 1982, Janine. The book ends with Begbie suddenly coming awake as Sick Boy confesses everything in hope that Begbie will resume his bloodthirsty hunt for Renton. Scarcely is the build-up over when it speeds to an end; a high-definition sketch that needs longer to make its comic and emotional impact. For example, characters from Trainspotting make cameo appearances in The Acid House, Marabou Stork Nightmares, Ecstasy, Filth, and slightly larger appearances in Glue, whose characters then appear in Porno. Ecstasy' (or 'Ecstasy: 3 Tales of Chemical Romance') is a book comprised of three short stories all centring around love/sex/relationships/romance whilst high on Ecstasy.A story can be nasty and funny by all means if it’s handled correctly, but nasty and silly is a hard to stomach.