Porno

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as Trainspotting, but still a great book
Review: I really enjoyed reading more about Sick Boy, Rents, Begbie, and Spud. Welsh does such a good job describing his characters that I really felt like I "knew" them. He also has a way of making you care about his characters even though some (most) of them are despicable.

Porno is not as good as Trainspotting, but how good it be? Trainspotting was perfect. Porno is still a great book and a "can't put it down" read. If you loved Trainspotting then you have to read Porno.

Rating:
Summary: The "Trainspotting" gang, ten years on
Review: "Porno" picks up ten years after "Trainspotting" leaves off, with all of the characters that we know and love in a state of flux. Sick Boy (now preferring to go by his proper name, Simon David Williamson), has reinvented himself as a pornographic film "entrepreneur". Spud, still the bumbling and wasted (but always loveable) smackhead, has set out to write a proper history of Leith's working class. Begbie, newly released from a long prison sentence, is still as paranoid (and deadly) as ever. And Mark Renton is making a go of kicking "the gear" and starting a new life as a club owner in Amsterdam. Along with this familiar cast Welsh introduces many new characters (there's even a cross-over with some of the characters from "Glue"), the most interesting of which is Nikki Fuller-Smith, a bright college student who becomes a foil for Sick Boy.

Unlike "Trainspotting", which was mainly Renton's story, "Porno" belongs to Sick Boy. This is his last (or just latest?), best scheme for finally making it. Like many of the characters here, Sick Boy has grown older and more jaded since the "Trainspotting" days. By convincing his friends to write, star in, film, and co-produce a porno (the hilariously cliched "Seven Rides for Seven Brothers") with him, he sees a final chance to capture the glory that's been eluding him for so long. But scams like this are never as easy as they first seem, and Welsh has some surprising twists in store...

"Porno" has all of the crackling dialogue and hilarious/scary situations that fans of Welsh have come to expect. The story is told in a traditional first person format, with each main character serving as a narrator in different chapters (some chapters are even replayed from a different character's perspective). This technique keeps the book fresh and allows each character's unique view to shine through. Like all of Welsh's novels, many of the characters in "Porno" speak in a thick Scottish accent, which Welsh approximates in writing. In addition, Welsh liberally includes Leith vernacular which may be unfamiliar to many new readers (e.g., chib, gadge, blether, bairn, etc.) As difficult as it can be to understand some of the characters at times, Welsh's use of this technique is nothing short of masterful; it truly enhances the reader's appreciation of the characters, allowing oneself to become fully immersed in their lifestyle. Twenty pages into the book, you'll easily have the hang of their speech patterns. Don't worry too much about words that you don't fully understand; context helps a lot and once you see an unfamiliar word used in a couple of different places, you'll start to guess at its meaning (Welsh's novels are very similar to "A Clockwork Orange" in this respect).

I initially approached "Porno" with some amount of trepidation, since it was billed as a sequel to "Trainspotting"; it's difficult to capture lightning in a bottle twice, even with the same characters and setting. However, Welsh mostly succeeds in writing a worthy follow-up. Yes, the book is overly long and some of the situations aren't as fresh as they once were in "Trainspotting". Welsh also has minor problems keeping all of the characters active and engaging--Mark Renton seems to be forgotten for most of the book, only really coming alive in the final section. But there's a lot to admire here: the wit, the sparkling dialogue, and of course the characters (especially Nikki, who feels like Welsh's first "real" female character). It's fun to enter this world again and see what "the mates" have been up to in the intervening years.

One final note: it's possible to read this story without having read "Trainspotting", but you'll get much more enjoyment out of it if you start with "Trainspotting". You may even want to read Welsh's "Glue" before "Porno", since Terry Lawson and Rab Birrell (both originally introduced in "Glue") are important characters here.

Rating:
Summary: You can go home again
Review: After being held by the final 150 pages of Welsh's newest novel, I must say that he has written his finest work to date. With Welsh, the story may stay the same but he does something many other authors cannot do: create characters whom you actually get attached to. This also may be the first of his work which has a defining moral stance throughout while keeping with his cynical stylisims that have had me laughing out loud in many segments. Also noted is Welsh's amazing grasp on language and dialect which gives each of his characters a tangible feeling of realisim. This is a suberb read, perhaps the best I have read in five years!!!

Rating:
Summary: I love this man's work.
Review: Another triumph for Irvine Welsh. I'm not in the mood to write a thorough review, as I'm pretty slammed at work, but I was posting to let you all know that the website referenced towards the end of the book, www.sevenrides.com is actually up, running and HILARIOUS. There's a message board (where FRANCO, Juice Terry, Nikki, and others "post"), photos, plot synopsis, Italian blow up dolls for sale, etc. It is the perfect compliment to the book. Classic.

Rating:
Summary: "Trainspotting", ten years older but not wiser
Review: At the end of "Trainspotting", Mark Renton sneaked out of a hotel room with the entire profits of a heroin deal, cheating his friends Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud of their shares. Now the boys from Leith are back- but despite the passage of time, nobody's changed that much. Perhaps that's why "Porno" reads more like a rewrite than a sequel; unfortunately, in the process, each of the four has been reduced to a trope: Renton, the self-satisfied pseudo-intellectual; Sick Boy, the cocaine-gobbling sleaze merchant; Begbie the unreconstructed psychopath, and Spud the aimless, amiable loser.

The book's two principal plotlines- the title one referring to Sick Boy's newest moneymaking game of making a porno film, and the "Does Renton Get What's Coming To Him?" one- intertwine with several other moderately interesting stories. But the book overall doesn't work nearly as well as did "Trainspotting"- we don't learn anything really new about any of the characters, and what we do doesn't make us like them any better. Welsh seems to have written "Porno" at a higher octane level than its predecessor- the violence is cruder, the sex more in-yer-face, and the pace of the whole thing more frenetic- as if he can build up enough inertia to propel the reader to an ending that can be seen clearly fifty pages out, and about which, at that point, it's hard to care.

As before, the book is told from the perspectives (and in varying degrees of Edinburgh dialect) of each of the four in turn, plus a new member of the menage- film student Nikki Fuller-Smith, whose involvement with Sick Boy (or Simon David Williamson, as he's trying to reinvent himself) takes the most compelling narrative arc- from interest to infatuation to relationship to boredom and, finally, betrayal. But even Nikki's not enough of a new twist to give "Porno" the jolt it needs to be compelling; female characters have never been Welsh's strong suit, and if the four mates seem to have lost substance, Nikki never really achieves it.

"Porno" is a must-have only for those who need to complete their collection of Irvine Welsh. If you haven't read anything of his, start with "Trainspotting". If you finish that still wanting to know what comes next, read this- but wait for the paperback.


Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, but still worth the read
Review: Before I go on, I should say I like Welsh's work and have bought and read most of it. "Trainspotting" is one of my all time favorite novels. But "Porno" was a bit disappointing. Mostly entertaining, but lacking the bite of his earlier work. I found the plot pretty weak, too many coincidences. The addition of the "Glue" characters was unnecessary, undesirable even. This could have been a fantastic book, but instead is lazy and bloated. Still worth reading though.

Rating:
Summary: All the young junkies...
Review: Before you read this book, you definitely must first read Welsh's first novel Trainspotting, and you should probably also read his last one, Glue. Porno is a direct sequel to Trainspotting, bringing back virtually all the characters some ten years later, and it's a semi-sequel to Glue, adding some of that book's characters into the mix, most notably "Juice" Terry Lawton and Rab Birrell. Porno will lack a great deal of depth and resonance for readers not familiar with those earlier books and their characters and settings.

And therein lies both Porno's attraction and minor disappointments. If you loved Trainspotting, reading Porno is very much like the experience of having seen a great band in a tiny club when they were just starting, and then seeing the same band ten years later in a large venue when they are more popular. They may still be amazing and play your favorite songs, but inevitably they've mellowed a touch, the intensity is isn't the same, and you get a little wistful. And to a certain extent, that's exactly what the book is about, aging, maturing, and getting over one's past. It's totally unfair to expect another Trainspotting from Welsh, an author can only write that passionate and electric a book once, and it's usually the first book they write. In any event, readers have had ten years to get used to reading Scots dialect and it's hard to conceive of what Welsh could write about that would be equally shocking as his heroin underworld.

In any event, Porno is a carefully plotted and constructed story, told in alternating first-person chapters by Sick Boy, his new lady Nikki Fuller-Smith, Spud, Begbie, and Renton. The central character is Sick Boy, who's seeking to reinvent himself as post-millenium entrepreneur, starting by making a porn film with his circle of acquaintances. Eventually this intertwines with the reappearance of Renton and the question of what went down in London ten years ago when he cheated Sick Boy, Begbie, and Spud on a heroin deal and skipped town. Cynics will no doubt say that Welsh is looking to ride the sequel bus to potloads of money, which is, again, unfair. Clearly the Trainspotting crew were the characters closest to his heart, so of course he's going to want to revisit them and it seems churlish to suggest that an author who uses characters twice is a sellout.

Foe most part the characters are exactly as they were in the earlier books, although to varying degrees, most realize they're getting older and need to change. In this regard, Spud's story is the most poignant and affecting of the lot. And of course Renton's attempt to settle the past and lead a normal life is hard not to empathize with, which is why mad-dog Begbie is such a menacing presence throughout the book. Ultimately however, this is a comedy, lacking the darkness of Trainspotting, or Welsh's severely underrated Filth. It's a wonderful sentimental adventure full or wacky hi-jinks, and comuppances aplenty.

Rating:
Summary: If ye dinnae read this yin yer jist plain doss!
Review: Cult fave Irvine Welsh returns to his roots (so to speak) with this new novel featuring the characters from TRAINSPOTTING and his previous book GLUE. However, in PORNO the focus is on Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson, a decade on; failed in every career path he has trod- honest or dishonest. But Sick Boy comes across a new opportunity to establish himself in the world. By making a porn film.
He enlists student Nikki Fuller-Smith to be his starlet and then sets out to rebuild bridges with his old pal Mark Renton- now clean and sober and "Juice" Terry Lawson.
PORNO is an entertaining but deep read, by turns funny and disturbing with an interesting new array of characters and several narratives running through the book giving the characters unique point of view. Keep your fingers crossed for Danny Boyle and John Hodge to option this one. I suppose the filmed result could be a hybrid of TRAINSPOTTING meets IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES meets BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR.

Rating:
Summary: This is dark and dirty
Review: Dark, dank- exploitative- hilarious at times- difficult to read- characters that you just can't warm to-

This book does not set out to make friends or to make you happy- well not until a great "Private Benjamin" ending. It's a trip and a half and if you hate Hollywood, then you'll love this. I haven't read anything by Welsh since Acid House, but I'll be going back to his other books to see what I've missed.
I had to tear the front cover off the book, as you just can't read it like that in front of the kids.

Watch out for Begby, he has become a comic masterpiece in this book. (With a deadly undercurrent)

Rating:
Summary: My prayers are answered.
Review: From the moment I learned of this books existence I was thrilled with the idea of revisiting the characters of Trainspotting. Irvine Welsh never ceases to amaze me. I find myself talking in a scottish accent by mistake from time to time! This book is absolutely a must read for anyone who has read or even just watched the movie Trainspotting.