I was just a kid when the movie Trainspotting came out. Being part of Generation X, I saw the movie first before I realised it is a book. I read the book and I was hooked. I can hardly keep up with the number of times I have seen the movie. I think I can recite the book in my sleep. I wish I read it before I saw the movie. Doing it in that order will keep my mind from picturing Ewan McGregor as Mark Renton in the book. I would have someone else play him in my head. I am not saying Ewan did not do the character justice, I just like to keep my options open.
Like Chuck Palahniuk, Irvine has a common theme in his work, making it easy for his readers to identify it with him. His characters are people of unconventional inclinations like drugs, sex and similar perversions. Even his short stories have such recurring theme. In Trainspotting, Mark Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Tommy are friends in Edinburgh, living the simple life. Sick Boy the swindler junkie shoots up with Renton and Spud while Tommy the square jock was a model athlete until his girlfriend Lizzy dumped him over their lost sex tape which Renton stole by pretending to borrow a football video. Tommy slowly but surely turned into a junkie and started to the life of a destitute drug addict in a filthy house with the kitten he got as a peace offering in an attempt to win Lizzy back. He eventually died of toxoplasmosis from the cat turd he left laying around the house. Their other friend Begbie played by Robert Carlisle, does not get high but he drinks a lot and is just as bad a drunk as his junkie friends. I can go on forever and completely rewrite the novel in one post but I would like you to read it yourself. It is quite an experience.
Ecstacy is one of his collections of short stories. The three stories boasts detailed accounts of the lives of a necrophiliac, a sadist, a paraplegic, a druggie and a dealer. Irvine has a gift for colorful narratives that I do not want to ruin for you.