Rating: 
Summary: ugh.
Review: first of all, look at the cover for this book.that's about as enertaining as things are going to get. this book is "trainspotting" in condensed form and welsh at his most pretentious.
Rating:
Summary: Three novellas - one drug
Review: I am a big fan of Irvine Welsh so I was anxious to get my hands on ECSTASY: THREE TALES OF CHEMICAL ROMANCE. Sadly, I was left disappointed. The premise of each novella as described on the back of the book is excellent, but Welsh's execution was very poor. For example, in the first story, "Lorraine Goes to Livingston", Welsh was not consistent in his use of Scottish dialect for the main character which was more than distracting. Also, the idea of a mortuary worker having free sex with the corpses in full knowledge of everyone in the hospital is a little too far fetched, even for Irvine Welsh. I will not bother to continue with the shortcomings of the other two stories. Although I was disappointed in ECSTASY, I will not give up on Welsh as I still believe he has an amazing talent.
Rating: 
Summary: Totally worth the wait...
Review: I waited to read this book for 2 years, and when i finally got this book, I started to read it right away. My favourite short story was "The Undefeated", in which raver Lloyd falls for a yuppie Heather. The book contains 3 short stories. "Lorraine Goes to Livingston" is a great tale of revenge and love found and lost. "Fortune's Always Hiding" is a total Welsh-ian story of "love" and corporate greed. I love this book, the language, the humour, and the sheer simplicity of the overall stories. These tales make a reader want to read more and more.
Rating:
Summary: Totally worth the wait...
Review: I waited to read this book for 2 years, and when i finally got this book, I started to read it right away. My favourite short story was "The Undefeated", in which raver Lloyd falls for a yuppie Heather. The book contains 3 short stories. "Lorraine Goes to Livingston" is a great tale of revenge and love found and lost. "Fortune's Always Hiding" is a total Welsh-ian story of "love" and corporate greed. I love this book, the language, the humour, and the sheer simplicity of the overall stories. These tales make a reader want to read more and more.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read if you can do just that
Review: If you're a Welsh fan and have just came from one of his previous books I believe you'll enjoy this one. It's got 3 witty short stories that include great characters and even better situations. However, since this is my first book to have read from Welsh I found it extremely difficult to follow along with the strong dialect. In turn the book took me forever to get through. Although the book was well rounded with characters and a great story line, I don't believe I'll come back to Welsh.
Rating:
Summary: Addictive
Review: Irvine Welsh, of "Trainspotting" fame, delivers three edgy stories that are somehow related to one single element: ecstasy. In "Lorraine Goes to Livingston", the author offers a multi-layered, sometimes confusing tale about love and the twisted nature of some people. "Fortune`s Always Hiding" is a powerful and unsettling revenge story that resembles Quentin Tarantino`s movies at parts, due to its explicit violence, badass characters, non-linear storytelling and a very acid sense of humor. "The Undefeated" focuses on the relationship between a yuppie woman and a bohemian, messed up man. Altough far from a masterpiece, "Ecstasy" is a fun and enticing read nonetheless, presenting an author with a personal, recognizable, harsh, direct and gritty style. This book is not for everyone, but those who enjoy this kind of stuff may find it compelling. Deserves a look.
Rating:
Summary: Addictive
Review: Irvine Welsh, of "Trainspotting" fame, delivers three edgy stories that are somehow related to one single element: ecstasy. In "Lorraine Goes to Livingston", the author offers a multi-layered, sometimes confusing tale about love and the twisted nature of some people. "Fortune`s Always Hiding" is a powerful and unsettling revenge story that resembles Quentin Tarantino`s movies at parts, due to its explicit violence, badass characters, non-linear storytelling and a very acid sense of humor. "The Undefeated" focuses on the relationship between a yuppie woman and a bohemian, messed up man. Altough far from a masterpiece, "Ecstasy" is a fun and enticing read nonetheless, presenting an author with a personal, recognizable, harsh, direct and gritty style. This book is not for everyone, but those who enjoy this kind of stuff may find it compelling. Deserves a look.
Rating:
Summary: There's no one quite like Welsh
Review: Once again, Welsh presents simple stories with simple text and comes up with something simply amazing. His brave, crass, honest style reads smoothly and illuminates the stories of every day choices and strife. While many readers may find the scenes and the slang somewhat forgien, the emotions and characters are wholly universal. If you cannot find reflections of yourself in at least one of the six main characters, you would have to be living life in some other dimension. Three vastly different stories are connected through the universal need for solace and companionship. The characters seek and find a hollow representive of this through the use of sex and drugs. The journey is accomplished in such a uniqely Welshian manner that I found myself reading passages that would otherwise shock me as if I were reading nothing more than the latest best selling "clean" fiction. If you are a Welsh fan, do not miss this one. It is not his best effort (the characters lack the depth found in his other works), but any effort of his is worthy of your time. If you have never encountered Welsh before, be prepared to go places you have never thought you would go... and enjoy every bit of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Welsh in top form
Review: Sometimes when writers venture into the area of the short story their craft suffers from cut corners and unanswered questions. That may be the case in Ecstacy, but if it is I was too engrossed to notice the flaws. "Lorraine Goes to Livingston" deals with a writer who concocts a plan to strike revenge at her cheating husband. "Fortune's Always Hiding" explores the twisted relationship between a soccer hooligan and a deformed but beautiful women. "The Undefeated" is the tale of two polar opposites finding love somewhere in the middle. The best things about this collection are: 1) the stories get progressively better - "The Undefeated" is by far the best; 2) three kinds of love are detailed; and 3) it proves that love can destroy any boundaries. I know that last one sounds sappy but it's true enough. Once again Welsh has assembled a strong cast of characters and thrown them into extraordinary circumstances. What you get is one helluva ride.
Rating:
Summary: Chemical Love
Review: This book contains three stories that revolve around romance and Ecstasy among other things. Lorraine Goes to Livingston is the first story. It was titled a "Rave and Regency" romance. Famed regency romance novel writer Rebecca Navarro (who writes stories such as Lucy Goes to Liverpool and Yasmin Goes to Yeovil) has a stroke, which jolts her out of her dreamworld. When she actually takes a look at reality, she realizes that her husband is a prick who's using her for her money, and he uses her money for all forms of debauchery. She, along with the help of a nurse -- Lorraine, plan revenge on her dear husband. This was my favorite story in the whole book. The next two stories are powerful, especially the one following this one, but this one held the most value to me. When you first meet Rebecca, you don't really like her much, but you feel empathy for her. And Lorraine is one of those characters that you can relate to. She's a single woman who has questions about her sexuality and wishes that everyone would stop trying to force love down her throat. Then, of course with this being your typical Irvine story, you have drug abuse, raves, and some bizarre sex practices (bestiality and necrophilia for this particular story). Fortune's Always Hiding is the second story and is subtitled "A Corporate Drug Romance". The story revolves around a woman, who was the unfortunate victim of a drug marketed in the 60's, and a man, who's obsessed with soccer (or fitba, as they commonly say ;Þ). The woman is hell-bent on revenge and the man is in love and would do anything for her. Another powerful story revolving around revenge, but this time it's against a big corporation who refuses to take responsibility for destroying people's lives. They've given money, but they aren't truly remorseful about their actions. I loved how Welsh jumped back and forth giving us tiny portions of what happened to the woman, Samantha. This one is my second favorite story in the book as well. The Undefeated, an Acid House Romance, is about a jobless, drug dealer-slash-raver named Lloyd, and a unhappy, sexually frustrated housewife named Heather. There's not a lot that I can say for this story. Most of the story is spent following their everyday struggles and few pages are actually dedicated to their meeting up. Lloyd's side of things didn't interest me all that much. It was interesting at times, but most times, I found his commentary lacking. Heather's side of things was quite fascinating though. It was just something about reading about her going from "good" Heather to "bad" Heather that really kept me reading her chapters. It seems like I liked the stories in the order they were written. I loved the first and was only partially impressed by the last, even though, I did really love the hopeful ending we get at the end of the last story. Yeah, I'll admit the characters aren't all that drawn out, but this is only a 275 page book. What do you expect? Shrek's analysis? A wonderful addition for people who collect Welsh's off-beat works.
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