SOURCE: “Street Smarts,” in New Statesman & Society, Vol. 90, No. 1,619, April 1, 1994, p. 46.

In the following review of The Acid House, Whiteside praises Welsh's skill at narrative surprise, preferring the surreal short stories to the more realistic novella and comparing Welsh to William Burroughs.

Another season in hell with Irvine Welsh, and God it's invigorating. These 21 stories and one novella (A Smart Cunt: maybe a suggestion for a Radio 4 Book at Bedtime?) return to the world of Edinburgh junkies, drunks and low-lifes that got the treatment in last year's excellent, in-your-face novel, Trainspotting. The main narrative voice is again Welsh's brand of Edinburgh street vernacular, with its “oafays”, “boatils”, “radges” and “swedgin”, and again the most appalling violence and squalor is set off by vicious humour and a fierce sense of outrage.

Aside from the vigour of the language, what is immediately striking is Welsh's narrative skill. The openers, “The...