SOURCE: “A Bit of Respect,” in New Statesman & Society, Vol. 8, No. 350, April 28, 1995, p. 47.

In the following review, Mannes-Abbott reproves other literary critics for being surprised at the combination of street authenticity and verbal prowess exhibited in Welsh's three books. Mannes-Abbott praises Marabou Stork Nightmares for its unflinching exploration of its narrator's abuses of power.

Irvine Welsh has experienced phenomenal success in the two years since Trainspotting was published. That novel has bloomed into and beyond cult status, is currently on stage and will be filmed by the makers of Shallow Grave. The stories in The Acid House also met with acclaim last year, and are now being adapted for television. So, expectations for his new novel are unnaturally high and it has been trailed by a rush of nervously adulatory profiles.

The nervous adulation is partly fuelled by puzzlement at what he writes about and how to approach...