SOURCE: A review of The Acid House in Antioch Review, Vol. 54, No. 1, Winter, 1996, pp. 113–14.

In the following review, Allison provides a brief, generally favorable assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of The Acid House.

This collection of short stories [The Acid House] is a brilliant impression of the postmodern problem of displaced youth. What makes Welsh's darkly humorous stories so remarkable is the contrast within them between new and old. Antisocial characteristics such as misanthropy, sexual perversion, and drug abuse clash with the traditional “old-world” flavor of the UK and its working-class values, friendly pubs, and soccer-team camaraderie. Most of the dialogue is a Scots dialect that forms a rustic veneer for the modern themes of social saturation.

Despite their fascinating social context, most of these stories can be taken lightly, for Welsh's ingenious fantasies give them levity. “The Granton Star Cause” shows us what it would be...