Porno, Irvine Welsh's highly entertaining--though completely unnecessary--sequel to his cult classic, Trainspotting, reunites the gang as they pursue another big-payoff scheme. It's been 10 years since Mark Renton walked away with the cash from a drug sale perpetrated by himself and his mates, Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson, Danny "Spud" Murphy, and Francis Begbie. The megalomaniacal Sick Boy has returned to Edinburgh, where stag film producer "Juice" Terry Lawson has given him the idea for a bold new scam: to locally produce a high-end adult film. Lawson introduces Sick Boy to the beautiful and egocentric Nikki Fuller-Smith, a student and aspiring star. Passivity and self-destructive tendencies have left well-meaning junkie Spud poor and alone, while time has only intensified the anger of the psychotic Begbie, who's fresh out of prison, back in Edinburgh, and obsessed with taking revenge on Renton. Sick Boy locates and persuades Renton, a successful club owner in Amsterdam, to help him steal money for his new production company. From the book's multiple points of view, it's soon clear that everyone's running their own scam, making conflicts--and long-awaited confrontations--inevitable.

Welsh's brutally honest prose and gallery of likeable ne'er-do-wells are in full display here, but the novel feels somewhat superfluous. Porno adds little insight into the characters or events of Trainspotting and fails to match its invention or sense of purpose. However, the author's obvious affection for these characters and dedication to authentically rendered dialogue and setting elevate Porno above mere slapdash reworking. As the novel builds momentum, Welsh wonderfully communicates the intense bravado driving his reckless characters. During such moments of vitality and humor, Porno is superficial but undeniably charming. --Ross Doll


From Publishers Weekly
The Trainspotting gang returns in a sequel to Welsh's cult novel, this time trying to scheme their way into the annals of adult entertainment. Ten years older, but criminally irresponsible as ever, Sick Boy, Renton, Begbie and Spud are still focusing on illicit drugs and seedy sex. Budding entrepreneur Sick Boy or Simon, as he prefers to be called now comes up with the brilliant idea of starting a porno flick company in Edinburgh, and hunts down Renton in Amsterdam, where his former friend owns a nightclub. With the help of Nikki Fuller-Smith, a ravishing and frustrated undergraduate film student and part-time sex worker aching for fame, the two begin filming and marketing their first movie, making it all the way to the top of the industry before the inevitable crash. Meanwhile, homicidal Begbie and pathetic Spud lurk in the background, waiting to crash the party. To boost the hormonal rush of the narrative, Welsh tells the story from different points of view, the thickness of the dialect varying convincingly from voice to voice (English Nikki quotes from Middlemarch, while the nearly incomprehensible Begbie says things like "Ah lits um go tae git the bat wi baith hands"). As has been noted many times, Welsh has an uncanny talent for dialogue, and his writing is often diamond sharp (a sexual encounter is described as "raging bull and mad cow get on board the love boat"). If this follow-up feels less urgent than the original, it is no reflection on Welsh, but rather on the growing familiarity of the terrain he has so inimitably staked out. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Those lads from Edinburgh are at it again. Yes, almost six years after Welsh's wildly popular Trainspotting appeared here, his characters return in Porno after playing subsidiary roles in last year's thick Glue. Here, things are looking up for Simon David Williamson ("Sick Boy"), who has inherited a pub in his native Edinburgh. He's also ready to break into the movies, specifically that branch identified as the "adult entertainment industry." For this purpose, he enlists the aid of Nicola Fuller-Smith, hoping that her hyphen will give a touch of class to the work-in-progress titled Seven Rides for Seven Brothers. The big issue is whether Simon will meet the psychotic Begbie, to whom he mails unsolicited gay porn in jail. Welsh's ear for dialectdoesn't fail him in this worthy successor, and his fans won't be disappointed. Dust off those Scottish-English dictionaries. For all larger public libraries.Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MOCopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Library Journal, 1 September 2002
Welsh's ear for dialect doesn't fail him in this worthy successor, and his fans won't be disappointed.


Evening Standard [London], Melanie McGrath
A worthy sequel.... Charming, funny and sly, Porno is a good poke at all kinds of pretence and moral tidiness.


Review
?The poet laureate of the chemical generation.? -- The Face

?Welsh writes with a skill, wit and compassion that amounts to genius. He is the best thing that has happened to British writing for decades.? -- Sunday Times

?A pure writer, producing staggering feats of storytelling? the skill of a master.? -- Independent


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Book Description
The Trainspotting lads are back...and in worse shape than ever. In the last gasp of youth, Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson is back in Edinburgh. He taps into one last great scam: directing and producing a porn film. To make it work, he needs bedfellows: the lovely Nikki Fuller-Smith, a student with ambition, ego, and troubles to rival his own; old pal Mark Renton; and a motley crew that includes the neighborhood's favorite ex-beverage salesman, "Juice" Terry. In the world of Porno, however, even the cons are conned. Sick Boy and Renton jockey for top dog. The out-of-jail and in-for-revenge Begbie is on the loose. But it's the hapless, drug-addled Spud who may be spreading the most trouble. Porno is a novel about the Trainspotting crew ten years further down the line: still scheming, still scamming, still fighting for the first-class seats as the train careens at high velocity with derailment looming around the next corner.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In the fag-end of his youth, Simon 'Sick Boy' Williamson is back in his native Edinburgh after a long spell in London. Having failed spectacularly as a hustler, pimp, husband, father and businessman, Sick Boy taps into an opportunity, which to him represents one last throw of the dice." "To enable this scam to work out, Sick Boy needs bedfellows. A desirable one may be the lovely Nikki Fuller-Smith, a young student with enough ambition, ego and troubles to rival his own. However, to realize his dream of directing and producing a pornographic movie, Sick Boy gets teamed up with old pal and fellow exile Mark Renton and a motley crew that includes the city's favourite ex-aerated-water salesman, 'Juice' Terry Lawson." In the world of Porno, however, nothing is straight-forward, as Sick Boy and Renton find out that they have unresolved issues to address, concerning the increasingly unhinged Frank Begbie, the troubled, drug-addled Spud, and, most of all, with each other.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New Yorker

In a wily "Big Chill" maneuver, Welsh brings back the cast of his iconic first novel, "Trainspotting," for a serially narrated Edinburgh reunion, but, though ten years have passed, none of these seedy characters have grown up at all. When pimping and pub proprietorship become a bore, Sick Boy and Renton turn their energies to the production of a porn film entitled "Seven Rides for Seven Brothers," in which they and their nearest and dearest play starring roles. Brawling, bonking, and Scots brogue aside, there's room for some solid satire -- of gentrification, globalization, and the hypocrisy of Britain's Labour Government. Surprisingly, the book's most convincing voice is that of its only female narrator, an ambitious Sick Girl, who takes on each man and somehow comes out a winner.

Book Magazine

After a few notable letdowns, Welsh springs back with a sequel to Trainspotting that recaptures some of the vitriol of its predecessor. Porno picks up ten years after Trainspotting ends, with Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson returning to his Scottish hometown in a half-hearted attempt to make good. Having traded in heroin addiction for occasional crack use, Sick Boy is seeking to revamp his image, but not before indulging in a final scam: making a porno film. With the help of a confused coed, Sick Boy will reunite the Trainspotting lads for one more go at the big time. A master of misanthropic humor, Welsh shows as much style and wit as ever. As he has in past novels, the author writes many chapters in the thick brogue of his working-class characters. It's a disorienting argot that at its most effective is almost musical. The book delivers what you would expect from a sequel to Trainspotting : more grime, more desperation, more violence and more black humor. But the book also finds Welsh striving for, and achieving, something more mature. Things here are only funny on the surface. These bruised-up characters become more complicated and sympathetic as the situations they find themselves in dissolve into tragedy. Author￯﾿ﾽKevin Greenberg

Book Magazine - Kevin Greenberg

After a few notable letdowns, Welsh springs back with a sequel to Trainspotting that recaptures some of the vitriol of its predecessor. Porno picks up ten years after Trainspotting ends, with Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson returning to his Scottish hometown in a half-hearted attempt to make good. Having traded in heroin addiction for occasional crack use, Sick Boy is seeking to revamp his image, but not before indulging in a final scam: making a porno film. With the help of a confused coed, Sick Boy will reunite the Trainspotting lads for one more go at the big time. A master of misanthropic humor, Welsh shows as much style and wit as ever. As he has in past novels, the author writes many chapters in the thick brogue of his working-class characters. It's a disorienting argot that at its most effective is almost musical. The book delivers what you would expect from a sequel to Trainspotting: more grime, more desperation, more violence and more black humor. But the book also finds Welsh striving for, and achieving, something more mature. Things here are only funny on the surface. These bruised-up characters become more complicated and sympathetic as the situations they find themselves in dissolve into tragedy.

Publishers Weekly

The Trainspotting gang returns in a sequel to Welsh's cult novel, this time trying to scheme their way into the annals of adult entertainment. Ten years older, but criminally irresponsible as ever, Sick Boy, Renton, Begbie and Spud are still focusing on illicit drugs and seedy sex. Budding entrepreneur Sick Boy or Simon, as he prefers to be called now comes up with the brilliant idea of starting a porno flick company in Edinburgh, and hunts down Renton in Amsterdam, where his former friend owns a nightclub. With the help of Nikki Fuller-Smith, a ravishing and frustrated undergraduate film student and part-time sex worker aching for fame, the two begin filming and marketing their first movie, making it all the way to the top of the industry before the inevitable crash. Meanwhile, homicidal Begbie and pathetic Spud lurk in the background, waiting to crash the party. To boost the hormonal rush of the narrative, Welsh tells the story from different points of view, the thickness of the dialect varying convincingly from voice to voice (English Nikki quotes from Middlemarch, while the nearly incomprehensible Begbie says things like "Ah lits um go tae git the bat wi baith hands"). As has been noted many times, Welsh has an uncanny talent for dialogue, and his writing is often diamond sharp (a sexual encounter is described as "raging bull and mad cow get on board the love boat"). If this follow-up feels less urgent than the original, it is no reflection on Welsh, but rather on the growing familiarity of the terrain he has so inimitably staked out. 10-city author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal