A decade after Trainspotting, Simon David Williamson (AKA Sick Boy) has to make another move. Reaching his mid-thirties, and with child support, failed scams and dealings grinding him down, he decides to try for one more throw of the dice back in his home town of Edinburgh, to direct the next great porn film.
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Helping him along the way is Nikki, a bulimic and highly cynical mid-twenties student, desperate for validation by the mass media, and 'Juice' Terry Lawson, a character from Welsh's other works, just as morally questionable as Williamson himself.
But game changes with the arrival of more familiar faces. Released from Prison after a spell for assault, Francis Begbie is out to settle some old scores, and Mark Renton, hiding out comfortably in Amsterdam,is drawn back into the Edinburgh scene when word gets round of his successful nightclub.
Will Sick Boy make his film, and get his overdue money back from Renton? And what will happen when Begbie learns of Rentons presence in Edinburgh? All this, along with the harmless 'Spud' Danny Murphy's efforts to better himself, will be revealed in Welsh's spirited conclusion to the saga.
Best part of story, including ending:
It is a darkly comic fable about the dangers of greed and excess, much like its predecessor Trainspotting. I like its analogies of capitalism and the sex industry itself, and Williamson's seminal "We love to watch people get fucked" speech.
Best scene in story:
The scene in which Williamson attacks Renton in his nightclub office is both exciting and touching as it reunites the characters, despite Williamson's seething hatred of Renton due to Rentons betrayal ten years previously.
Opinion about the main character:
I dislike his arrogance and the way he uses women. He claims to have a kind of Nietzchean moralist as well as a pragmatism, but I think it is just plain cynicism. For example, he hangs up the phone on one of his oldest friends, with the intention of never speaking to him again, after he realises that he can be of no use to him financially.