Ecstasy

The Book

The book is made up of three short stories. The first two are reminiscent to me of Will Self, as they are grotesque and humourous with lots of bad language.
The first involves a cheating husband, who's wife is a famous romance novelist. It incorporates some of her writing into the text, which helps to break up the story and provide some alternative style. The romantic novel turns into a similar sordid tale of sheep shagging, however, once the writer discovers her husband's infidelity. It also features necrophilia at a hospital, which plays into a rather just deserts denoument.
The second involves the bitter retribution of a limbless couple over the drugs manufacturers and agents who caused their condition - in an eye for an eye, arms for arms type of way.
I am guessing, not having seen the film yet, that both these stories have been jettisoned, as they would have been totally unpresentable as cinema!

Unfortunately, however, this leaves the third story, which is pretty bland and bog standard compared to what has gone before. A couple break-up due to their mid-life incompatibility and she, Heather, re-discovers fun through recreational drugs and night clubbing. Meanwhile a permanent feature of the weekend night life and one night stands, Lloyd, meets Heather and falls in love. But can love continue to grow or is it only when they are in a chemical-enduced loved-up state? The drug and house-music lifestyle is portrayed as a quick-fix shallow way of living and many of the characters are permanently manipulating their moods via drugs like some Brave New World that the body struggles to survive through.

The Film

The film has a few clever touches - I liked the early scene of two people having sex but both with their own earbuds in listening to different music and only taking them out when finished, showing a complete lack of interest in anything but the senses - but doesn't really travel very far in its 90 minutes. There are some nice views of Edinburgh and a lot of clubbing. The characters are pretty one dimensional and any sense of threat or danger due to drug trafficking is mishandled and falls flat. In Trainspotting we were given the harsh and shocking effects that heroin addiction could cause, but in Ecstasy, taking E is portrayed as fairly harmless and run of the mill - Woodsy ends up in hospital but its more his freedom of speech which causes his movement to a secure unit rather than drug side effects.  In the end Lloyd chooses love (choose life) rather than drugs and alcohol, and gets the beautiful Kristin Kreuk. If only all AA meetings had the same reward...

If you enjoyed the film, see Trainspotting (1996) or Human Traffic (1999)

If you enjoyed the book, try Grey Area or Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys by Will Self

The soundtrack to Ecstasy is a great playlist of club music and recommended to listen to whilst reading the story.