Iain Banks (1) (1954–2013)

The Wasp Factory is Iain Banks' first published novel, and is a doozy. I read it half a dozen years ago for the first time, and was stunned and enthralled. Knowing what was going to happen this time dulled the sparkle a little, but I remain convinced that it's an important book, and has had much influence upon psychological fiction/horror.

Frank is a 17-year old, rabidly insane, a young man who killed three children before he was ten years old. He dismisses this crimes as a stage he was going through. Frank and his none-too-normal father live on a tidal island in Scotland that looks out on the North Sea. I think one of the more interesting things about the novel is that Frank's birth was never registered. He doesn't exist. His father has taken great pains to keep the authorities from discovering his non-personhood. I think the whole idea of Frank not existing in the law's eyes is a way of drawing attention to the little heed that is paid Frank's crimes, his drunken escapades, and most of all, his big brother, who has just escaped from a mental institution.

I have no way of describing how troubled this book has made me, or how much I worry about authors who can write about madness with this sort of conviction. It's a novel I recommend, but which I do with warnings that there is gory violence, madness, shamanistic ritual which may offend some readers, and some devastating truths ferreted out by the end of the novel. It is certainly a book that no reader will ever forget, for good or ill.… (more)

Disturbing, genial novel narrated by the most unpleasant narrator character ever created, after Humbert Humbert and the guy in American Psycho. I was looking, in my deep ignorance, for some brain chewingum. I was given brain food, hard and chewy, but definitely nutritious, and divinely tasty.
Years after reading it, I still don't know what to do of this story. The plot, if I were to summarise it, would sound so improbable to become ridiculous. Yet, the psychology behind it is so punctual and realistic that, by the end of the novel, all seems perfectly fitting. Fitting by the point of view of a psychotic, murderous teenager whose last problem is the habit of torturing wasps. In the end of the day, he just does it in search of spiritual answers to the nonsensical world around him. You could not say better of the habits of most religious leaders.
A novel of devious survival to a horrible childhood. Coming of age, yes. Into what?… (more)

My first Scottish book. Sadly, not good. The setting and characters definitely worked. However, the entire story is dull and worthless. Another one of those "waiting" stories. The main character does a bunch of similar random tasks all day, but nothing happens. The last third of the book clarifies that the only thing that is really important is that the brother is coming. Is that sufficient for the story? Absolutely not. I would recommend someone abridging the book down to a very short, 20-page story. It still would not be very good, but short stories generally do not have that requirement.
Will still read an Iain Banks science-fiction book, because they are highly recommend.… (more)