The Wasp Factory

Rating:
Summary: You could fit an Alsatian in there!
Review: Banks is a literary master. His books are filled with incredible language, humor, suspense and detail. THE WASP FACTORY, narrated by teenaged Frank, is a surreal journey through the mind of a very disturbed boy in an even more disturbed family. Frank tells us of the gruesome measures he has taken to protect the island which he calls home. He also talks about the series of murders he has commmitted, his reserved, eccentric father, his friend, Jamie, the dwarf, and his revered but completely insane older brother Eric. It seems that Eric has escaped the hospital and is making his way back to the family home. We get glimpses into Eric's psyche through phone calls he periodically places to his younger brother.
I know that this novel originally met with a great deal of controversy. It actually seems rather tame in comparison to other slasher/gore novels. However, it is immensely disturbing to read as Frank gets closer and closer to discovering his true self just as Eric gets closer and closer to home. You'll find animal torture and killing in this one. The wasp factory itself is an amazing bit of literary creation; Banks is either warped or a genius (or a warped genius) to have invented this contraption! I liked reading this one. It is at times sad, unsettling, hilarious, numbing....a jumble of emotions to go along with the images and experiences of these characters. If you only know Banks for his science fiction, this is definitely worth checking out. If you haven't read Banks at all, stop depriving yourself of an incredibly talented author!

Rating:
Summary: Controversial but nonetheless completely gripping horror
Review: Before reading The Wasp Factory pretty much all that I knew of it was the controversy that surrounded the novel upon its release. Whilst a lot of the book has to do with this controversy, it's definitely unfair to say that this is all Banks has to offer with his debut novel. Telling the tale of 16 year-old Frank who, living with his father on a remote Scottish island, has already murdered 3 people and seems obssessed by The Factory, that determines his action.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the novel, and probably what offended so many people, is the light-hearted comical view of the horrors that surround the protagonist. As Frank relates how he murdered his relations in startlingly original and unexpectated way, he does so in such a blasé fashion it's almost as if he's reading out a grocery list. Consequently it seems strange that what in the end lightens the horror of murders of young children in an obviously ironic fashion should prove so offensive. Still, that certainly doesn't mean that there aren't several incredibly disturbing scenes which definitely rate among the most horrific things I've ever read before. In particular, the circumstances that dictate Frank's elder brother Eric's madness are absolutely horrific and fairly difficult to read due to the extreme content of it.

Already a cult novel it's obvious to see why The Wasp Factory has garnered so much acclaim, in particular due to the shock ending that makes a warped kind of sense in it's over-the-top fashion but will still cause your eyes to open even wider than they were whilst you were busy reading the rest of the book.

Rating:
Summary: A daring read.
Review: Even as a fan of Irvine Welsh, I found this book in some places stepping a little over the line of what I comfortably read. That said, from the first page, I was captivated. At no stage was I left in the dark as to how the main character was feeling. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, the twist in this story ripped it all to pieces.

Dont be fooled by the number of pages in this book. It delivers!

Rating:
Summary: A truly twisted beauty
Review: I bought this back in the '80s because the blurb on the back jacket (readable on this site) fascinated me. It remains among my favourite psychological horror books , possessing one of the - if not THE - absolutely best endings I've ever encountered. From the first time I completed it, I could memorise the exact wording of the last paragraph, and still can to date. A brilliant walk inside the mind of a most highly unusual character, it's tightly plotted and very deftly written. I'm not a huge fan of Iain Banks in general, although I certainly acknowledge that he's a great writer. It's just that the particular topic of this book particularly appealed to me. It's a quick read if not necessarily 'easy', as such, but it's totally engrossing and truly original. One of the best first novels I've come across, and I recommend it very highly. It's very difficult to describe the contents without giving anything away, and I still think the back-jacket blurb does it best. Fascinating stuff.

Rating:
Summary: HORRIFYING -- FASCINATING -- COMPELLING
Review: The reader might note that, as I enter the fray with my own comments about this controversial novel, there are, below mine, 77 other reviews posted. All of this for a book that many people have never heard of -- one that has obviously stirred radically conflicting feelings and opinions amongst its readers, and which has been both lauded as genius and derided as drivel by its critics. The same could be said of many works that have retained their character and individuality -- and their ability to stir controversy -- for many years after they first appeared.

To state the inescapable conclusion: this book is definitely not everyone's cup of tea. That being said, I think it's also safe to say that, once read, it will never be forgotten.

Iain Banks has produced here, like it or not (and there are few opinions that inhabit the no-man's land between these two extremes), a little masterpiece of psychological horror, and a pretty compellingly-told mystery as well. Even if, as some reviewers maintain, the ending is not a surprise, this novel is still a firghtening, vivid read -- a look into a mind that is twisted (from within and without) to the breaking point, with hell to pay for almost everyone in the general vicinity of the young Frank Cauldhame, Banks' unforgettable protagonist with the very appropriate surname.

Take Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES, Burgess' A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, McGrath's SPIDER, Russell Banks' RULE OF THE BONE -- and any other well-written portrait of alienated and abused youth, and you might have the beginnings of Iain Banks' disturbingly maladjusted Frank, playing out his fantasies of just deserts in his head and in his world. There is unimaginable cruelty at work here -- on and by the youngster at the center of this literary maelstrom. The pace of the story is never rushed, but the reader is incresingly unable to put the book down as it travels unflinchingly to its climax.

Love it or leave it -- it will return to haunt you again and again.

Rating:
Summary: Rubbish? No, but not brilliant, either.
Review: This book was recommended to me by a friend, who said he loved its wicked sense of humor. Named one of the best 100 novels of the last century by The Independent, "The Wasp Factory" certainly seems to have a strong cult following, as most of the highly favorable reviews here attest, but I find all this rather baffling. While not by any means a terrible book, Iain Banks's first novel is simply too messy and amateurish to qualify as a great novel. First of all, enjoying this book requires that one have a high tolerance for detailed descriptions of cruelty to animals, including the mutilation and immolation of many rabbits and dogs. Some of the violence in the book is actually quite funny, and can be enjoyed on a certain macabre level -- such as the narrator's description of an uncle's suicide gone terribly wrong -- but most of it is simply too dark and literally described to be laughable. It often seems that Banks is trying to shock without really thinking of the larger implications of any of the book's violence. While I read "The Wasp Factory," I kept hoping for a denouement that would tie everything together and create a resonance that the bulk of the novel lacked. Unfortunately, all I got was a transparent twist that lent nothing to the events that had preceded it, and seemed designed only to shock. In truth, the novel's twist is no more profound than the climax of the slasher film "Sleepaway Camp." I got the feeling that Banks really felt he was creating something on the level of an O. Henry story, but what he ended up with is a book that reads like a juvenile poison pen letter to all of humanity, and little more.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing...not for the faint of heart
Review: This is the first book by Iain Banks and the only one I've read. It is graphically violent and disgustingly twisted. It describes murders of young children and torture of small animals. And in all of this it manages to be a very captivating novel with an air of mystery that only resovles itself at the end of the book. Narrated by a psychopathic 16 year old boy, Banks takes the reader on a tour of a family with a psychotic past, a town where no one's dog is ever safe, and the mind of a killer. In the final chapters, the book switches it's focus, and the lines are blurred between victim and torturer. Because of the graphic descriptions of terrible acts (massacre of a group of rabbits, burning of dogs, the sight that drove Eric crazy) 'The Wasp Factory is not for everyone. But if you can wade through the blood and stomach the descriptions, you will end up with a story that will disturb and shake up your beliefs.