The Wasp Factory: Ian Banks

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Frank has done something that most people never do in their lifetimes. In fact, he has done it three times. Don’t worry, you’d probably be perfectly safe quaffing down a beer with Frank or hanging out and watching TV with him because…in his own words…. For the first time ever (in the history of my reading life) I would understand completely any rating for this book. I thought long and hard and for me it was a strong three star that could have been a four star but wasn't for a number of factors. Diggs, the policeman from the town, was coming down the path on his bike, pedalling hard, his head down as the wheels sank part way into the sandy surface. He got off the bike at the bridge and left it propped against the suspension cables, then walked to the middle of the swaying bridge, where the gate is. I could see him press the button on the phone. He stood for a while, looking round about at the quiet dunes and the settling birds. He didn't see me, because I was too well hidden. Then my father must have answered the buzzer in the house, because Diggs stooped slightly and talked into the grille beside the button, and then pushed the gate open and walked over the bridge, on to the island and down the path towards the house. When he disappeared behind the dunes I sat for a while, scratching my crotch as the wind played with my hair and the birds returned to their nests.

In 2010 Banks publicly joined the cultural boycott of Israel, refusing to allow his novels to be sold in the country. He was a frequent signatory of letters of protest to the Guardian and a name recruited to causes of which he approved, from secular humanism to the legalising of assisted suicide to the preservation of public libraries. Banks himself was a self-declared "evangelical atheist" and a man of decided political views, often expressed with humorous exasperation and sometimes requiring ripe language. He relished his public status as no-nonsense voice of a common-sense socialism that had an increasingly nationalistic tint. Unfortunately, Iain Banks died too young at age 59, but his books will be read for generations and maybe this one will be read even longer than that. Kennedy, AL; Galloway, Janice (28 August 2011). "Scotland and England: what future for the Union? | Culture | The Observer". The Guardian. London . Retrieved 4 September 2011.

Short stories to keep

The book sold well, but was greeted with a mixture of acclaim and criticism, due to its gruesome depiction of violence. The Irish Times called it "a work of unparalleled depravity." [2] Plot [ edit ] Caroti, Simone (26 July 2018). The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks: A Critical Introduction. McFarland. p.24. ISBN 978-1-4766-2040-4– via Google Books. In 1992 Malcolm Sutherland adapted the novel for the stage. The production was performed at the Glasgow Citizen's Theatre. It was revived in 1997 and shown in Yorkshire and London. [6]

Well, on the pro side, the language is simplistic, the plot is absurd, and it is short, so I think it caters to young adults with a short attention span and an obsession for violence in different drastic forms!" From 2007 Banks lived in North Queensferry on the north side of the Firth of Forth, with his girlfriend Adele Hartley, an author and founder of the Dead by Dawn film festival. [31] She and Banks had been friends since the early 1990s, [31] but commenced romantic relations in 2006 and married on 29 March 2013 [47] after he asked her to "do me the honour of becoming my widow." [6] [48] Illness and death [ edit ] Paul Cornell (1 March 2009). "The State of the Art". PaulCornell.com. Google, Inc. Archived from the original on 13 April 2013 . Retrieved 6 April 2013. Empire Games, the seventh book in The Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross published in 2017, is dedicated "For Iain M. Banks, who painted a picture of a better way." [65] Hamish Macdonell (24 November 2012). "Radicals threaten Salmond and Scottish independence campaign". The Independent . Retrieved 25 February 2014.The next year's novel, The Bridge, featured three separate stories told in different styles: one a realist narrative about Alex, a manager in an engineering company, who crashes his car on the Forth road bridge; another the story of John Orr, an amnesiac living on a city-sized version of the bridge; and a third, the first-person narrative of the Barbarian, retelling myths and legends in colloquial Scots. In combining fantasy and allegory with minutely located naturalistic narrative, it was clearly influenced by Alasdair Gray's Lanark (1981). It remained the author's own avowed favourite. Beauchamp, Scott (16 January 2013). " 'The Future Might Be a Hoot': How Iain M. Banks Imagines Utopia". theatlantic.com. a b "BBC News – Five Minutes With: Iain M Banks". Bbc.co.uk. 3 November 2012 . Retrieved 9 April 2013.

a b "Iain Banks". British Council. Archived from the original on 26 September 2012 . Retrieved 3 April 2013.

What height is this table?' he said suddenly, just as I was about to go to the breadbin for a slice to wipe my plate with. I turned round and looked at him, wondering why he was bothering with such an easy question. Stonemouth (2012). London: Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN 978-1-4087-0250-5. Adapted for BBC TV for broadcast in 2015 (directed by Charles Martin.) [82] So yes, this book is strong meat. It's got deeply twisted characters enacting their damage before us, the safely removed audience. It's making a serious point about human nature. And it's doing all of that in quite beautifully wrought prose, without so much as one wasted word. Is there an echo on this line or are you saying everything twice?' I said. I could recognise Eric's voice.