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The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (view source)
Revision as of 13:12, 29 September 2020
, 13:12, 29 September 2020no edit summary
{{infoboxsortinfobox1
|title=The Wasp Factory
|sort=Wasp Factory
|buy=No
|borrow=Yes
|pages=256
|publisher=Abacus
|date=April 1, 1992
|isbn=0349101779
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>0349101779</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=0349101779|aznus=<amazonus>0349101779</amazonus>
}}
Frank, a physically deformed young man in his mid-teens, lives with his father - an eccentric man to say the least - on a remote Scottish island. Frank is not your run-of-the mill adolescent; he announces from the outset that he is a three times familial murderer with the throwaway line, "it was just a stage I was going through". Frank's distasteful personal habits and strange, obsessive daily routines are gruesome yet hilarious in the darkest kind of way. As his father hides away in his study, up to no good, Frank embarks upon military campaigns against rabbits and sacrifices wasps in his own warped version of the Delphi Oracle, The Wasp Factory. Tension rises as Frank waits for Eric, his older brother. Eric is a charming chap who has taken to setting fire to dogs. He has escaped from a secure mental hospital and is on his way home. Given Frank's own weird, fetishistic existence, this is an extremely worrying prospect...
Taken out of its political time and place, The Wasp Factory suffers a little. The Grocer's Daughter is gone and today the book's readers lack a target for all this venom. Without this relevance, its effect is reduced, and somewhat blunted. Some of it seems just plain sick. And without the background, the book's cult status seems somewhat undeserved. It is a funny, rude tale about unpleasant, peculiar people, but to a noughties audience I would imagine that it sounds like a hollow vessel making an awful lot of rather pointless noise. However, what is left is still technically good and has that energy and vitality so often associated with first novels. It does have flaws and it is a bit rough round the edges, but it makes up for this lack of polish with an unmistakable enthusiasm for the task.
I guess ultimately, The Wasp Factory is a kind of extended Tales of the Unexpected with an added Shock Your Granny factor. As such, it will appeal probably more to the young. It is certainly a step up from those other yoof cult classics, [[''The Dice Man]] '' and [[''American Psycho]] '' (why does anyone like these two books? They are both dreadful) but, in retrospect, it is not as good as its contemporary "competitor" and other first novel, [[''The Cement Garden]] '' by Ian McEwan. Neither, despite its shock value, is it as good as many of Banks' later works. Of those, I would recommend you to start with [[''Espedair Street]]''.
The Wasp Factory is rude. It is twisted. It is funny. It is not for the fainthearted. It probably isn't the cult classic its reputation would have you believe, but it is worth reading, if only for the embarrassed, squirming, guilty giggles. We also have a review of [[The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks]]. You might also appreciate [[Tomas by James Palumbo]] or [[The Holy City by Patrick McCabe]].
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{{commenthead}}
|name=lhine
|verb=said
|comment= Years since I read this but it sounds right. I remember it as brilliant black humour, not your average read but if you are not easily offended you will enjoy it.
}}
{{comment
|name=Jacquie Longden
|verb=said
|comment= I also read it as a teenager in the 80's and actually bought it again and re read it about 2 years ago as I remembered it as such a good read.
Agree with the reviewer - but the brilliant thing the Wasp Factory did for me, was set me up with an appetite to read other of Iain Banks' books - which I thoroughly enjoyed too!
Jacquie
}}
{{comment
|name=Rick
|verb= said
|comment=Being an American and in my 30's during the Thatcher - Reagan years, I can appreciate Jill Murphy's opinion on time and place. However, this is still a stellar first published novel. Being a voracious reader all my life, I cannot recall a fictional book that I had to put away at times, just to digest the content. It is both shocking, creepy in a strange way, quite disturbing, and extremely well written for a young writer.
Being an Iain M. Banks fan of his Culture series for many years, I'm glad to have found this in my local library. The literary world will miss Iain's contributions.
Rick
}}