Our discussion of Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory
The official site: iainbanks.net
Iain Banks sprang to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984.Since then he has gained enormous and popular critical acclaim with further works of both fiction and science fiction, all of which are available in either Abacus or Orbit paperbacks.
The Guardian: "The word factory"
The relentlessly inventive mega-selling Scotsman has never feigned to suffer for his art. His latest turnaround time is slightly less staggering when considered in context - since his first, million-selling novel The Wasp Factory was published in 1984, he has settled into a routine of writing for a highly disciplined three months and taking the rest of the year off to pursue his perpetually adolescent interests in fast cars and fancy technology.
The Independent: "Iain Banks: The novel factory"
Banks is the Tarantino of the book world. In 1984 he became an overnight sensation when he published The Wasp Factory, the tale of a bored adolescent who murders three people, then amuses himself by mutilating animals. Short, violent and wilfully perverse, it divided the critics and became a cult classic.
After a five-year wait, The Steep Approach to Garbadale was published last month in the United Kingdom. Following are links to reviews of Banks's lastest novel...
Scotland on Sunday: "The Steep Approach To Garbadale"
So how is the ageing enfant terrible actually doing? On the surface, brilliantly. Whether writing science fiction or literary novels Banks commands sales and reviews that would turn other writers puce with rage, and carries the whole thing off as a kind of joke. But there are also signs that the extraordinary writing trajectory which began with The Wasp Factory (another dysfunctional family with dark secrets) in 1984 is faltering.
Telegraph: "A story of board games and family memories"
The Steep Approach to Garbadale is as good as anything Banks has ever written, if not better. It is the story of a young man's getting of wisdom, an oblique but observant history of Britain from the 1980s to the present day, and a great game of consequences. And he never does let on that 'spraint' is the word for otter dung.
The Australian: "The Steep Approach to Garbadale"
No reader of Iain Banks's first novel, The Wasp Factory, has come away from it unscathed. The story of Frank Cauldhame, disturbed teenage founder of a private religion practised with murderous consequences in an isolated Scottish community, may suggest precursors -- elements of adolescent atavism lifted from William Golding's Lord of the Flies and a pervading atmosphere of sexual disgust that owes something to early Ian McEwan -- but the book's deadpan horror and casual nihilism unfold with a power that is Banks's alone. It remains, almost 25 years after publication, one of the best novels by any postwar Scottish author.
