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The Crow Road [Paperback]

Iain Banks (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)

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The Crow Road The Crow Road 4.1 out of 5 stars (81)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 22 April 1993

From its bravura opening onwards, THE CROW ROAD is justly regarded as an outstanding contemporary novel.

'It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.'

Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Full of questions about the McHoan past, present and future, he is also deeply preoccupied: mainly with death, sex, drink, God and illegal substances...

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Product details

  • Paperback: 512 pages
  • Publisher: Abacus; New Ed edition (22 April 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0349103232
  • ISBN-13: 978-0349103235
  • Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 19.8 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

Banks has woven a warm and funny story, rich with characters and adventures. An utterly enchanting piece of fiction...it marks a return to his brilliant best. NEW WOMAN (This is Bank s’ finest novel yet. INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )

Hip and sexy humour....Bank reinforces his credentials as one of the most able, energetic and stimulating writers we have in the UK. TIME OUT (The Crow Road is tight with detail and closer observation and creates a strong sense of a particular period of growing up. THE INDEPENDENT )

Magic is the book's keynote. It echoes in descriptions of evolution that pass from the factual to the elegiac and on the mythical. It calls most insistently when intensity - of love, lust or grief - burst through limited expectations or circumstances to release poetry. THE TIMES (Banks keeps death in its place, under the boot of wit which knows that the most significant romance can blossom whilst your youngest brother is up to the elbow in Sugar Smacks looking for the plastic toy. OBSERVER )

The tense horror of the book...is done with considerable imaginative subtlety and a fine touch....This is as fine and ambitious a novel as any from a Scottish writer since the 1960s. It is also unquestionable Bank's best work to date. NEW STATESMAN (A magnificent, rambling family saga…his best novel yet. FOR HIM )

Book Description

Paperback reissue of Iain Banks' masterly novel THE CROW ROAD
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First Sentence
It was the day my grandmother exploded. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars It was the day my grandmother exploded. 11 May 2010
By Alessandra F.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Prentice is a 22-year-old student in Glasgow, just back to his own little town of Gallanach for his grandmother's funeral. It's mostly through his eyes that we're introduced to the McHoan's family, as well as all the other funny characters that people this book. It can maybe take a while in the beginning not to get lost among all their names, not to speak about the many flashbacks that Banks uses to unfold his plot, but it's all worth the effort. Little by little you'll start putting together all the pieces in the story of the McHoan's clan, until the moment you'll find out its deepest secret... "The Crow Road" is a really entertaining book, well written and really funny most of the time. I suppose when you start a book with a sentence like "It was the day my grandmother exploded", you're really setting the tone for the entire book!

For the most curious of you, I leave you with a passage I particularly enjoyed...

"People can be teachers and idiots; they can be philosophers and idiots; they can be politicians and idiots... in fact I think they have to be... a genious can be an idiot. The world is largely run for and by idiots; it is no great handicap in life and in certain areas is actually a distinct advantage and even a prerequisite for advancement".
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37 of 41 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Magnum Opus 29 Aug 2006
By J.R.Hartley VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
Not just Iain Banks' biggest book, but his best in my opinion. This sprawling tale of dark family secrets and unrequited love is a modern classic and highlights Banks' talent for characterisation and believable cringeworthy situations. His heroes are never without their flaws and never lose their ability to strike a chord with the reader and such is the case with the sardonic, smart alec Prentice.

Iain Banks books are always easy to read but this one requires a tad more discipline than his others as it's not always immediately obvious which of the many characters is narrating each chapter. However, the book flows beautifully and builds to a magnificent and unexpected climax.

A great read for confirmed Banks fans and the unitiated alike who wish to indulge themselves in a great read. Hats off, Mr Banks.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Hoots mon! 2 July 2010
By Irwin Winterchest
Format:Paperback
A first foray into the world of Iain Banks for me and, whilst the story gripped and the language sparkled, by the end I was just a little disappointed. It seemed to me that the novel couldn't decide whether it was a family saga, a murder mystery or a tartan clad bildungsroman, and while all these elements were enjoyable and well written, they never quite gelled into a completely satisfying novel. I think I would have enjoyed hearing less from Prentice and more from Kenneth, exploding Granny McHoan, Fergus and Uncle Rory. And for a novel that toys interestingly with the line between fiction and reality I was expecting more ambiguity by the end as opposed to the rather conventional conclusion that Banks delivers. I'd also gripe that the female characters remained vague and a touch lifeless and that the plot rests on an excessively massive coincidence.

But I'm moaning too much about a book which kept me entertained and made me think for all of its 400 odd pages.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The best first line ever. 9 Jun 2013
By Jason
Format:Paperback
RIP Iain Banks. You are my favourite author, of contemporary and science fiction. The Crow Road has the ultimate first line of any book I have ever read, and the Wasp Factory should come with the last line sealed in an envelope to stop anyone from peeking. Against a Dark Background is just stunning and now we will just have to imagine what the Culture is getting up to.

Not everything you wrote was perfect, and I only have a few of your books left to read. Now I need to find someone who can explain The Bridge to me.
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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest British novels of the 1990s 18 Sep 2000
By Al Kitching
Format:Paperback
Banks is a pretty honest fellow. As a writer he doesn't consciously set out to make his heros and heroines 'good', infact he certainly packs them with faults and foibles. A bit like real people in fact. Prentice is the same, and he's all the more enjoyable to listen to for it. "The Crow Road" is supremely enjoyable and, as has been said already, works in every way, delivering what you want out of it. When I first read it it spoke to me about the confusions of leaving your teenage years behind and the need to mature. Now, it's a rattling good murder mystery with some rather scathing politico dialogue thrown in. But there's more in the mix and you'd have to find it out for yourself.

When Banks signed my battered old copy a couple of years back he smiled at the state of the cracked and dog-eared and well-thumbed book, then he wrote "Ha!" on the last page which, if you've read it, you'll understand.

Love it.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars THE CROW ROAD 29 April 2013
By J.E.REYNOLDS
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found the going backward and forward in time confusing and the relationship between the characters also hard to follow. The ending of the book almost Gilbertian. It took me almost hundred pages to identify all the characters. Most of the humour excellent. Still an enjoyable read.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Enter the world of Prentice McHoan 21 Jun 2009
By Victoriana_Mad
Format:Paperback
This is only the second Iain Banks novel that I have read, the first being The Wasp Factory. Consequently, I really wasn't sure what to expect - would this be similarly dark and psychological? In some ways, yes, but essentially it is a sweeping family saga, crossing three (and almost four) generations. Despite the interweaving threads and movements back and forwards in time, Iain Banks' writing makes the story easy to follow. This is partly due to the strongly drawn characters; each is distinctive and memorable without resorting to caricature. What I loved most was the shifts between comedy, pathos, tragedy and suspense, all carefully orchestrated and never jarring. For me, it was a book that totally drew me in and I thoroughly looked forward to escaping into it on my commute to and from work each day.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping from start to end
This was my first book of Banks I have had the pleasure of reading and it will not be the last. He writes so well at times you are there with the characters. Read more
Published 4 days ago by ascu75
2.0 out of 5 stars The Crow Road
Too long, too boring. Sick of weveryone jumping into bed every five minutes -- and there seemed oittle point to it.
Published 17 days ago by F. Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb
So much to absorb. I could start at the beginning again and enjoy it all the more second time round I suspect. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs MS Smith
1.0 out of 5 stars Boring!!!
I gave up 37% of the way through. The book is written out of sequence which is fine , except it doesnt tell you what time period you are in. Read more
Published 1 month ago by queenb
4.0 out of 5 stars a really good read.
Loved the way the story unfolded as it went on.
So many lovely descriptive parts and, of course, great humour too!
Published 1 month ago by annie
2.0 out of 5 stars Poor quality
Item quality not as described in original listing - very poor
Feel that the item was mis-represented and disappointed in purchase
Published 2 months ago by Pootle79
5.0 out of 5 stars It was the day my grandmother exploded..
I bought this on kindle to re-read while deciding my favourite book for desert island discs. It does not disappoint with re-reading. A great story excellently told.
Published 2 months ago by sandy
2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been so much better with a proper structure
A good plot and characters ruined by tediously self-indulgent sequencing which randomly jumps between past and present throughout, with no real benefit. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Brochaholic
2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing
I thought the author jumped from the present to the recent past to the extreme past too many times and he did not make it apparent early enough which time zone he was in. Read more
Published 4 months ago by ANNE GIBSON
4.0 out of 5 stars I came to this late
so I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I would have if I had read it without having read later books like "The steep approach to Garbadale" or even "Stonemouth". Read more
Published 5 months ago by Bobgates
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