- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown; New edition edition (5 July 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316858560
- ISBN-13: 978-0316858564
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (155 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 413,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Wasp Factory
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Product Description
Review
One of the most brilliant first novels I have come across. (DAILY TELEGRAPH )
Read it if you dare. (DAILY Express )
A brilliant book, barmy and barnacled with the grotesque. (New Statesman )
A Gothic horror story of quite exceptional quality...macabre, bizarre and...quite impossible to put down (FINANCIAL TIMES )
Read it if you dare. (DAILY Express )
A brilliant book, barmy and barnacled with the grotesque. (New Statesman )
A Gothic horror story of quite exceptional quality...macabre, bizarre and...quite impossible to put down (FINANCIAL TIMES )
MAIL ON SUNDAY
* 'A mighty imagination has arrived on the scene'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
53 of 57 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first read this book about 8 years ago and have since read it several times as the brilliance and originality of it make it a rewarding read. That's not to say it's a happy book because it most certainly isn't. The Wasp Factory is a darkly twisted first person narrative of Frank, a profoundly disturbed teenager whose principle sources of entertainment are torturing animals and bumping off unwanted cousins. And we're not just talking about incinerating ants with a magnifying glass or a bread knife in the back, we are talking DIY flamethrowers, bombs, kites, snake venom and The Wasp Factory - a device of psychopathic genius.
I've never read another book like this and to be honest I'm not sure I want to. Frank's simple yet warped logic is brilliantly explained by the author and gives the reader a new way of seeing the world and seeing connections between seemingly unconnected events that were never obvious before until you've taken a trip in Frank's mind.
Banks isn't renowned for subtlety and that charge could be made here but that would be to miss the subtle way the book builds to a climax as Frank's mentally ill brother makes his way home to an explosive endgame after escaping from the secure hospital where he is detained.
The Wasp Factory is darkly comic, truly horrifying and well-paced, but most of all it's expertly written and you'll just want to read more and more. Well, that is if the battle with the rabbits near the beginning doesn't put you off. I'd say read it if you dare but don't say I didn't warn you.
I've never read another book like this and to be honest I'm not sure I want to. Frank's simple yet warped logic is brilliantly explained by the author and gives the reader a new way of seeing the world and seeing connections between seemingly unconnected events that were never obvious before until you've taken a trip in Frank's mind.
Banks isn't renowned for subtlety and that charge could be made here but that would be to miss the subtle way the book builds to a climax as Frank's mentally ill brother makes his way home to an explosive endgame after escaping from the secure hospital where he is detained.
The Wasp Factory is darkly comic, truly horrifying and well-paced, but most of all it's expertly written and you'll just want to read more and more. Well, that is if the battle with the rabbits near the beginning doesn't put you off. I'd say read it if you dare but don't say I didn't warn you.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's a horror story but doesn't rely just on the blood and guts to shock. There's a heavy psychological aspect to this book. What amazed me is that it's Banks' first, and shows the difference between a developing skill and sheer writing ability that makes the rest of us puke with jealousy.
Writing in the first person like we're all told never to do, Banks creates this remote world where the central character, clearly rather unhinged, spends his insular life committing brutalities towards animals. It seems important, and the only thing that isn't met with disdain and suspicion.
His disjointed life in remote Scotland has centred around this and three successful, pointless murders he's acheived.
Banks creats the character excellently and builds their world and their mindset in clear demonstration. Personally I equate deliberate cruelty to animals with perversion, but identified well with Frank despite his actions. Banks makes it a page turner, he brings every expression and event to life, and it's a thoroughly enjoyable tale.
A massive twist at the end, I didn't see it coming, some readers do. The sickness runs right through this book. It seems to me the product of a sick and depraved mind, who also happens to be a genius.
Writing in the first person like we're all told never to do, Banks creates this remote world where the central character, clearly rather unhinged, spends his insular life committing brutalities towards animals. It seems important, and the only thing that isn't met with disdain and suspicion.
His disjointed life in remote Scotland has centred around this and three successful, pointless murders he's acheived.
Banks creats the character excellently and builds their world and their mindset in clear demonstration. Personally I equate deliberate cruelty to animals with perversion, but identified well with Frank despite his actions. Banks makes it a page turner, he brings every expression and event to life, and it's a thoroughly enjoyable tale.
A massive twist at the end, I didn't see it coming, some readers do. The sickness runs right through this book. It seems to me the product of a sick and depraved mind, who also happens to be a genius.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is difficult to generically pigeonhole Iain Banks' debut `The Wasp Factory'. Such labels as `horror', `satire' or `bildungsroman' are inadequate and fail to appreciate the full extent of the novel's dark aesthetic. It has even been slapped with the blanket identifier `Edinburgh Gothic'; a wholly naive and facile attempt to describe a disparate collection of Scottish writings. However, the less specific term `modern gothic' falls somewhat close to the mark in describing this violent, gruesome and darkly comic story.
`The Wasp Factory' seems to be a blatant and total attack upon a romanticised artistic vision of Scotland (as might be found, for example, in the work of Walter Scott). The novel's narrator is Frank, a sixteen-year-old serial killer who lives alone with his father on a remote island off the Scottish coast. Perhaps in an attempt to extricate himself from a national cliché, Banks has Frank construct, in miniature, tranquil scenes representing an idealised, peaceful Scotland, and then destroy them with controlled floods and explosions. Frank is king on his island and, without remorse, tortures animals, murders children and engages in quasi-religious, perversely ritualistic activities with the `wasp factory'; a torturous contraption he has constructed to guide him through life.
The novel lacks any traditional `plot' and is difficult to describe without giving something away; suffice to say it's a story of a twisted and perverse boy whose narration is as gruesomely detailed as it is comically evoking. Yet Frank is an imperfect protagonist; he is frequently too self-aware to protect himself with pleas of naivety, and the manner in which he describes his schemes demonstrates a level of contrivance not conducive to the presentation of a confused individual.
Overall this is clearly a first novel; violent and attention-grabbing: it's an exercise in `look what I can do' shock, and is not without its flaws. Frank's final act of self-discovery is symbolically externalised by the very clichéd image of a locked room that, once gained access to, reveals all. The heavy-handed final turn lacks any of the subtlety that Banks has developed later in his career. Worth reading, and morally intriguing, `The Wasp Factory' is a good if imperfect first effort.
`The Wasp Factory' seems to be a blatant and total attack upon a romanticised artistic vision of Scotland (as might be found, for example, in the work of Walter Scott). The novel's narrator is Frank, a sixteen-year-old serial killer who lives alone with his father on a remote island off the Scottish coast. Perhaps in an attempt to extricate himself from a national cliché, Banks has Frank construct, in miniature, tranquil scenes representing an idealised, peaceful Scotland, and then destroy them with controlled floods and explosions. Frank is king on his island and, without remorse, tortures animals, murders children and engages in quasi-religious, perversely ritualistic activities with the `wasp factory'; a torturous contraption he has constructed to guide him through life.
The novel lacks any traditional `plot' and is difficult to describe without giving something away; suffice to say it's a story of a twisted and perverse boy whose narration is as gruesomely detailed as it is comically evoking. Yet Frank is an imperfect protagonist; he is frequently too self-aware to protect himself with pleas of naivety, and the manner in which he describes his schemes demonstrates a level of contrivance not conducive to the presentation of a confused individual.
Overall this is clearly a first novel; violent and attention-grabbing: it's an exercise in `look what I can do' shock, and is not without its flaws. Frank's final act of self-discovery is symbolically externalised by the very clichéd image of a locked room that, once gained access to, reveals all. The heavy-handed final turn lacks any of the subtlety that Banks has developed later in his career. Worth reading, and morally intriguing, `The Wasp Factory' is a good if imperfect first effort.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Insane but awesome
The Wasp Factory is a disjointed Bildungsroman which follows the first person protagonist, Frank Cauldhame, a sixteen year old Scottish lad who has had an odd upbringing. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Laura
Endured not enjoyed
I hated this book, but could not put it down. The day to day horror on every page kept me absorbed but curious as to what the book was actually about, sadly I still don't know. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Eileen
The Wasp Factory
I bought this after a friend recommended it (being Iain Bank's first novel and not an author I'd tried yet). Read more
Published 1 month ago by P.Wardle
... quite impossible to put down?
I honestly found this book quite impossible to read! Even now, after I finally succeeded in reading the last page, I'm still asking myself about how I did it... and especially WHY. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Alessandra F.
Weird is good
Frank is weird, he doesn't even exist officially, as his father never registered him after his birth. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Machine
Awful
A few weeks ago I read my first book by Iain Banks. It was Canal Dreams and it was crap. I was untypically sympathetic in reading another by him and I wish I hadn't bothered. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. Neil Pinder
Sensationalist first novel
Sometimes funny, sometimes interesting, mostly a concerted effort to appall on a first novel. It's alright...
'And this is just extra filler to make a comment'
'And this is just extra filler to make a comment'
Published 4 months ago by N. Wallace
A Must Read Novel!
Review by: Hald Reviews
`I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped. Read more
`I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped. Read more
Published 4 months ago by sannie hald
Airport fiction
This book is good fun but no literary masterpiece. It's a good page turner, easy to read, not too long with an interesting twist at the end - so in short, excellent airport... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Angelica Pickles
A sting in the tail .....
I came to this book after listening to a radio programme that featured the book and the author . The book waan't a dissapointment on what had been said on the radio . Read more
Published 5 months ago by lart phauson
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