Product Description

Frank, no ordinary sixteen-year-old, lives with his father outsIde a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric's escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother's inevitable return - an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly. Iain Banks' celebrated first novel is a work of extraordinary originality, imagination and horrifying compulsion: horrifying, because it enters a mind whose realities are not our own, whose values of life and death are alien to our society; and compulsive, because the humour and compassion of that mind reach out to us all.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #821 in Books
• Published on: 1992-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
* 'A Gothic horror story of quite exceptional quality...macabre, bizarre ...quite impossible to put down' - FINANCIAL TIMES * 'A mighty imagination has arrived on the scene' - MAIL ON SUNDAY

The world according to Banks is inexhaustibly cruel and routinely malevolent. This outlook is perfectly encapsulated in his debut novel, first published in 1984, a twisted tale of sibling rivalry that takes in mutilation, exploding sheep and the eponymous apiary-cum-torture chamber. (Kirkus UK)

Through much of this impressive first novel, almost up until the awkward and misguided finale, young Scottish writer Banks achieves that fine British balance - between horrific content on the one hand and matter-of-fact comic delivery on the other. The narrator, whose cool prose is sometimes a bit too sophisticated for credibility, is 16-year-old Frank Cauldhame, living outside a remote Scottish village - a cheerfully insane lad who tortures animals, imagines that he gets instructions from the "Factory" (the room upstairs where he cremates wasps), and fondly recalls the three grisly/farcical murders he committed from age six to age ten. Is there good reason for Frank to be so blithely unhinged, so devoted to his warfare against wildlife and his ritual killings? ("How the hell am I supposed to get heads and bodies for the Poles and the Bunker if I don't kill things?") There is indeed. His father, an ex-hippie and sometime chemist, is a shambling eccentric obsessed with measurement. His flower-child mother deserted Frank at birth, then briefly returned when he was three - and may have helped to cause little Frank's life-shattering accident. (A nasty old dog supposedly chewed off the toddler's genitals.) Furthermore, Frank's older half-brother Eric, who was deserted by two mothers, has gone certifiably bonkers - setting fires, eating dogs; his madness was triggered by a ghastly moment while working as a hospital orderly (a grotesque horror for only the very strongest of stomach); and now he has just escaped from the asylum, making his way home to Frank, "a force of fire and disruption approaching the sands of the island like a mad angel, head swarming with echoing screams of madness and delusion." Banks handles this gothic/clinical material, for the most part, with sure, deadpan restraint, echoing William Golding, Saki, and Joe Orton - while finding hilarity in fugitive Eric's loony phone-calls to Frank, in misogynistic Frank's drunken rambles with dwarf-pal Jamie. Here and there, however, the underlying themes of sex/aggression are spelled out lumpily. ("All our lives are symbols. . . women can give birth and men can kill.") And the final chapter, mixing Eric's violent homecoming with revelations about Frank's true sexuality, pushes a delicately gripping nightmare-novel over the edge into psycho-melodrama and sexual polemics. In sum: a nastily striking, somewhat uneven debut - at its dreadful best when not straining for symbolic shockers or cosmic resonance. (Kirkus Reviews)

MAIL ON SUNDAY
* 'A mighty imagination has arrived on the scene'

Synopsis
Frank, no ordinary sixteen-year-old, lives with his father outsIde a remote Scottish village. Their life is, to say the least, unconventional. Frank's mother abandoned them years ago: his elder brother Eric is confined to a psychiatric hospital; and his father measures out his eccentricities on an imperial scale. Frank has turned to strange acts of violence to vent his frustrations. In the bizarre daily rituals there is some solace. But when news comes of Eric's escape from the hospital Frank has to prepare the ground for his brother's inevitable return - an event that explodes the mysteries of the past and changes Frank utterly. Iain Banks' celebrated first novel is a work of extraordinary originality, imagination and horrifying compulsion: horrifying, because it enters a mind whose realities are not our own, whose values of life and death are alien to our society; and compulsive, because the humour and compassion of that mind reach out to us all.

Customer Reviews

Graphically gory, but good writing
Full of graphically described and inventive unpleasantness, the Wasp Factory is not a pleasant read and requires a strong stomach. I couldn't bring myself to read all of it as I'm not a fan of pointless gore. However, it is well written and I've given it three stars as it would be a good read for someone who likes this sort of thing.

If you like horror films or the type of shows that feature lots of explicit gore, then you'll probably enjoy this. A reviewer describes it as the 'literary equivalent of a video nasty', which is quite an apt description. I would think it would appeal more to men than women, on the whole, and younger men in particular.

Banks is a good writer and I would read another of his books, but only if it had less of a focus on torturing small animals than this one does.

Drivel. Don't believe the hype.
Since this book was first published I deliberately ignored the hype and didn't buy the book. Having read some of his science fiction books I thought it time to give it a go and on the strength of all the 5 star reviews finally bought it. What a disappointment. A book full of caricatures and stereotypes who meander through a "plot" that is clearly a collection of idle thoughts and drink or drug fuelled "great ideas" supposedly aimed at producing a feeling of horror in us all. From the ridiculous and improbable murders (particularly the one with the kite)to the poor renditions of OCD, autism and Asbergers Syndrome I am amazed the publishers even took it up. It might appeal to a ten year old but even they would feel let down by the pathetic attempt at a twist at the end. Awful. Avoid it unless you enjoy feeling short changed.

The Wasp Factory
I assume this book is meant to be shocking - it isn't, it is just pointless and bland. Repeated descriptions of how Frank spends his days, a series of ridiculously OTT telephone calls from Eric and a twist at the end that just makes you laugh at its stupidity. The only part I vaguely enjoyed was when Frank got leglessly drunk in the pub. I really don't understand all the 5 star ratings,or why this is such a hyped book.