Deconstructing Frank (The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks)

Member Name: mattygroves10

Product:	The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
Date:	21/08/09 (116 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Dark, thought provoking page turner - exceedingly well written

Disadvantages: Dark. Very dark. Disturbing. Scenes of animal and child cruelty

Seventeen year old Frank is a killer. He kills birds, mice and other small animals. Fortunately, he doesn't kill people any more - it was just a passing phase, when he killed Blythe, Paul and Esmeralda (not all at once, mind you). Frank's brother Eric is also deeply unhinged, with a penchant for burning dogs, and his father isn't entirely playing with a full deck either.

The Wasp Factory is a strange book. The plot, such as it is, follows Frank on his isolated Scottish Island as he prepares for the imminent arrival of his half-brother Eric, who has escaped from a secure mental institution. However, that's not really the main point of this rather short novel (I read it in around a day). The book is narrated by Frank, who is a deeply unreliable narrator. Indeed, every 'fact' we learn should be treated with suspicion, since everyone has reason to either lie, deceive or simply misreport events, since every event is filtered first through the character the event has happened to, and then through Frank.

Because the book is written in the first person always in Frank's voice, the language is at times rough (I don't mean swearing, though there is a bit of that) - it is, after all, the voice of an adolescent, and a disturbed one at that. "I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped. I already knew something was going to happen; the Factory told me" - so reads the first paragraph of the novel. We do learn eventually who his brother is, what he is escaping from and what the Factory is (and indeed many other disturbing and bizarre 'facts'), but we are told in snippets as the book unfolds - events and things are referred to that are eventually explained (sort of), but not immediately. This makes this a book that you turn back to - I re-read pages once the significance of a passing comment becomes clear.

Although there isn't exactly a linear plot per se, this is nevertheless a page turner. The novel is split into 12 named chapters, each chapter name carrying with it significance. Every character in it, from Frank (who, amongst other things, is clearly OCD), to Eric and indeed to Dad is disturbed, disturbing, and bearing deep secrets. However, because of the unreliability of the narrator, you can never be certain that the truth is being told, that the secrets are really being revealed. Even at the end (which is a bit apocalyptic, and a shocker - do not, whatever you do, skip to the last page before finishing the book), we cannot be certain that the conclusions Frank draws are based on truth, fiction, misunderstanding, a deeper understanding or a combination of all of the above.

This is a dark novel. Whilst it's an easy read in that the language is reasonably simple, and the narrative unfolds in an understandable (if slightly weird) way, it is certainly thought provoking and deeply disturbing (a word I'm using a lot in this review). The book was lent to me - the first thing I did when I finished was to call the lender and discuss the book in general, and the ending in particular.

The Wasp Factory took but a day to read, but will be in my thoughts for a far, far longer time. It's not a cheery or soul lifting book, but it is intelligent and deep. Recommended.

"I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through".

Summary: Macbre, rich and strange short novel, worth reading more than once