Ceremony for the bizarre (The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks)

Member Name: mo79

Product:	The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
Date:	24/06/01 (155 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A completely original and bizarre story, a true classic that I'd recommend to many people

Disadvantages: Flow of writing stutters at points

Iain Banks has warped my fragile little mind.

Seriously, this book even comes with hints of subtle warnings in the press quotes that alert you that what you may come across might be a little too weird.
All the more reason to read it I say, as it's just one of those great books that most people have read, and those who haven't should. Even daring Dahl fans (not Sophie).

I plumped into choosing this book, because of the interesting title, the synopsis, and the full thumbs up set of reviews here on this book; and partly as a challenge to jillmurphy - see it's not Murakami now is it? =)

And I'm glad I bought it, as apart from some personal difficulty getting into it because of the writing style which sometimes I found stopped flowing and caused me to temporarily break off, it is otherwise a very brilliant and bizarre story.
It's not really sick (let your own mind censor it), but it is definetly Weird (sic - emphasis on the capital W), and Banks, who I hear was 16 when he wrote this debut has produced an example of why men like him should always have a pen to hand after a weird thought or dream.

The 185 page, 12 chapter book centers around the 16yr old character Frank, who at a young age has already notched two murders to his name, and in quite a non-accidental and mandatory way.
Both victims being family members, and then a third was a female member - to even the score a bit you know?
It was just a phase though that he was in...

Frank's odd behaviour is centred around sacrificing animals, carrying out military style battles against rabbits, and ceremonious deaths of wasps to serve as fuel in his oracle-like wasp factory.
Frank's unofficial existence means that his world and territory is the almost unchartered island which he commands and conquers, and almost nothing else. He is the man, with an Evident (sic) physical and mental flaw.

Add to that his Dad is up to no
good in his study, his mum left him at birth, and his elder half brother Eric - a promising young man - has taken to burning dogs and eating them, and scaring children with worms after a horrific but ambiguous vision that has left him in an institute - but now he's coming back home; and only Frank can help him. What a messed up family, eh?

Along the way there are other characters such as Jamie the dwarf who goes on binges with Frank, and the self-emphasising Mrs Clamp, plus Diggs the policeman who add to the interesting bizarre mix of a central plot intertwined with serveral other weird plots that gives a clear and visceral mental overload to the reader.

'The Wasp Factory' can only really be explained as weird, murderous, sick, and funny at times so as to keep the red signal from breaking off - and the ending is just "whoa?!"
You really just have to read it, as explaining anything more than an emphasised synopsis and the fact that it's just a really brilliant read throughout, despite lulls in pace that I found at times, would probably - no most likely - defeat the object of reading the book.

This is my first entry into the world of Iain Banks, and now that I've entered it, the door behind me has shut, permanently; enjoyably.

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