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A review by eckeltricity
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
2.0
I recently signed up for BooksFree, an online book rental service, and this is one of the two books that I received for my first month.
When I first started reading The Wasp Factory, I wondered what had drawn me to add this to my 'to read' list. I wondered this because this is definitely not the typical kind of book that I would read. It's extremely morbid and has scenes that left me feeling slightly angry and disturbed. The writing style definitely reminds me of 19th century books like Huckleberry Finn in that it has very long and detailed descriptions of the nature surrounding the main character. I'm not a huge fan of these kinds of descriptions, my eyes usually gloss over them and I have to reread them several times to actually form a picture in my head.
Frank, the main character, has a very interesting perspective on things. Disturbing? Yes. But he doesn't give off that serial killer vibe. Frank is the kind of person you rarely speak to, don't really notice and don't think much of. However, he's also the kind of person you wouldn't want to be alone in a room with or have as a partner for a class project. Although The Wasp Factory wasn't exactly a page turner, I did want to find out what happened to make Frank the way he is and whether his brother, Eric, even existed or not. I wanted to see if Frank would change, if he would feel remorse for the acts he had previously committed.
Despite being listed as one of the top 100 books in the 20th century, I just don't appreciate this book to that extent. I would recommend it to someone who is interested in morbid characters and violent and graphic scenes.
Memorable Quote
"What a delight to behave really badly and still get loads of sympathy!" (41)
When I first started reading The Wasp Factory, I wondered what had drawn me to add this to my 'to read' list. I wondered this because this is definitely not the typical kind of book that I would read. It's extremely morbid and has scenes that left me feeling slightly angry and disturbed. The writing style definitely reminds me of 19th century books like Huckleberry Finn in that it has very long and detailed descriptions of the nature surrounding the main character. I'm not a huge fan of these kinds of descriptions, my eyes usually gloss over them and I have to reread them several times to actually form a picture in my head.
Frank, the main character, has a very interesting perspective on things. Disturbing? Yes. But he doesn't give off that serial killer vibe. Frank is the kind of person you rarely speak to, don't really notice and don't think much of. However, he's also the kind of person you wouldn't want to be alone in a room with or have as a partner for a class project. Although The Wasp Factory wasn't exactly a page turner, I did want to find out what happened to make Frank the way he is and whether his brother, Eric, even existed or not. I wanted to see if Frank would change, if he would feel remorse for the acts he had previously committed.
Despite being listed as one of the top 100 books in the 20th century, I just don't appreciate this book to that extent. I would recommend it to someone who is interested in morbid characters and violent and graphic scenes.
Memorable Quote
"What a delight to behave really badly and still get loads of sympathy!" (41)