I forced myself through ‘The Wasp Factory’, hoping that eventually I would come to appreciate something about it. I did not. It was essentially a catalogue of repulsive anecdotes told in the first person, with a twist ending that just made me ask, “What the fuck?” What point was it trying to make? Why did the narrator Frank suddenly become introspective in response to this revelation? What the actual fuck? I mean, it was all written well enough, but I hated everything about it. According to the author’s preface, it is meant to be ‘a pro-feminist, anti-militarist work’. Perhaps I am too literal minded, but it struck me as the opposite of both those things. Whilst the horrible parade of murder, mutilation, and general vileness isn’t glorified, neither is it condemned or even analysed. It’s just presented for the reader to look at, and I didn’t want to look at it. It’s rather apposite that I was reminded of [b:The Tin Drum|35743|The Tin Drum|Günter Grass|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327945103s/35743.jpg|922581], as Frank comments that his father gave him a copy of it which he did not read. I struggled through [b:The Tin Drum|35743|The Tin Drum|Günter Grass|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327945103s/35743.jpg|922581], mostly finding it disgusting, although it had the odd moment of magnificent description. Nothing rescued ‘The Wasp Factory’ for me, though. I guess I should be impressed at Iain Banks’ range, as [b:Transition|6436659|Transition|Iain M. Banks|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1425502839s/6436659.jpg|6626240] was one of my favourite books that I read last year. ( )

Disturbing, genial novel narrated by the most unpleasant narrator character ever created, after Humbert Humbert and the guy in American Psycho. I was looking, in my deep ignorance, for some brain chewingum. I was given brain food, hard and chewy, but definitely nutritious, and divinely tasty.
Years after reading it, I still don't know what to do of this story. The plot, if I were to summarise it, would sound so improbable to become ridiculous. Yet, the psychology behind it is so punctual and realistic that, by the end of the novel, all seems perfectly fitting. Fitting by the point of view of a psychotic, murderous teenager whose last problem is the habit of torturing wasps. In the end of the day, he just does it in search of spiritual answers to the nonsensical world around him. You could not say better of the habits of most religious leaders.
A novel of devious survival to a horrible childhood. Coming of age, yes. Into what? ( )

Amazingly grim. ( )

The Wasp Factory is Iain Banks' first published novel, and is a doozy. I read it half a dozen years ago for the first time, and was stunned and enthralled. Knowing what was going to happen this time dulled the sparkle a little, but I remain convinced that it's an important book, and has had much influence upon psychological fiction/horror.

Frank is a 17-year old, rabidly insane, a young man who killed three children before he was ten years old. He dismisses this crimes as a stage he was going through. Frank and his none-too-normal father live on a tidal island in Scotland that looks out on the North Sea. I think one of the more interesting things about the novel is that Frank's birth was never registered. He doesn't exist. His father has taken great pains to keep the authorities from discovering his non-personhood. I think the whole idea of Frank not existing in the law's eyes is a way of drawing attention to the little heed that is paid Frank's crimes, his drunken escapades, and most of all, his big brother, who has just escaped from a mental institution.

I have no way of describing how troubled this book has made me, or how much I worry about authors who can write about madness with this sort of conviction. It's a novel I recommend, but which I do with warnings that there is gory violence, madness, shamanistic ritual which may offend some readers, and some devastating truths ferreted out by the end of the novel. It is certainly a book that no reader will ever forget, for good or ill. ( )

This is a very dark book. Beautifully written and bizarre, cruel and witty, it was very difficult to put down. There are some haunting images that will stay with me.
Not to be undertaken lightly, but this is a very good novel. ( )