Sixteen-year-old Frank is the protagonist of The Wasp Factory (1984) by Iain Banks, and his identity is nebulous because, as we learn early on, he was castrated as a child. The family dog attacked him as a toddler, and his father kept a jar with the tiny genitals to show his son the tragedy that had befallen him. Frank is strange, and this fact is a way of explaining that.
But the whole family is strange. They don’t live conventionally, and at times, it made it hard for me as a reader to understand and identify with the setting and circumstances. Early on, I kept asking, “Is this a dystopian novel? What is really going on here?” As it turns out, a lot of weird stuff is going on, even more than we know from the outset. Frank’s identity isn’t what we are led to believe. It isn’t what he was led to believe. This twist is revealed in the end.
But before then, the family’s surface problems are apparent. Frank’s brother Eric has purportedly escaped from an insane asylum, and Frank and his father are seemingly afraid of him being on the loose. Frank’s father is single, and all of the family’s children seem to have different, absent mothers. Frank’s younger brother Paul died as a child. Frank’s cousins Blyth and Esmerelda are also dead.
And then we learn that Frank is the one who killed them.
The stories he tells of their demises are intriguing and strange. Blyth had an artificial leg, and Frank killed him by putting a poisonous snake into the leg before Blyth out it on. That was his first murder. He kills his little brother Paul by telling him to play a game by hitting an old bomb with a plank of wood after Frank is out of range. And Esmerelda disappears by Frank’s constructing a giant kite and tangling her up in it. She is carried away never to be seen again.
These stories are intriguing, horrifying, and compelling. We are led to ask why Frank does this and how he’s gotten away with it.
As the novel progresses, with some terrifying scenes involving Eric’s possible return to the family home, we learn that something perhaps more terrifying and ugly has been done to Frank. In the end, we feel some understanding and maybe a measure of sympathy, but all of it is messed up in the extreme.
This book starts slow, but becomes gripping and strange. I was unable to look away.
The Wasp Factory is number 93 on the BBC book list.
Good review. It’s such an odd, and often frightening, book but it’s also completely unforgettable.
Yes, odd and frightening, but I couldn’t stop reading it!
It’s much too dark for me, even though I love eccentric characters.
It is certainly a dark one!
I noticed this is an older novel, which I tend to read since I get used books. Plus our small town library is full of donated used books. There’s many a great story out there written 10, 20 30 years ago.. forgotten on a shelf or in a box in someone’s attic!
So true! I found one of my favorite books The Green Years by A. J. Cronin this way.
Interesting. I had never heard of this book. Now I’m intrigued.
I hadn’t heard of it either, but I can see why it gets attention!
This does sound like one of those books that is so horrifying that you have to keep reading. I will add to the list for a time when I am in the mood to be horrified. I am now very curious to know the whole story!
It would be a good October read!
Genitals in jar? Why? This sounds interesting in a train wreck sort of way.
Yep. Pretty much. Very very disturbing!
I love this book, it gripped me from the start with its weirdness. Its so sad that Iain Banks died recently
Oh, I didn’t realize he had passed. I should read more of his work! This one impressed me.
The Crow Road is a great book too. He’s mostly known for his Sci-Fi books though which he write as Iain M. Banks
Ah, that’s why I haven’t heard of or read his other work. I’m not big into sci fi, but I have a good friend who is. I’ll ask her about it.
Wow, Your review intrigues me, but when I looked this up on Goodreads.com the other reviews turn me off. I don’t know if I’ll end up reading this one. I want to but I don’t want to. It’s controversial even before I’ve begun! 🙂 What a departure from your usual fare on this blog.
Hmm, I’ll have to look at Goodreads. Did they give away the twist? And yeah, I wouldn’t normally read something like this without the BBC book list. I love that it stretches what I’m exposed to on my own.
Yes, I love the variety, as well as being surprised by something I’d never considered reading before.
🙂
Wow, that sounds like an interesting one. Thanks for posting the review!
Yep! You’re welcome. 🙂
I read a Banks novel. It was really, really bad. And it didn’t look anything like this very interesting novel. I might give him another chance now. Thanks for the review!
Well, that doesn’t make me want to try anything else by him! 🙂 But yes, this one was intriguing.
You have me completely intrigued! Can’t wait to pick this one up.
I hope you enjoy it! Well, enjoy it as much as a book like this book is meant to be “enjoyed.”
Thanks for sharing this!
No problem!
I read it a few years ago now but it’s definitely one which has stayed with me. I’ve read The Crow Road too but The Wasp Factory is my favourite or at least more memorable.
This one is definitely memorable! I don’t think I’ll forget it any time soon. 🙂
This is one of my favourite books, and one of the very few novels I’ve read more than once.
It is a fascinating book. I can see how it would warrant more than one read!