The Wasp Factory

by Iain Banks

Book Overview

The polarizing literary debut by Scottish author Ian Banks, The Wasp Factory is the bizarre, imaginative, disturbing, and darkly comic look into the mind of a child psychopath.

Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least:

Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684853159
• ISBN13: 9780684853154
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Not really worth the hype

This book was okay. It was honestly a little difficult to get into. Once more of the past got revealed it was better. It is a shorter read. So if youre looking for a quick book to add to your list, this is it.

Not what I expected, hard to get theough

I’ve seen lots of reviews talking about how this book was so good and so disturbing. I found it boring and difficult to get through. The overall story was quite boring and I kept waiting for something to happen but sadly the novel read flat. Thank goodness it was short book because I felt like i really had to work to get through it.

Sadly I was sort of underwhelmed.. I bought this book for all of the amazing reviews it received, and unfortunately I didn't think it was all it was cracked up to be. I was never really on the edge of my seat. It was a fast read, finished it in one day. Not as dark and twisted as one would think. I agree it is a little weird and different, but overall not that exciting.

Oh My Gosh!

Psst - hey buddy, want to see something sick? Want to read the journal and peek into the mind of a juvenile murderer? Yikes! I must be sick, because I said yes, and enjoyed every page...

One heluva whiz bang roller coaster ride

This book was definetly everything i didn't expect. My South African uncle, who is of British decent as well as an illegal alien recommended this book to me last harvest season. The book's not very engaging in the first 40 pages, but afterwards, you better hold on to your hat. Because this baby's pulling out all the stops and ain't goin' to halt even if you cry for mama. Iain Banks paints a somewhat absurd, but extremely entertaining portrait of a 17 year old named Frank. I will refrain from speaking about Frank, as anything i say will ruin the plot, which has been crafted with more twists and turns than an expert knot tier sees in a lifetime. The only downside to this book is that it never really captivates females, as it seems a bit male-orientated, which all changes in the end of book. I've read a few other works by Iain Banks, and this is by far the best. For those of you interested in something a different, and an experience similar to having the top of your skull removed, brains thrown in a blender, set to frappe, and then reinserted into the bloodied, empty cavity, this ones for you. For all you other's out there who want to "play it safe", may i recommend the fine works of Dr. Seuss. Of course green eggs and ham doesn't sound very appetizing after the process described above.Good day

Overall an entertaining read...

The Wasp Factory is a tale about an isolated and very eccentric clan of Scotsmen, ensconced on an island in northern Scotland. Frank Cauldhame, the teenager from whose viewpoint the book is related, lives a free lifestyle with his crippled father, eagerly awaiting the return home of his elder brother Eric. They have a matronly housekeeper who brings them food and news, but otherwise live in peaceful seclusion. There the fairytale stops. Frank is a cruel, callous, but utterly irresistible youth who delights in tormenting animals, and has already killed three people to date. Eric is a raving lunatic with an anti-canine fixation and the minor challenge of escaping from the police and his psychiatric guardians. Their father, Angus, has totally rejected the national education system and has taken to educating his progeny by himself (starting with false place names, bogus literary characters, and inaccurate French). Given the immense diversity of characters and potential cliches, the writer skilfully avoids excessive violence, and tempers his bleak outlook with a macabre brand of humor. Although the novel is set in Scotland, the narration is in perfectly clear English, and the surroundings (lonely house, empty beach, open fields, and smoky bars)are universally recognisable. The bizarre jokes and black comedy are appreciable by anybody with the requisite morbidity, and the shocking nature of the various escapades and histories of the characters only serve to fuel the reader's admiration for the mighty imagination of the writer. Though a few factual errors arise (maggots do not eat living flesh, for example) and some of the relationships might seem too outlandish, the general manic mood and immense climax of the story are so gripping that the reader is prepared to forgive them, if he even notices in the first place. This is Iain Banks' first novel, and its effect will be the same upon the reader as it was on the critics after its release. You will either love it or loathe it, and your feelings w! ill be completely justifiable either way.