Helpful Score: 6
"Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons that I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Emerelda, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through." - Frank, in The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
**
This is, beyond the gruesomeness, really an entertaining story. It is rich with black humor and interesting character development.
While contemplating the author's sanity and humanity, I was reminded of a time when Ken and I were discussing the whole idea of "write what you know". He took the stand that you could write about anything and do it well with enough talent and imagination and he backed up his idea by writing a poem from the point of view of a serial killer. The poem was so intensely disturbing that I asked him to destroy it, lest homicide detectives (coming across the poem on his computer under some sort of odd and coincidental circumstances) zeroed in on him as their main suspect.
I am sure Banks did much the same when writing this book about a family of sociopaths. He just had the nerve to see it published.
**
This is, beyond the gruesomeness, really an entertaining story. It is rich with black humor and interesting character development.
While contemplating the author's sanity and humanity, I was reminded of a time when Ken and I were discussing the whole idea of "write what you know". He took the stand that you could write about anything and do it well with enough talent and imagination and he backed up his idea by writing a poem from the point of view of a serial killer. The poem was so intensely disturbing that I asked him to destroy it, lest homicide detectives (coming across the poem on his computer under some sort of odd and coincidental circumstances) zeroed in on him as their main suspect.
I am sure Banks did much the same when writing this book about a family of sociopaths. He just had the nerve to see it published.
Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details
