The Wasp Factory - A Novel (Paperback, 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction ed. 1998)

The Wasp Factory was first published in 1984 to equal parts accolades and critical vitriol: "A truly remarkable novel" trumpeted the Daily Telegraph. "A repulsive piece of work" heralded the Evening Standard. "Astonishing, unsettling and brilliantly written" gushed Cosmopolitan. "The lurid literary equivalent of a video nasty" countered the Sunday Express.
Also described as a "a gothic horror story of quite exceptional quality", it's enjoyable simply because when you read it, "It's impossible to laugh and throw-up at the same time". The Wasp Factory is easily celebrated sci-fi and mainstream author Iain Banks's most controversial novel. Which is saying something; his tenth novel, 'The Crow Road' opens with the lines, "It was the day my grandmother exploded."...
Banks's 'mainstream' writing is notable for his superb ear for dialogue, razor-sharp intuition, ability to sniff out and exploit the foibles of human nature and his trademark dry, caustic wit. All of these attributes are evident in The Wasp Factory,' but be warned, this book is not for the faint-hearted.
The Wasp Factory is narrated by Scottish teenager, Frank Caulhaume, a self-confessed murderer of three and inhabitant of his own disturbingly surreal world of values. And with more skeletons in the cupboard than Ted Bundy, Frank's family redefines the word dysfunctional. There's Frank's father, who keeps his study mysteriously locked and who insists on his family knowing the exact imperial measurement of every article of furniture. There's Frank's brother Eric, a recent mental institution escapee who has a dangerous penchant for setting fire to live dogs. And there's Frank's victims, notable for the various grisly and bizarre ways in which they met their deaths.
With a cruelly vile twist, superb dialogue and humour so black you won't see it coming, it's perfect fare for getting in touch with your dark side. But...you have been warned. The Wasp Factory is absolutely not recommended for the squeamish, easily shocked or over-censorious. Read it if you dare...

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 for my young cousin Esmerelda, 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.

General

Imprint:	Prentice Hall & IBD
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	September 1998
First published:	September 1998
Authors:	Iain Banks
Dimensions:	205 x 135 x 11mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	184
Edition:	1st Scribner Paperback Fiction ed. 1998
ISBN-13:	978-0-684-85315-4
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction Promotions
LSN:	0-684-85315-9
Barcode:	9780684853154

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