Corner of Chaos
Created | Updated Jan 12, 2006
Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory
Living in such a world where violence is constantly portrayed on TV and films, it is a very rare moment when reading a novel will turn my stomach.
Iain Banks' debut novel from 1986, however, did this several times — and I don't think he even meant to. The Wasp Factory is a first-person narrative set on one of the Scottish islands. The anti-hero, Frank, seems to be a rather sane and logical 17-year-old-boy, if not slightly solitary and with a rather severe sadistic streak. The novel begins with him fixing some of his Sacrifice Poles, which the reader determines are long sticks adorned with remnants of dead animals for no apparent reason. Despite this evil side of him, the reader feels no real malice towards Frank, as he seems to have a very morally upright view of the world. Furthermore, this seems to have developed despite his manipulative father who has been playing games on him since he was born.
Being born to an anarchist, Frank is not registered with a birth certificate and thus he has not been state-schooled nor registered with a doctor. This proves a problem when his father, Angus, insists on making him learn the measurements of tables and walls as well as filling him with erroneous information, such as that Fellatio is a character in Hamlet, and when a ferocious dog attacks Frank and leaves him scarred for life.
All of this, though, is in the past. The novel constantly skips between the present and the past as Frank fills in the gap in his family's interesting history, some of which is relevant and some of which is inconsequentially humorous — such as the history of interesting suicides in his family. Banks skillfully lays obvious hints that there is much to find out in his past, making the times when he reminisces compulsive reading. We know that Frank was attacked by a dog, but we don't know what happened. We assume it has made a mess of his bowel system but we don't know why and, more importantly, Frank's insane brother Eric seems to have escaped from an asylum and is making his way slowly back home to the island, but how did he become this way and what does he want with the island?
In this modern gothic novel, Banks manages to disgust the reader, or me at least, while making the description seem very matter-of-fact from the point of view of the protagonist. This conveys a convincing style of realism while being so near to absurdity that it is all questionable. His comment on a Thatcherite government is ambiguous, but references to each person as a nation in themselves have clear allusions to government, while the prevailing insanity in the family seems to be a slight comment on care in the community. Whether something is being said or not, the novel is gripping enough in itself and at just short of 250 pages is a moderately fast read, made faster by how gripping it can be at some points and how banal the other bits are, making you want to read on to some more juicy information.
