The Wasp Factory.

[DavidXBrunt]

Col. Marbles has suggested a book club, and this book has been nominated. So this is the first part of the discussion.

Obviously there will be SPOILERS so if you aren't up to speed you'll have to be carefull. I'd suggest we all try to remember to post a big old SPOILER warning at the head of particularly sensitive post.

The next post will be a synopsis of the first third to get the discussion off. If you haven't read up to and including Chapter Four go no further.

Oh, and as it was the Col.'s idea it should really be his turn to nominate a book next time.

[DavidXBrunt]

THE WASP FACTORY.

SPOILERS.

This is a recap, for those who have read it before, of the first third. I thought we could start off by discussing that.

The novel opens with Frank going about his routine checking his sacrifice poles. He notices the Police arrive on the island. He hides because, due to his fathers hippy rebeliousness, he has no offical existance and must keep hidden. The police are here to inform Franks father that Eric (Franks brother) has escaped from the imental institute. We learn that it was a terrible incident that unbalanced his mind. We don't learn what.

Frank tells us that he has killed his cousin, Blyth. He killed him in revenge for the death of his rabbit. He took a snake and hid it in Blyth's false leg...

Frank goes out to hunt rabbits and gets attacked by a large bunny. He kills it but loses his catapult. He blows up some more rabbits in revenge before later buying another and performing a ceremony over his replacement catapult.

Frank tells us that he also killed his younger brother Paul, because of his connection to his, long run away, mother. After a storm they find a bomb and Frank tells Paul it's a bell. Paul hits it with a stick.

Frank goes out drinking with his friend Jamie and get's rotten drunk before staggering home.

[DavidXBrunt]

SPOILERS.

I'll shut up in a bit, but here are my initial reactions.

I'm liking it so far, and I know I shouldn't. The first thing I noticed were the excerpts from reviews. At first I thought it was funny and ballsy to include even the bad reviews but it also seems a bit smug, a bit 'look at all the attention this got'. Still, it'll be interesting to re-read them when I've finished.

I'm intrigued by the nature of the Wasp Factory, and the intrigue over that is at least a part of the reason I keep turning the page.

It's  a little creepy to see how quickly you side with such an amoral murderer, how quickly you start to see things through his eyes. That said the second murder left me as cold as it should have done. Killing a bully is one thing, but Paul is very close in age to my beloved Nephew...

There's a lot of very funny moments, slap-stick and geniune wit - "subtracted with an Adder".

The incidental detail is fascinating. The story with the strange lights for instance lingers. Was it just the oil rig, or did he actually see a U.F.O. but rationalised it away? Or in asking that question am I showing that I am as slow witted as the people he derides? Hmmmm.

Well that's that for now. We can either stick to the first third until Wednesday the 10th and then move on to the next section, or move on when general consensus allows.

So what did you all think?

[Adrian Bamforth]

I don't know, but is a strangely alluring bookish American chick called Claire due to tun up at any point?

ADE

Link: http://www.adrianbamforth.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.adrianbamforth.co.uk/

[Ol^ Marbles]

Blimey just reading the synopsis tells me how muxh I'd forgotte nabout the story !
What I do recall without having had a chance to go back to the book yet is what a great style of writing IMB has, certainly in the earlier books.
The trick lies in what he leaves out I think rather than what he puts in - he forces you to join the dots in the story rather than spelling it all out. He gives a single , highly personalised,  perspective without an objective overview. James Ellroy does a similar thing very well in his crime novels. So you end up as DXB says not sure about what the strange lights are because you only see it through the tainted prism of one of the protaganist.
Er, or something.

[Shakara]

Well, I completed the book last year, and It freaked me out man! Well I was 14, and now that I'm an old man, I feel the story is very strange, and freaky and twisted and all these things, but well written. Who votes our next Oprah Book review be Hitchhiker's guide?:)

SHAKARA!

[Trout]

Iain Banks is a Scot, you know. He's from Fife.

One day, we will rule you all...

Bwa-ha-ha

McTrout