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A review by somesuchlike
A Song of Stone by Iain Banks
3.0
I’m not going to lie: I picked this book up entirely because of the cover. I really love the aesthetic of this partly line of Iain Banks covers (way more than I like the current editions) so seeing one in a charity shop, I just had to grab it.
I regret nothing, even though this is probably my least favourite of his books, that I’ve read to date. I feel like part of the problem might be that I’m missing out on some important cultural context (I think it might have been written against a backdrop of civil war in Europe that I’m too young to remember? I’m not sure which one.)
It’s certainly a dark read, and more grounded that I anticipated. An Iain Banks novel is never going to be a light-hearted read, but the blurb suggested something more surreal and detached from reality, but other than the ambiguity and strangeness of the setting, it’s a bleakly realistic story.
And Iain Banks being Iain Banks, it’s written wonderfully, poetic, stark and strange. I did find it overwrought at times – there’s an, um, flashback to the protagonist’s childhood involving mud – but for the most part, an enthralling read.
Unfortunately, the characters were all just too unpleasant for me. The narrator is vile, his lover is barely even a character, the Lieutenant is the most sympathetic of the bunch (somehow!) but still thoroughly nasty. I understand that this was a deliberate and highly literary creative decision, but it just didn’t work for me.
The ending of the novel is horrible, but I didn’t come to care about any of the characters to feel genuinely saddened by it, just slightly sick.
I regret nothing, even though this is probably my least favourite of his books, that I’ve read to date. I feel like part of the problem might be that I’m missing out on some important cultural context (I think it might have been written against a backdrop of civil war in Europe that I’m too young to remember? I’m not sure which one.)
It’s certainly a dark read, and more grounded that I anticipated. An Iain Banks novel is never going to be a light-hearted read, but the blurb suggested something more surreal and detached from reality, but other than the ambiguity and strangeness of the setting, it’s a bleakly realistic story.
And Iain Banks being Iain Banks, it’s written wonderfully, poetic, stark and strange. I did find it overwrought at times – there’s an, um, flashback to the protagonist’s childhood involving mud – but for the most part, an enthralling read.
Unfortunately, the characters were all just too unpleasant for me. The narrator is vile, his lover is barely even a character, the Lieutenant is the most sympathetic of the bunch (somehow!) but still thoroughly nasty. I understand that this was a deliberate and highly literary creative decision, but it just didn’t work for me.
The ending of the novel is horrible, but I didn’t come to care about any of the characters to feel genuinely saddened by it, just slightly sick.