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A review by vanessar
Stonemouth by Iain Banks
4.0
After five years away, Stewart is back in his home town of Stonemouth. He has returned to attend the funeral of a man he first met as an adolescent - a man who happens to be the father of Donald Murston, the head of one of two criminal gangs that run this small Scottish town with the approval and respect of the police. It soon becomes clear that Stewart was forced to leave town five years earlier by the Murstons following a misdemeanour and has only now been allowed to return for a few days. A truce appears to be called in the first chapter, but things swiftly go downhill for Stewart as this initial goodwill does not appear to be shared by all members of the family. As he reconnects with old friends, he tries to come to terms with his guilt over past deeds and regain contact with former love Ellie (also of the Murston clan) while trying to stay in one piece.
Stewart is a typical Iain Banks hero in that he is smart and somewhat cocksure. While not as cocky and prone to ranting as the guy in Dead Air he is, like him, in love with an unfeasibly beautiful woman with dangerous connections. Stewart’s friends are all likable characters, ranging from the endearingly dim to razor-sharp witty. By contrast, the gangsters of the protagonist’s generation are all pretty thick and very violent. The novel is fast-paced, funny and an enjoyable quick read. Some of the descriptions, especially of the very minor characters who only appear once or twice, are to the point and highly recognisable. My only quibble is with the female characters in this novel. Ellie (the love interest) seems almost too good to be true: beautiful, intelligent, calm and controlled, she stays out of the family business without rebelling against it but can’t seem to stick with anything since the events of five years ago. Her sister Grier is slightly more interesting: slightly less beautiful and much less calm, she is a bit more proactive than the passive Ellie. I felt both women could have been made more interesting. But in the end they are only supporting characters in this story about Stewart’s rite-of-passage realisation of what’s important in life.
Stewart is a typical Iain Banks hero in that he is smart and somewhat cocksure. While not as cocky and prone to ranting as the guy in Dead Air he is, like him, in love with an unfeasibly beautiful woman with dangerous connections. Stewart’s friends are all likable characters, ranging from the endearingly dim to razor-sharp witty. By contrast, the gangsters of the protagonist’s generation are all pretty thick and very violent. The novel is fast-paced, funny and an enjoyable quick read. Some of the descriptions, especially of the very minor characters who only appear once or twice, are to the point and highly recognisable. My only quibble is with the female characters in this novel. Ellie (the love interest) seems almost too good to be true: beautiful, intelligent, calm and controlled, she stays out of the family business without rebelling against it but can’t seem to stick with anything since the events of five years ago. Her sister Grier is slightly more interesting: slightly less beautiful and much less calm, she is a bit more proactive than the passive Ellie. I felt both women could have been made more interesting. But in the end they are only supporting characters in this story about Stewart’s rite-of-passage realisation of what’s important in life.