Scan barcode
A review by girlwithherheadinabook
Stonemouth by Iain Banks
4.0
I've mentioned before about how The Crow Road is one of my favourite ever books. Banks as a writer is one of the most varied I have ever come across - to make things confusing he also writes science fiction under the name Iain M Banks. The next thing of his that I ever read was The Wasp Factory which made me want to cry and haunted my dreams - reviews described it as a work of 'unparalleled depravity'. It was different, I'll give it that. I remember deciding to try The Steep Approach to Garbadale after reading that it was Banks' most likeable book since The Crow Road but even that was one that I struggled to warm to.
Still, I always keep an eye out for Banks in bookshops because of how much I loved The Crow Road but I wouldn't rush out for the hardback. All the same, I actually liked Stonemouth - I read one review that said that this new book was Iain-Banks-by-numbers but I disagree. Certainly, there are parallels to The Crow Road and The Steep Approach because all three deal with someone returning to the place of their birth to confront family mysteries but there are enough differences to keep things fresh. Bildungsroman (coming of age stories) have been around for centuries - if Iain Banks is good at writing them, then I don't really understand why people are having a go.
The first line is one bold word: Clarity. This is what the main character Stewart is looking for, your class mid-twenties man who is feeling a bit directionless ... it's a bit scary that I'm now at that age myself. I no longer look at these moments of doubt as something that might happen to me in my future, it's something that's going on in my peer group. The novel begins with Stewart standing on the suspension bridge just outside of Stonemouth - nothing says Scotland quite like a good suspension bridge. The Forth Rail Bridge is a personal favourite of mine, the gateway to getting back to university. I have a postcard painting of it up in my room.
Anyway, Stewart is returning home for a funeral - but it is under very different circumstances to The Crow Road. His presence is required at the burial of Old Joe Murston, the aged patriarch of the Murston clan, one of the two crime families who quietly run Stonemouth and due to unfortunate events that occurred five years previously, Stewart needs to ask this same family's permission to enter the town. It can seem a little bit cowboy western at times but Banks does write it very convincingly. After a friendly chat with the Murston's heavy who pleasantly tells Stewart that he is fine, provided that it is just for the weekend, ken? Stewart stammers that he was thinking of staying til the following Tuesday and from there on you just know things aren't going to run smoothly.
For my full review:
http://girlwithherheadinabook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/stonemouth-iain-banks.html#more
Still, I always keep an eye out for Banks in bookshops because of how much I loved The Crow Road but I wouldn't rush out for the hardback. All the same, I actually liked Stonemouth - I read one review that said that this new book was Iain-Banks-by-numbers but I disagree. Certainly, there are parallels to The Crow Road and The Steep Approach because all three deal with someone returning to the place of their birth to confront family mysteries but there are enough differences to keep things fresh. Bildungsroman (coming of age stories) have been around for centuries - if Iain Banks is good at writing them, then I don't really understand why people are having a go.
The first line is one bold word: Clarity. This is what the main character Stewart is looking for, your class mid-twenties man who is feeling a bit directionless ... it's a bit scary that I'm now at that age myself. I no longer look at these moments of doubt as something that might happen to me in my future, it's something that's going on in my peer group. The novel begins with Stewart standing on the suspension bridge just outside of Stonemouth - nothing says Scotland quite like a good suspension bridge. The Forth Rail Bridge is a personal favourite of mine, the gateway to getting back to university. I have a postcard painting of it up in my room.
Anyway, Stewart is returning home for a funeral - but it is under very different circumstances to The Crow Road. His presence is required at the burial of Old Joe Murston, the aged patriarch of the Murston clan, one of the two crime families who quietly run Stonemouth and due to unfortunate events that occurred five years previously, Stewart needs to ask this same family's permission to enter the town. It can seem a little bit cowboy western at times but Banks does write it very convincingly. After a friendly chat with the Murston's heavy who pleasantly tells Stewart that he is fine, provided that it is just for the weekend, ken? Stewart stammers that he was thinking of staying til the following Tuesday and from there on you just know things aren't going to run smoothly.
For my full review:
http://girlwithherheadinabook.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/stonemouth-iain-banks.html#more