The Crow Road

This story opens with our erstwhile, coming of ager Prentice McHoan at his Grandmother Margot's funeral. She's about to blow up, he's wearing one black sock, one white. Prentice has come home to the Scottish town of Gallanach for the funeral from university, where he's mostly spending his mind on drink, death, sex, drugs and, of course, himself. Prentice is so into himself, he doesn't see what's going on around him much of the time and to say the least, he has relationship problems. Imagine how this affects him when he finds out the love of his life is his brother's girl. However, I should mention Prentice has neglected to declare his love. Further complicating Prentice's life is the fact that his family seems to die off in quirky ways. Gran fell through a roof, dad is killed by lightning as he climbs a church lightning rod in defience of God. Prentice's Uncle Rory has been missing for a decade and Prentice decides to find out why. Is he alive? Dead? Just gone? Prentice is determined to find out, but meanwhile he has his life to get on with in this humorous, dark story about love and morality and so much more. Many years ago I bought my first copy of this book at London's Heathrow Airport, was half through the five-hundred pages when we landed at JFK. I changed planes, made it just in time and I finished the book just as we were landing at LAX. Back then Mr. Banks shifting the timeline in the novel bothered me quite a bit, but now that my timeline has shifted quite a bit, I'm not bothered at all. I've read this book about a dozen times and each time it's as if I've never read it at all, so good it is. Reviewed by Vesta Irene

I was given this book by a friend who absolutely loved it. It was not the type of book I would usually pick up, and at the time had never even heard of Iain Banks. I read the blurb on the back and wasn't impressed, but sat down to read my new book with little expectation. I was therefor surprised to find that I had been given a real gem. One of those books that are just so hard to put down. Since reading this book I have also read th Wasp Factory, which I also enjoyed, but not quite as much as The Crow Road. I will always be thankful to my friend for introducing me to Iain Banks.

I have only read two Banks novels. The Wasp Factory was pretty unimpressive. Very dark and twisted (which I enjoy), but the story was a bit weak and there was really nobody to root for. The Crow Road, on the other hand, was a truly superb novel. Beautifully written. Dark and funny, great setting, with very interesting characters. The setup may feel a bit tedious but once the action starts it becomes a real page turner. For people who haven't read Banks, this book has similiar feel to Ian McEwan's "Atonement", and Donna Tartt's "Secret History." (Both FANTASTIC novels). And I would put this novel in their league without hesitation. After the disapointment of Wasp Factory, Banks has shown his true colors with the Crow Road. Read this book!! Warning!!! Spoiler here!!! Stop if you get "spoiled" easily!!! There is even a sub-plot about the main character's relationship with a friend/love interest, that in many other books could have ended up being very "sappy" and ruining the edgy-ness of the tale. But Banks brings it forth with surprising subtlety and it totally works with the rest of the story.

Iain Banks first novel, The Wasp Factory, was published in 1984. In the years since, he's won critical acclaim, topped best-seller lists and has even written Science Fiction books under the cunning nom-de-plume 'Iain M. Banks'. He's also seen this book, "The Crow Road", adapted for television by the BBC in 1996. At the time, I was only vaguely aware of Banks - however, having stumbled across and enjoyed the BBC's adaptation, I was determined to pick the book up as well. I'm glad I did - as much as I can remember enjoying the show, I think I enjoyed the book more. The Crow Road's central character is a young Scot called Prentice McHoan. A Star Wars fan as a boy, he's given up his attempts to master the force and now studies history at university in Glasgow. It would be fair to say, however, that he has more interest in alcohol, drugs and sex in general and the beautiful Verity Walker in particular. Prentice's key relationship, however, is probably the one he has (or, more accurately, doesn't have) with his father, Kenneth. Rather than Glasgow, most of the story takes place in and around his home village of Gallanach - visits home are fairly regular for various parties and funerals. Most of the supporting cast is made up of his own family, the Urvills and the Watts (friends to the McHoans over several generations). Fergus Urvill is not only Kenneth's brother-in-law, but also a lifelong friend. (Very good friends, in fact, based on the amount of abuse they give each other). As boys, Kenneth and Fergus were also friendly with Lachy Watt, an uncle of some Prentice's best friends : Ashley, Dean and Darren.Due to a falling out with Kenneth, Prentice usually stays with his Uncle Hamish when he comes back to Gallanach - the rift between Kenneth and Prentice being caused by a difference of opinion over religion. However, not only is Uncle Hamish certain there is a God, he's also invented his own faith. Another uncle, Rory, an author and television presenter, hasn't been seen in 8 years - some believe him to be dead. Prentice, meanwhile, has a suspicion he's still alive while Kenneth seems strangely sure of it. The curiosity about where he is and what has happened to him simmers in the background until Prentice tries to find out what really happened to him.The sections of the book that focus on Prentice are told from his point of view ("when I started to understand the lyrics of a Cocteau Twins song, I knew I was wrecked"). The remainder is told in 'flashback', about various different family members, and is written about them ("It was the last time Kenneth ever saw Rory"). I found it a little strange to begin with, but - once used to it - I found it really added to the enjoyment of the book. I'd look on it as less of a story, and more of a book about a group of people that strange and / or funny things happen to. That may sound a little strange, but it's a hugely enjoyable book and one that I would highly recommend.

While I won't go so far as calling this his masterpiece (mostly because he's still fairly young and his real masterpiece is still lurking within him somewhere) this is probably his most consistently enjoyable and amazing book and the best one to thrust upon family and friends saying, "See? See? He is a genius." All of Banks' novels (yes, even Canal Dreams) have something to offer the reader, but previous (and future) novels all were quirky in one way or another and while his writing and plotting was so good it didn't matter, sometimes it felt like the oddness was masking what he really wanted to say. Not so in this book. He focuses on the people of Scotland, specifically the McHoan family and peripherally the Watt and Urvill families, all with different social and financial backgrounds, all with family members as different as the people you know. His characterizations are amazing, about a third of the book is told in a third person perspective while the rest is told by middle son Prentice . . . yet every character feels absolutely real, even the people who only show up for a few pages. All have different ideals and beliefs and ways of living and the fun is watching all that clash. The first third of the book might turn some folks off at first as Banks takes his time setting the background, shifting backwards and forwards in time and showing the main two generations of the family at different stages on their lives. Once you get used to it, it's not that difficult to figure out who is what and what period of time you're looking at, and he does a brilliant job at making the sections echo and inform each other, so even though they're out of sequence they feel like they're in sequence. For me, these sections make the book, as he details some of the magic of growing up in Scotland as a young lad, and an excellent job of showing one generation growing older and doing its best to make way for the incoming crew, and so on. His people and their relationships feel real and I wonder how much of this was taken from Banks' own life, but honestly it really doesn't matter. Maybe he made it all up. Who cares? It takes up a huge chunk of the novel but it's so well done I don't think I could stomach removing any of it. There's also a central mystery to the book and the later portions of the novel deal with it specifically, and that's where all the little bits and hints he dropped in the early scenes comes into play. But in the end it doesn't even really matter, and the mystery itself never overtakes the story of people and their families just living. This novel works on almost every level, on a literary, emotional, symbolic level, he crams everything he can into it (since it is basically about life) and all of it works beautifully. It makes for almost compulsive reading and the characters go beyond resonating into almost becoming real, so that when any of them die, it feels like a real loss, but the book merely mourns and moves on, because in the