The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (1984)

What are the odds that within a couple of week's time I would read two novels so similar without being aware of the contents of either one beforehand? Both this book and the 2015 book Eileen (reviewed earlier this month) have first-person narrators who are obviously mentally unbalanced although they view themselves as sane. Both narrators commit violent acts which they recount in a very matter-of-fact manner. Both books are bizarre and creepy. Eileen, however, is a much better book than this one, being more subtle and well written. The Wasp Factory is more than a bit obvious and overly reliant on shock value and a gimmicky ending.

The narrator, sixteen-year--old Frank Cauldhame, says of himself, "Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelds, more or less on a whim. That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through." As can be imagined, Frank at sixteen is still far from the ordinary teenage boy. His ritualistic behavior (often involving animal sacrifices) accelerates when he learns his older brother has escaped from the mental hospital where he has been detained for setting fire to dogs. How's that for a set-up!

This novel created something of an uproar when it was published in 1984, with The New York Times calling it "brilliant" and The London Times calling it "rubbish!" Today's reading audience, jaded by books like American Psycho and mayhem in movies and on television, will likely not find it as shocking. Still, for those who enjoy quirky books with black comedy and a bit of the old ultra-violence, this is a quick and interesting read.