It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.The Crow Road is the first novel by Iain Banks that I've read, and it has one of the best and irresistible opening hooks ever - it quite literally begins with a bang (get it?). What other novel begins with the main character's dead grandmother exploding?Iain Banks is a Scottish writer who is probably more known in the US for his science fiction, which he publishes as Iain M. Banks (using his adopted middle name, Menzies). The Crow Road is one of the mainstream novels he publishes as Iain Banks, and one of his most beloved works. The title is delivered from a (supposedly) old Scottish saying referring to death - if you're "away the crow road" you're not going to be coming back.The novel's protagonist is Prentice McHoan, who returns from Glasgow to attend his grandmother's funeral held in his (fictional) hometown of Gallanah in Argyll and Bute, on the picturesque west coast of Scotland. This is not the first loss in the family: eight years ago Prentice's favorite uncle, Rory - a bohemian travel writer, motorcyclist and author of a memoir chronicling his travels through India - has left his home, taken his motorcycle and vanished without a trace. When Prentice meets with his aunt Janice, Rory's partner at the time of his disappearance, he comes into posession of some of Rory's papers and computer diskettes. He discovers that at the time of his disappearance Rory was working at a new project, titled - you guessed - The Crow Road. Prentice thinks that in these documents lies the clue to solve his uncle's disappearance and decides to analyze them, not knowing that he might find out more about his family than he hoped for. The novel resonated well with readers upon its publication in 1992, and in 1996 BBC produced and adaptation for the small screen, which was also very succesful.With this novel Iain Banks has proven himself to be a great storyteller who can handle a large cast of interesting, quirky characters - each of which is distinctive and unique personal traits. Banks creates a family which feels real, not scriped, and it's a delight to see his characters interact with one another. Prentice is a student who is struggling to survive and find himself in the world, and is compelled to believe in some sort of a higher power. Prentice cannot accept the fact that people simply cease to exist when they die; he thinks that their consciousness somehow continues on. This provokes a strain in relations with his father, Kenneth, a writer of books for children and a comitted nonbeliever, who denies the possibility of an afterlife and any universal purpose. Luckily, there's Ashley, his childhood friend, and her uncle Lachlan. Prentice's other uncle Fergus owns the local glassware factory and is an important figure in the town as the business made him very wealthy, and he lives in a grand castle. Because of his travels and exotic experiences Uncle Rory has already been an enigmatic figure, and his mysterious disapparance only adds more fuel to the Prentice's eagerness to find out what happened to him. The McHoan family interacts with the Watts and Urvills, and each family has a different financial and social background, each as different as real people are from one another.Banks tells his story mostly through Prentice's eyes, employing him as the first person narrator - and does an admirable job at creating a character who is sympathetic but also at times unlikable, who behaves like a jerk and is often not aware of things around him, but with whom we cannot help but sympathize, because we can remember full well how confused we were at one point in our lives or another. Parts of novel are set in another timeline and told in the third person, letting the reader see the past of Prentice's family and its members present themselves, instead of being interpreted by someone else. What could easily have ended up as a mess works perfectly and gives the reader a more intimate insight into the storyline and the formation of its characters - in particular his father Kenneth, whose stories about Scottish myths and legends capture the attention and minds of children. Even though the sections are chronologially out of sequence they compliment one another, never feeling artificial, showing how times past haunt the times present.The Scottish setting is used to full extent here - Banks has a real sense of the place he's writing about. His Scotland is a place full of beauty and myth, even employing the obligatory imagery of castles, mountains and lochs without sounding tired and cliche, effortlessly presening the experience of growing up as a young lad in Scotland as unique and magical. He certainly romanticizes it a bit, but does so without the descent to posh sentimentality - he obviously remembers his own growing up in Dunfermline very well. Characters even use a fair amount of Scottish dialect, none of which feels forced - it contributes to their personalities and lets the dialogue flow smoothly, without sounding false. There's also a fair amount of humor in this book, sometimes grim - but also outrageously funny, such as Prentice's exploding grandmother (who herself was quite a character). Although the novel is full of death, it manages to walk the crow road with laughter, never truly losing its high spirit.The Crow Road is a a long novel, not easily classified - it is both a coming of age piece and also a sprawling family drama, concerned with several generations of several Scottish families. This works perfectly fine until the last quarter, where it changes gears and focuses on becoming a mystery. This is the section which I felt made it lose its dreamlike quality by interrupting the meditative ruminations on life and death, which I so enjoyed, and turning into a cat and mouse procedural. While I thought that the ending was ultimately satisfying, I thought that the last section prevented the novel from completely coming together and disturbed its delicate balance which was done so well. So, is The Crow Road worth reading? Certainly. I can now see why it is considered one of the author's best novels; Iain Banks is a good storyteller who writes well, and despite my gripes with the concluding part (which made me take down one star from the rating) I enjoyed spending time with his characters and was captivated by his story. It's absorbing, full of eccentic characters and situations which are both interesting and charming. It is full of humor resulting from these characters and events, and despite its grim themes its also ultimately uplifting and hopeful. It's world is full of small details which enrich it, and made reading its 500 pages no work at all. It contains moments of beauty which will resonate with all readers:These were the days of fond promise, when the world was very small and there was still magic in it. He told them stories of the Secret Mountain and the Sound that could be Seen, of the Forest drowned by Sand and the trees that were time-stilled waters; he told them about the Slow Children and the Magic Duvet and the Well-Travelled Country, and they believed all of it. They learned of distant times and long-ago places, of who they were and what they weren’t, and of what had and what had never been.Then, every day was a week, each month a year. A season was a decade, and every year a life.
The Crow Road by Iain Banks begins with the memorable line "It was the day my grandmother exploded." This line is, in fact, a good indication of the rest of the novel. This novel is full of similarly pithy one-liners and hooks (another good example being the start of chapter five: "Right, now this isn't as bad as it sounds, but...I was in bed with my Aunty Janice.") but unfortunately aside from amusing me with the occasional one-liner the book didn't do much for me.At first, due to the vertiginous style of narrative and its constant switches in time and focus it is hard to pin point any one main character or plot except that all the vignettes center around one family. With time, however, it becomes apparent that novel is following a main character, Prentice, through a fairly linear plot with the rest being flashbacks and the like to relevant scenes in the history of his family, whose sordid past he uncovers throughout the novel.The history of the family seems to be more eventful than the average one, but not to an unrealistic degree. The novel begins at Prentice's Grandmother's funeral where we meet the family. In order of appearance, more or less, they are Uncle Hamish, who is possessed of several peculiar ideas about religion and how one's life is tallied up after death; Prentice's father Kenneth, a devout atheist who Prentice is currently not speaking to over religious differences; Prentice's little brother James, who spends most of the novel in Australia and doesn't appear to do much worth mentioning in the novel other than being moody and listening to his Walkman; Prentice's mother Mary, who is generally warm and loving and motherly; Aunt Ilsa the world traveler, Uncle Rory who rode off on a stolen motorcycle years ago and hasn't been heard from since, Prentice's older, and if you ask Prentice smarter, funnier, and all-around better, brother Lewis; Uncle Fergus, the widow of Prentice's Aunt Fiona and father of twins, he is also the richest and most powerful man in town and the uncle of Verity whose beauty is matched only by her poor taste in men and who has won Prentice's heart. Last but not least I'd be remiss if I did not mention Ashley, who is not a member of the family, but is rather a family friend. Prentice didn't get along with her much during school and in fact broke her nose with a snowball containing a rock. Despite this fact she spends a fair amount of time in the novel taking care of him while he blubbers drunkenly.All of these people and more populate the novel following a rather predictable path based on the introductions given at the beginning of the novel. I don't recall being surprised by any incident in the novel, which is saying something for a novel that mostly just bounces from incident to incident. A large number of said incidents seem to involve sex or large amounts of alcohol, or both. At what might be called the climax of the book (pun totally intended) a very controlled movement of certain muscles in a pulse-like fashion leads to one character confessing their love to another in Morse code.Overall the novelty of the bizarre incidents and one-liners wore off pretty quickly and I didn't find anything particularly deep to sink my teeth into. The only part of the book that was even remotely challenging was the non-linear plot structure, but after latching onto the one main through line even that was relatively easy to deal with. There were a couple interesting bits contemplating religion or death, but overall nothing that I haven't seen said before and said better. When I finished the novel there wasn't any issue that I was left pondering or anything at all that really stayed with me. The main thought that went through my head at the end was a vague feeling of disappointment that it ended in more or less exactly the way I had predicted at the beginning.To be fair I'm not a fan of strictly realistic fiction. A second fact that might bias me against the book is that it contains a lot of contemplation on religion and despite the fact that it is of a mostly atheistic bent I just don't find religion to be quite as interesting a subject for infinite contemplation as most people seem to. With those disclaimers in mind I'd give the book three stars out of five.People can be teachers and idiots; they can be philosophers and idiots, they can be politicians and idiots…in fact I think they have to be…a genius can be an idiot. The world is largely run for and by idiots; it is no great handicap in life and in certain areas is actually a distinct advantage and even a prerequisite for advancement. Iain Banks, The Crow Road“Fairness is something we made up,” he said. “It’s an idea. The universe isn’t fair or unfair; it works by mathematics, physics, chemistry, biochemistry…Things happen; it takes a mind to come along and call them fair or not.” Iain Banks, The Crow Road“Prentice, have you been reading crime novels instead of your history books?”I gave a small laugh. “No. The worst crimes are always in the history books, anyway.” Iain Banks, The Crow Roadhttp://sassyshelver.blogspot.com/
What do You think about The Crow Road (1993)?
The Crow Road struck a major nostalgic chord within myself; the books main narrator and protagonist, Prentice McHoan, is roughly my age and brings to life his youth during the 1980's and early 1990's, and as as well as narrating his tale, he evokes the history, the culture and politics of those years. As well as The Crow Road being essentially a murder/mystery, a different take on crime fiction in many ways, it contains the trial and tribulations of three generations of two related Scottish Families, whom live on the Western Coast of Scotland, containing a snapshot of society from the 1940s to the (then) present (being 1991). It deals with popular issues such as religion, the first Gulf War, and left wing and right wing debates within the two families. It is a good novel, published in 1992 and was later adapted as a Television Drama in 1996. Iain Banks can really empathetically describe both generational differences, the epoch he bases his book in, cultural norms and the most vivid description of the Western Coast of Scotland in all its beauty. This also is a very mainstream and an ambitious work from Iain Banks compared (obviously) to anything from his Culture series, and apart from the underlying plot motive of family secrets and murder, is on its surface level, almost an auto-biographical portrayal of two related, close families. I find it hard to pin down just exactly what genre Banks contemporary books could be labelled into. Yes, its a murder/mystery, but also a lot more. A good read.
—Kevin
The best thing to have come out of my quitting Facebook is unarguably the rekindling of my love affair with reading. I don't know if I'm the only creep who follows snarky, funny and poignant reviews by absolute strangers (who mostly wouldn't know I'm following their reviews) and then religiously track down their favourite books, or be tempted into reading a book they've reviewed - books I'm sure I would never have even heard of in my own life, had it not been for Goodreads and the people I follow.So for this passive recommendation, I have one person to thank. For bringing in a bliss unparalleled in just witnessing a narrative that was so quaint, hearty, humourous and intense in the ways you'd like to pick up at any mood/phase in life. I usually wince at books labelled "intense" myself, but know that this intensity comes from a gentle pressure of whilst realising there's not too much to life except all our mundane realities of relations, acknowleding that they still shape us and matter, for all they're worth.
—Shruti Rao
Ok, The Crow Road. Definitely an Iain Banks novel, and the opening sentences give you a very rough idea of what you're getting into. Seeing as the book description and half the reviews on here quote the start of the book, I may as well too:'It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.'At first glance absurd, but at the same time somberly serious, you really have no idea where the story is going to go, and yet somehow you can tell that you're in for a treat. Except then that feeling continues past the first page and past the first few chapters and through to much of the novel, and you still really don't know what's going to tie it all together, or if it's going to get tied together at all, but you don't care because the whole thing somehow manages to stay utterly engrossing.The main character is one Prentice McHoan, a young man dealing with many of the issues that young men do - love, religion, drugs, sex, school, and a family that is perhaps more than usually disfunctional. Not the sort of guy I'd probably get along with in real life, but being inside his head as he narrates, there's something about him that's strangely relatable. The book primarily follows his life as a combination of funerals and weddings draw him back to his home and his family, and as he tries to determine the whereabouts of his uncle Rory, who disappeared many years before. Woven throughout this main narrative, however, are flashbacks to earlier points in Prentice's life, and to episodes in the history of the family, going back a number of decades. The jumping perspective can take some getting used to, and definitely isn't for everyone, but after while I stopped finding it so jarring. Taken altogether, a wonderfully written coming of age story mixed with just a enough humor to keep things from getting too dreary, and just enough philosophizing to make you think without being overbearing. The plot, such that it is (you'll notice this is categorized as a mystery), is a little weak, and the resolution is maybe a little too clean, but if you're reading this for a strong, coherent plot, you're kind of missing the point. It's all about the characters.
—Dane
