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The Steep Approach to Garbadale
Dark family secrets, a long-lost love affair and a multi-million pound gaming business lie at the heart of Iain Banks's fabulous new novel. The Wopuld family built its fortune on a board game called Empire!, now a hugely successful computer game. So successful, the American Spraint Corp wants to buy the firm out. Young renegade Alban, who has been evading the family clutches for years, is run to ground and persuaded to attend the forthcoming family gathering—part birthday party, part Extraordinary General Meeting—convened by Win, Wopuld matriarch and most powerful member of the board, at Garbadale, the family's highland castle. Being drawn back into the bosom of the clan brings an inevitable and disconcerting confrontation with Alban's past. What drove his mother to take her own life? And is he yet ready to see Sophie, his beautiful, enchanting cousin and teenage love, at the EGM? Grandmother Win's revelations will radically alter Alban's perspective for ever.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2007
96 people are currently reading
1856 people want to read
About the author
Iain Banks
42 books4,769 followersThis author also published science fiction under the pseudonym Iain M. Banks.
Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.
Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1982. However, he announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated. He lived most recently in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.
As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.
In late 2004, Banks was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He related his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.
Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.
His latest book was a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012.
Author Iain M. Banks revealed in April 2013 that he had late-stage cancer. He died the following June.
The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel The Quarry, due to be published later this year*, would be his last.
* The Quarry was published in June 2013.
Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.
Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1982. However, he announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated. He lived most recently in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.
As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.
In late 2004, Banks was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He related his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.
Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.
His latest book was a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012.
Author Iain M. Banks revealed in April 2013 that he had late-stage cancer. He died the following June.
The Scottish writer posted a message on his official website saying his next novel The Quarry, due to be published later this year*, would be his last.
* The Quarry was published in June 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 342 reviews
February 4, 2009
This was basically a considerably inferior version of "The Crow Road".
* Dysfunctional Scottish family, with impossibly large cast of characters, and a healthy dollop of eccentric old folk? Check.
* Some of whom are obscenely rich? Check
* Rich enough to live in a remote, picturesque Scottish castle? Check
* Which the main protagonist will shun for much of the story, as he works through family 'issues'? Check
* Main protagonist is male, single, has issues with family?
* Unrequited infatuation with unsuitable blond glamor girl? Check
* Oblivious to the incredibly patient, desirable woman who is really the right woman for him (until 15 pages from the end)? Check
* Male protagonist is smart, a bit of a tool, but likable and charming nonetheless? Check
* Will achieve personal growth and reconciliation with family by the end? Check.
* Alternating first and third person narrators? Check
* Story zips back and forth around the timeline with no warning? Check
* Inclusion of sporadic rants against Thatcher, Bush, and the Gulf War? Check (mutatis mutandis)
Sure, there are differences. The family business is games versus glass manufacturing. Renegade Alban is in his mid-thirties; Prentice was 21. The deep dark family secrets are different. But they're there, lurking in wait for the reveal, in the final 10 pages. And can be guessed by the book's halfway point by any moderately attentive reader.
Unfortunately, the features that gave "The Crow Road" its richness - convincing, complex, fully-developed characters in two generations of three families, with a complicated shared history, are largely absent from "The Steep Approach to Garbadale". The Wopulds (a perversely infelicitous choice of name that stopped me in my tracks every time I stumbled across it) are just not that interesting, largely because the only character developed in any depth is Alban. The plot is pretty threadbare; Banks gives us no reason to care about the outcome of the final "climactic" family gathering. Will the obscenely rich Wopulds relinquish control of the family business and sell it to the crass Americans? Forgive me for not giving a damn. And while Banks does invest Alban with a certain charm, it's not enough to make his handwringing and soulsearching more than mildly interesting. Sure, the guy's not a total jerk, so the reader wants things to turn out OK for him. But you know that once Banks has Alban eat his spiritual spinach, dessert is not going to be withheld.
So the dark secrets are revealed, triggering the requisite Alban-epiphanies, great advances in his personal and spiritual growth (almost overnight), and happy endings all round. But since most of the characters lack any convincing depth, it's hard to care very much
* Dysfunctional Scottish family, with impossibly large cast of characters, and a healthy dollop of eccentric old folk? Check.
* Some of whom are obscenely rich? Check
* Rich enough to live in a remote, picturesque Scottish castle? Check
* Which the main protagonist will shun for much of the story, as he works through family 'issues'? Check
* Main protagonist is male, single, has issues with family?
* Unrequited infatuation with unsuitable blond glamor girl? Check
* Oblivious to the incredibly patient, desirable woman who is really the right woman for him (until 15 pages from the end)? Check
* Male protagonist is smart, a bit of a tool, but likable and charming nonetheless? Check
* Will achieve personal growth and reconciliation with family by the end? Check.
* Alternating first and third person narrators? Check
* Story zips back and forth around the timeline with no warning? Check
* Inclusion of sporadic rants against Thatcher, Bush, and the Gulf War? Check (mutatis mutandis)
Sure, there are differences. The family business is games versus glass manufacturing. Renegade Alban is in his mid-thirties; Prentice was 21. The deep dark family secrets are different. But they're there, lurking in wait for the reveal, in the final 10 pages. And can be guessed by the book's halfway point by any moderately attentive reader.
Unfortunately, the features that gave "The Crow Road" its richness - convincing, complex, fully-developed characters in two generations of three families, with a complicated shared history, are largely absent from "The Steep Approach to Garbadale". The Wopulds (a perversely infelicitous choice of name that stopped me in my tracks every time I stumbled across it) are just not that interesting, largely because the only character developed in any depth is Alban. The plot is pretty threadbare; Banks gives us no reason to care about the outcome of the final "climactic" family gathering. Will the obscenely rich Wopulds relinquish control of the family business and sell it to the crass Americans? Forgive me for not giving a damn. And while Banks does invest Alban with a certain charm, it's not enough to make his handwringing and soulsearching more than mildly interesting. Sure, the guy's not a total jerk, so the reader wants things to turn out OK for him. But you know that once Banks has Alban eat his spiritual spinach, dessert is not going to be withheld.
So the dark secrets are revealed, triggering the requisite Alban-epiphanies, great advances in his personal and spiritual growth (almost overnight), and happy endings all round. But since most of the characters lack any convincing depth, it's hard to care very much
February 20, 2011
I am a huge Iain Banks fan, as you can see from my bookshelf... so this book was seriously disappointing. He's usually so full of energy and wacky ideas, but for once he's on autopilot. As several of the other reviewers point out, he's recycled a lot of material from The Crow Road. Unfortunately, it's in no way an improvement or a further development of those themes.
There is one good sequence - an extended flashback to a tragic affair when he was a teenager - and that's worth reading. The rest of the book basically isn't. You'll occasionally be entertained for a page or two, but most of the time you'll just feel frustrated with him.
There is one good sequence - an extended flashback to a tragic affair when he was a teenager - and that's worth reading. The rest of the book basically isn't. You'll occasionally be entertained for a page or two, but most of the time you'll just feel frustrated with him.
June 9, 2008
It's a truism that there are two Iain Banks -- Iain the contemporary fiction writer and Iain M. the science fiction writer. But it's also the case that there are two distinct modes of Iain Banks novels -- the grim and nihilistic (Wasp Factory, The Business, Song of Stone, etc.) versus the sweeping Scots epic (Crow Road, Whit, Espadair Street, and now The Steep Approach to Garbadale). I dunno - maybe it's just a matter of comedy versus tragedy (in the classical sense)?
In any case, put Banks' latest squarely in the feel-good category. Not that there aren't odd twists to the plot; it wouldn't be Banks without those. The characters are fairly well-drawn and likable even when they aren't (a Banks speciality, I think) and while the story isn't the most profound or original ever penned, it's a worthwhile read and, if Banks were more known in the U.S. contemporary fiction market, probably would be on numerous "great summer reads" lists.
In any case, put Banks' latest squarely in the feel-good category. Not that there aren't odd twists to the plot; it wouldn't be Banks without those. The characters are fairly well-drawn and likable even when they aren't (a Banks speciality, I think) and while the story isn't the most profound or original ever penned, it's a worthwhile read and, if Banks were more known in the U.S. contemporary fiction market, probably would be on numerous "great summer reads" lists.
November 17, 2015
Right through the 1990s Iain Banks, with or without the M, was my number one author - an edgy, blackly humorous writer who wasn't afraid to mess around with his readers' expectations. Banks would offer up, on the one hand, self-assuredly erudite, multi-layered and (dare I say it?) near-literary texts from which could be peeled and revealed the anxieties of the decade; and on the other explosive, politicised rants burning with unbelievable fury. Often the two combined. He was a great storyteller too. Banks, with enviable skill, turned real-life dramas into page-turning adventure stories. He invented deadly games for his characters to win or lose. His labyrinthine plots, entwining threads of the past with those of the present, played with our perspectives and most definitely teased our expectations. His novels were like Molotovs, and as soon as the rag was lit you knew what was going to happen. Letting go of the bottle was almost impossible however... You had to watch it burn. Banks's writing was so good that it wouldn't allow you to let go until the final page went off in your face.
To say that Banks wasn't always kind to his characters would be an understatement right? Banks's stock characters were people who either inflicted incredible cruelty on others (such as Frank in 'The Wasp Factory'), or were the subjects of such cruelty themselves (think of... well... Frank again, and pretty much every Banksian protagonist in every one of his novels). Usually his protagonists were damaged individuals, dangerous elements who, in some way or another, discovered that they were being manipulated by agents of power who maintained systems of control that stubbornly refused destabilisation. I think it was rare that I ever really empathised with any of his protagonists, but I always sympathised with their plight and would have been ready to stand beside them in their various battles.
It's been a while since I last read an Iain Banks novel. I love them, or used to, but some time ago I began to wonder whether I might have outgrown them. I don't mean this to sound trite, but I'm no longer the angsty student in his twenties raging against corporations, religion and the government. My anger is different now.
I think it got to a point where I would pick up a Banks novel and have a pretty good idea what was likely to happen after just the first couple of chapters. "Dead Air" was a good example of this. I just wasn't moved by it. I wasn't bothered by it. I didn't even care about it. For me, at the time of reading it, "Dead Air" was a bit of a 'non-novel'. It was formulaic and the formula was one I knew backwards. Maybe I'd read too much Banks by that point. Looking through his back-catalogue recently I struggled to answer my self-posed question: 'Have I read "The Business"? Have I read "Whit"?' Two novels I just couldn't place in memory. A long search through my bookshelves revealed that I had actually read both novels, but even as I scanned through their pages and blurb I found it hard to distinguish between them. I don't think this is Banks's fault. It's just that, when you become so familiar with an author's work, and there are novels which pull from a commonly-mined seam of images, themes, ideas etc, then they will begin to blur. JG Ballard was the other big author I spent a lot of time with in my student days, and it got to the point where I just couldn't read any more. To this day I haven't read any of Ballard's novels beyond my signed copy of "Cocaine Nights".
So it was a while before I got around to reading 'Garbadale'. It had actually been on my bookshelf since 2008, and it was starting to turn brown at the angle where the sun, shining through my window, fell across the top of it. Anyway I picked it up, took it away and started reading.
Quickly I discovered that all the usual elements were there: systems of control keeping the main character in his place - check! Main character finding that he has to revisit unsolved mysteries of his past in order to reveal the full extent to which his life has been manipulated... check! Bizarre, comedy characters bordering on caricature who have a larger part to play in the unfolding drama... check! Big castles or castle-type buildings/spaces acting as metaphor for the inner psychoses of the protagonist and also as a dark, epic stage on which to play out the grand reveal/ finale. Check again!
(Although I have to admit, I'm slightly guilty there myself... ahem...)
OK - stop being facetious. Maybe it was down my extended break from Banks's fiction but as I began to read through 'Garbadale' I rediscovered my love for all those familiar, Banksian volumes taking shape around me. It was like being comforted by an old friend. It was familiar, yet somehow it felt different: different enough to make me thoroughly enjoy the read. If I were to pin it down I'd say that in 'Garbadale' Banks's writing is beautifully mature. The anger of his earlier novels is still there but it seems to have a slightly different hue, like the man who realises that although the machine can be challenged and it can change its face, it can never be truly beaten. And maybe it doesn't have to be beaten. Without control you get anarchy, and anarchy is regressive (a conflict explored to more extreme degrees in many of his sci-fi books). In 'Garbadale', Banks's characters are warmer, rounder, more believable. The mystery of the protagonist's past is beautifully teased and revealed. There's a fantastic episode involving a loose snake, a townhouse and two dotty old women, and it's a wonderfully indulgent signature piece on Banks's behalf, a witty take on the 'Snakes and Ladders' game of childhood. Can't remember what, if anything, it added to the story, but it was great to read.
So yes, I really loved this novel. I believed in the people. I warmed to Alban in a way that I'd never warmed to any of Banks's characters before. Normally I can't wait to see what terrible fate will be served up to the people in his books but here, for the first time ever whilst reading a Banks' novel, I really did NOT want anyone to die! Which meant that the anxiety I began to feel as I approached the end of the novel was palpable, traumatic. Experience was telling me that Alban and the love of his life were going to get minced at the end, whereas my inner fluffy chick was dreading the prospect of it and praying for a happy ending.
That's never happened before. Ever.
I think I'm getting old.
But maybe that's it. The twenty-something year-old me of the 90s would have hated this novel. He would have thrown it at the wall having felt cheated by the ending and the sheer mundanity of everything which preceded it. "Is that it?" he would have screamed. "Seriously is that it?? WTF!!!"
But the older, wiser me, reading the novel of an older, wiser Iain Banks, nods sagely and says at the end "Yes. This was a damn fine novel with a very unexpected ending."
Didn't I say at the start of this review that Banks had a habit of confounding the expectations of his readers? Even me who's read 'em all. Well the old bard did it again and I take my hat off and raise a dram to the bugger. I wish he was still here writing more of this.
I think the older, wiser me will enjoy the remainder of his novels, but maybe for reasons different to those of the younger Mr Banks which the younger me devoured hungrily.
To say that Banks wasn't always kind to his characters would be an understatement right? Banks's stock characters were people who either inflicted incredible cruelty on others (such as Frank in 'The Wasp Factory'), or were the subjects of such cruelty themselves (think of... well... Frank again, and pretty much every Banksian protagonist in every one of his novels). Usually his protagonists were damaged individuals, dangerous elements who, in some way or another, discovered that they were being manipulated by agents of power who maintained systems of control that stubbornly refused destabilisation. I think it was rare that I ever really empathised with any of his protagonists, but I always sympathised with their plight and would have been ready to stand beside them in their various battles.
It's been a while since I last read an Iain Banks novel. I love them, or used to, but some time ago I began to wonder whether I might have outgrown them. I don't mean this to sound trite, but I'm no longer the angsty student in his twenties raging against corporations, religion and the government. My anger is different now.
I think it got to a point where I would pick up a Banks novel and have a pretty good idea what was likely to happen after just the first couple of chapters. "Dead Air" was a good example of this. I just wasn't moved by it. I wasn't bothered by it. I didn't even care about it. For me, at the time of reading it, "Dead Air" was a bit of a 'non-novel'. It was formulaic and the formula was one I knew backwards. Maybe I'd read too much Banks by that point. Looking through his back-catalogue recently I struggled to answer my self-posed question: 'Have I read "The Business"? Have I read "Whit"?' Two novels I just couldn't place in memory. A long search through my bookshelves revealed that I had actually read both novels, but even as I scanned through their pages and blurb I found it hard to distinguish between them. I don't think this is Banks's fault. It's just that, when you become so familiar with an author's work, and there are novels which pull from a commonly-mined seam of images, themes, ideas etc, then they will begin to blur. JG Ballard was the other big author I spent a lot of time with in my student days, and it got to the point where I just couldn't read any more. To this day I haven't read any of Ballard's novels beyond my signed copy of "Cocaine Nights".
So it was a while before I got around to reading 'Garbadale'. It had actually been on my bookshelf since 2008, and it was starting to turn brown at the angle where the sun, shining through my window, fell across the top of it. Anyway I picked it up, took it away and started reading.
Quickly I discovered that all the usual elements were there: systems of control keeping the main character in his place - check! Main character finding that he has to revisit unsolved mysteries of his past in order to reveal the full extent to which his life has been manipulated... check! Bizarre, comedy characters bordering on caricature who have a larger part to play in the unfolding drama... check! Big castles or castle-type buildings/spaces acting as metaphor for the inner psychoses of the protagonist and also as a dark, epic stage on which to play out the grand reveal/ finale. Check again!
(Although I have to admit, I'm slightly guilty there myself... ahem...)
OK - stop being facetious. Maybe it was down my extended break from Banks's fiction but as I began to read through 'Garbadale' I rediscovered my love for all those familiar, Banksian volumes taking shape around me. It was like being comforted by an old friend. It was familiar, yet somehow it felt different: different enough to make me thoroughly enjoy the read. If I were to pin it down I'd say that in 'Garbadale' Banks's writing is beautifully mature. The anger of his earlier novels is still there but it seems to have a slightly different hue, like the man who realises that although the machine can be challenged and it can change its face, it can never be truly beaten. And maybe it doesn't have to be beaten. Without control you get anarchy, and anarchy is regressive (a conflict explored to more extreme degrees in many of his sci-fi books). In 'Garbadale', Banks's characters are warmer, rounder, more believable. The mystery of the protagonist's past is beautifully teased and revealed. There's a fantastic episode involving a loose snake, a townhouse and two dotty old women, and it's a wonderfully indulgent signature piece on Banks's behalf, a witty take on the 'Snakes and Ladders' game of childhood. Can't remember what, if anything, it added to the story, but it was great to read.
So yes, I really loved this novel. I believed in the people. I warmed to Alban in a way that I'd never warmed to any of Banks's characters before. Normally I can't wait to see what terrible fate will be served up to the people in his books but here, for the first time ever whilst reading a Banks' novel, I really did NOT want anyone to die! Which meant that the anxiety I began to feel as I approached the end of the novel was palpable, traumatic. Experience was telling me that Alban and the love of his life were going to get minced at the end, whereas my inner fluffy chick was dreading the prospect of it and praying for a happy ending.
That's never happened before. Ever.
I think I'm getting old.
But maybe that's it. The twenty-something year-old me of the 90s would have hated this novel. He would have thrown it at the wall having felt cheated by the ending and the sheer mundanity of everything which preceded it. "Is that it?" he would have screamed. "Seriously is that it?? WTF!!!"
But the older, wiser me, reading the novel of an older, wiser Iain Banks, nods sagely and says at the end "Yes. This was a damn fine novel with a very unexpected ending."
Didn't I say at the start of this review that Banks had a habit of confounding the expectations of his readers? Even me who's read 'em all. Well the old bard did it again and I take my hat off and raise a dram to the bugger. I wish he was still here writing more of this.
I think the older, wiser me will enjoy the remainder of his novels, but maybe for reasons different to those of the younger Mr Banks which the younger me devoured hungrily.
March 23, 2009
Well, it's not as bad as the teeth-gnashingly bad Dead Air, but a long way below his best work. One Amazon review even retitled it The Steep Decline Towards Garbage. It revisits a lot of old ground: extensive and eccentric Scottish family ruled by a patriarch (as in both Whit and Complicity), and the growing pains of the usual young male protagonist, torn between two loves (also features in Complicity), what seems now to be an obligatory anti-American rant, as in Dead Air (though it is perfectly in character for Alban). Here the protagonist, Alban, is almost thirty, yet he's still mooning over his long-lost cousin Sophie, with whom he had a brief fling aged 15 and has barely seen since. I ended up thinking that it is really time Iain Banks grew up; how old is he now anyway? Maybe the whole thing is supposed to be a reflection on the special relationship between the US and the UK, cousins drifting apart, but if so it isn't very profound.[return][return]It has that now trendy structure where the story constantly jumps back and forth in time and you are never sure how each bit relates to the rest. That worked in The House at Riverton, but it doesn't work here; it just seems like a gimmick to mask the absence of plot or suspense. You can see the shock revelation coming miles away. Some passages, including the final chapter, are narrated by an extremely minor character in a rather irritating Scots accent, with greengrocer's apostrophes galore -- why?? [return][return]The ending is a damp squib, as if Banks just got tired of writing and decided it was long enough already (it could indeed have been cut by 100 pages or so). There is some good writing in places, notably describing two suicides, as always there are some laughs too, and I did finish it. But I was disappointed Banks didn't make more of Alban's girlfriend Verushka, a really strong female character who just disappears from the story until the very end. Nothing I've read has matched up to Whit -- still my favourite.
April 29, 2017
After a mixed recent history "A Song of Stone" and "The Business" being dubious at best, this followed on from the excellent "Dead Air" and so saw Banks establishing another strong period of good writing. Many of the themes here will be familiar to his long term readers. I'm thinking "Stonemouth" in particular, with the homecoming to a quiet Scottish home aspect, as well as the looking back.
In a sense this is a coming of age novel and in another it's a family saga that has many depths and layers to it, however it's presented this is a cracking read and shows Banks on excellent and assured form and like many of his better works, it was really hard to put down and kept you involved right up to the end.
January 16, 2014
A sprawling family saga set on a picturesque Highland estate, filled with tangled relationships, generational conflicts, unrequited love, and a dark family secret that reverberates through the plot. The central character is Alban, returning to the family fold after several disillusioned years in self-imposed exile, as the clan gather to discuss the future of their investment, a popular board game developed by an ancestor. It's no subtle irony that Empire! is under thread from American capitalism.
The narrative weaves in flashbacks from Alban's early life, as a teenager in Garbadale, a young man travelling the world, and a forestry worker avoiding any real responsibility, as events progress in the present. He gradually reconciles his place within the family, laying to rest demons that have haunted him and hindered his engagement with adulthood, giving the novel a satisfying resolution.
The main issue with this book is over-familiarity. It feels like Banks is retreading old ground, and this just isn't The Crow Road.
The narrative weaves in flashbacks from Alban's early life, as a teenager in Garbadale, a young man travelling the world, and a forestry worker avoiding any real responsibility, as events progress in the present. He gradually reconciles his place within the family, laying to rest demons that have haunted him and hindered his engagement with adulthood, giving the novel a satisfying resolution.
The main issue with this book is over-familiarity. It feels like Banks is retreading old ground, and this just isn't The Crow Road.
January 25, 2021
In my opinion Iain Banks creates the deepest, most viscerally realistic characters, and writes dialogue that actually feels genuine. His characters really feel alive - they notice the world around them and have thoughts about what they see, they have strong political opinions and get worked up about them, they live and laugh and get angry in ways that feel real... No other author (that I've read - please send me suggestions!) even comes close.
This is yet another brilliant Banks - with the main character, Alban, struggling through improbable (but not impossible) family issues. Some critics of this book say "nothing happens", which I would say is somewhat true, but a book like this isn't about some cliché plot (defeating an evil mastermind or whatever), it's a journey with characters that feel like real people, it is enjoyable to get into their heads to experience what they feel and see what they see. This is Banks at his best, and I absolutely loved it!
This is yet another brilliant Banks - with the main character, Alban, struggling through improbable (but not impossible) family issues. Some critics of this book say "nothing happens", which I would say is somewhat true, but a book like this isn't about some cliché plot (defeating an evil mastermind or whatever), it's a journey with characters that feel like real people, it is enjoyable to get into their heads to experience what they feel and see what they see. This is Banks at his best, and I absolutely loved it!
August 17, 2018
Iain Banks is my man. I've enjoyed pretty much everything I've ever read by him, and honestly wish he was still around to be hitting us with his stunning Culture sci-fi novels.
This one was a bit of a challenge. His writing, brilliant and engaging as always. His characters, subtly wrought and realistic. But the core narrative...of Alban and his very very sexual obsession/relation with his cousin Sophie? It was, well, a little ick.
And given that Banks doesn't shy away from moistly graphic depictions of human sexuality, it was a little much. Sort of like if George Arr Arr had dedicated an entire book to the lifelong romance between Cersei and Jaime. I wouldn't read that book, because, well, again, ick.
Ultimately, things resolve in ways that are mostly satisfying. Not a bad read, with the above caveats. Three point five, which rounds up.
This one was a bit of a challenge. His writing, brilliant and engaging as always. His characters, subtly wrought and realistic. But the core narrative...of Alban and his very very sexual obsession/relation with his cousin Sophie? It was, well, a little ick.
And given that Banks doesn't shy away from moistly graphic depictions of human sexuality, it was a little much. Sort of like if George Arr Arr had dedicated an entire book to the lifelong romance between Cersei and Jaime. I wouldn't read that book, because, well, again, ick.
Ultimately, things resolve in ways that are mostly satisfying. Not a bad read, with the above caveats. Three point five, which rounds up.
January 11, 2023
2023 reread: a much better read than I remember but still lacking the edge that characterises Banks’s best novels.
A slight and modest piece with no great stakes, just a lead character finding out the truth of where he's going in his life. Lots of similarities to The Crow Road but not as edgy. There's a wider canvas of characters and locations but a much more personal story with one of the least-flawed protagonists of any Banks novel. Lightweight but not fluffy.
A slight and modest piece with no great stakes, just a lead character finding out the truth of where he's going in his life. Lots of similarities to The Crow Road but not as edgy. There's a wider canvas of characters and locations but a much more personal story with one of the least-flawed protagonists of any Banks novel. Lightweight but not fluffy.
May 25, 2025
Didn't love... Found the main character unlikeable but in a boring way (unlikeable characters should at least have the decency to be interesting, duh).
December 13, 2014
I love Iain Banks, but this did not really strike me as a classic. There were flourishes of excellent writing, but these were not as in evidence as some of his other novels. Maybe it’s just me, I can’t really identify with the super rich. And, the majority of the characters were very affluent. I found the pace of the novel very slow and by the end (which I guessed) I didn’t really give a shit about what happened to any of them. Iain, wherever you are man, sorry but you lost me on this one! Three stars for old times sake.
January 29, 2025
This is still one of my favourite books. When I first read this as a teenager I related more strongly to the protagonist and his nostalgia for what was lost in his youthful affair. (Ignoring the more icky aspects of that). Now, I was more struck by how lost he had become in his 30s - flitting between a job as a forester and living in a boozy semi-squat - and then turning back to his wealthy family and the seductive drama of their affairs.
What's most charming about The Steep Approach to Garbadale is the setting. The Highland estate and the lake, the house at Richmond and forays into the botanical gardens, the great aunts' cozy house and silly chatter. Banks captures the intimacy of a family that while in many ways utterly dysfunctional, has a certain charm and draw.
His politics are probably similar enough to mine that I enjoy his diatribes, but also they are done with wit - so I think others would still enjoy them. His concerns about the environment and capitalism are shown in a wider context of perpetual crisis, linked to growing up with fears of nuclear annihilation. While it doesn't perhaps have the depth and flair of Crow Road or edginess of Complicity, this remains my favourite Iain Banks book. It's on comfortable ground. And at times it's just fun and very 90s, as in his description of the crazy approach to Kai Tak airport on a trip to Hong Kong.
What's most charming about The Steep Approach to Garbadale is the setting. The Highland estate and the lake, the house at Richmond and forays into the botanical gardens, the great aunts' cozy house and silly chatter. Banks captures the intimacy of a family that while in many ways utterly dysfunctional, has a certain charm and draw.
His politics are probably similar enough to mine that I enjoy his diatribes, but also they are done with wit - so I think others would still enjoy them. His concerns about the environment and capitalism are shown in a wider context of perpetual crisis, linked to growing up with fears of nuclear annihilation. While it doesn't perhaps have the depth and flair of Crow Road or edginess of Complicity, this remains my favourite Iain Banks book. It's on comfortable ground. And at times it's just fun and very 90s, as in his description of the crazy approach to Kai Tak airport on a trip to Hong Kong.
April 24, 2024
It was very interesting wasn’t quite the science fiction
But I was used to from iain banks
But I was used to from iain banks
May 3, 2018
Хороший роман для экранизации. А главное, правда оказалась на стороне автора, что очень важно для художественного произведения.
December 8, 2019
A great book, couldn't put it down. Alban is a fascinating lead character well supported by the others.
July 4, 2024
3.5 stars since I’m a sucker for any Iain banks book- my kind of easy reading - fast paced, great characters, ridiculous plot with familiar Scottish-isms. A bit dated in many ways but also some keen relevant political observations too.
December 4, 2018
Five years on, its still somewhat sobering to open to the copyright page of an Iain Banks book and read the part that says "Iain Banks 1954-". Part of me wants to take a pen and fill in the date of his death so it reads like it should. Being that in life he seemed to be possessed with a morbid sense of humor, I like to think he'd get a chuckle out of that.
For those just coming in, Banks was a decently prolific Scottish author notable for quite a few things but perhaps one of the most interesting was his tendency to write both genre fiction and SF, with the latter appearing under the name "Iain M Banks". And unlike some authors who sometimes run away from the SF label or make it seem like they're slumming at the kiddie table when writing about spaceships, he treated both genres the same, that is with a kind of serious irreverance. No matter what genre he decided to write in, a Banks novel could be by turns savage, witty, heartbreaking or thoughtful.
He was probably my favorite contemporary author for a number of reasons, one of which was the high quality of his output, another was the regularity of it (dead half a decade, I still have like six of his books I haven't gotten to yet, and its not because I have them set aside in a shrine) and another was how few direct sequels exist among his books. Rather than hit on a lucrative series and ride it all the way to the bank, he seemed to set out to do something new every time. I appreciated that, for what it's worth.
And yet it appears that I'm not immune to the allure of Old Home Week, since "The Steep Approach to Garbadale" sure seems very close structurally and thematically to his old classic "The Crow Road". One of his more highly acclaimed novels, I think it was seen as one of his first fully "mature" works and popular enough to be made into a BBC miniseries (with a young Peter Capaldi!) several years later. The tale of a young Scottish slightly estranged from his family and trying to solve an old family mystery, its sense of place and how personal it felt resonated with a lot of people, including me. Though he wrote a lot of stuff after that, nothing quite feels like "The Crow Road".
This one sure tries though. Much like that old chestnut, we have a young man estranged from his family, navigating the various quirks and internal politics that come with large families and doing his best to puzzle through a family secret in the process. He's held back from fully maturing by an old romance that he has to learn to make his peace with before he can embrace the future. Oh, and its told in a similar present day alternating with flashbacks structure. Good golly, is nothing sacred?
But if anyone can make this likable, its Banks. Young Alban comes from a family that a hundred years back invented a popular board game. A few years back they told part of their interest to an American company that was helping them create a computer version of it. Now the family is considering selling the whole shebang to that same company, divesting themselves of the family treasure but making everyone rich in the process. His cousin Fielding comes to find him in the hopes of recruiting his help for a "no" vote at the big family meeting in Garbadale and so he reluctantly has to immerse himself in the family fold again.
Its not all altruistic, of course. He's keen on seeing first cousin Sophie again, who he had a torrid romance with when they were teenagers and he's never quite let the magic of that time go even if its possible she has. He's also curious about the fate of his mother, a woman who killed herself when he was very young but recent information makes him wonder if there was more to it. In the meantime he has to sort through his memories, figure out what his family means to him, what ownership of the game means to both he and them and maybe decide just what it is he wants out of life. Simple, right?
Put off a little bit at first by how similar it felt at first to "The Crow Road" once I got into it I felt a cozy familiarity settle in and while nothing quite has that acute ache that the earlier novel did, Banks is excellent at divvying out flashbacks, at setting scenes that sketch out relationships that feel like they extend into both the past and future and at writing dialogue between family that has both the easy and uneasy feel that comes from talking to your older relatives as an adult when you're far too aware that they remember what you were like as a child. Alban's interactions with his various aunts and uncles and cousins over the years are the best parts of the book and do a good job at disguising how the stakes don't feel quite as high here (the choice seems to be between a well-off family staying well-off or getting even richer and Alban seems to take his stance mostly out of reflexive principle, not even sure why he cares so much). Whether he's getting high as an orbital satellite with a cousin in Singapore, having a quiet chat with an ostracized uncle in Hong Kong, meeting relatives in the US, talking with his father over drinks, verbally sparring with his fearsome grandmother or finally trying to integrate himself with everyone at the big meeting, Banks gives us a sense of a family that feels like the large messy families that some of us have and some of us wish we have (unless we hate other people), a sense of people bound by blood and shared history and not just a collection of weird quirk.
There's a tangible joy in reading those scenes, even the cutting ones, at seeing Banks slip into a mode that he rarely indulged in, just taking fully fledged characters and bouncing them off each other in various combinations just to see how the interactions go. There's an ease here and a definite affection as well, for families and for Scotland even if both are far from perfect. Alban probably doesn't break any new ground for Banks but he's likeable enough, both fumbling and charming, sometimes too sure of himself but with just enough moral high ground to steady the course. Perhaps he's a little too hung up on his cousin but of course Banks gives him a viable alternative, a maths professor who loves him dearly but has no interest in marrying or having children with (reading their scenes, I wonder how much of that was autobiographical as he only married his last partner after he got his terminal diagnosis . . . its possible their relationship started around the time the book was written, for those who like to read into such things).
I'm not going to lie, for me this one went down easy. Its not nearly as piercing as "The Crow Road" was, with its philosophical struggles (this time out, everyone is pretty much an atheist except for one American, of course) and its immersion in what felt like a deeply personal journey. I also read that at a more formative age, fumbling through the process of ordering my own thoughts into something that could be construed as maturity. But it brings back a vibe that I remember fondly while giving us a new set of characters to watch careen into each other and spin again, always acutely aware that they can never completely cut themselves free. The secret revealed here only underscores that, a shock that allows a blank to be filled in but ultimately means nothing, nothing that will define a life unless we allow it. For all its familiarity what appealed to me was how deeply humanistic it felt, the underlying plea that we're all in this together, family especially, and that doing the right thing means thinking about more than just ourselves or even the people in our immediate vicinity but maybe about those you've never met or are never going to meet. Its that strand of hopeful decency even in the most imperfect of people that strikes me as honest in a way I recognize and can't help but respond to. Maybe its something that his family and friends miss about him now that he's gone and, if you're allowed to miss someone you've never met, its what I miss about him too. But at least we have books like this, so that'll do if we aren't allowed a better option.
For those just coming in, Banks was a decently prolific Scottish author notable for quite a few things but perhaps one of the most interesting was his tendency to write both genre fiction and SF, with the latter appearing under the name "Iain M Banks". And unlike some authors who sometimes run away from the SF label or make it seem like they're slumming at the kiddie table when writing about spaceships, he treated both genres the same, that is with a kind of serious irreverance. No matter what genre he decided to write in, a Banks novel could be by turns savage, witty, heartbreaking or thoughtful.
He was probably my favorite contemporary author for a number of reasons, one of which was the high quality of his output, another was the regularity of it (dead half a decade, I still have like six of his books I haven't gotten to yet, and its not because I have them set aside in a shrine) and another was how few direct sequels exist among his books. Rather than hit on a lucrative series and ride it all the way to the bank, he seemed to set out to do something new every time. I appreciated that, for what it's worth.
And yet it appears that I'm not immune to the allure of Old Home Week, since "The Steep Approach to Garbadale" sure seems very close structurally and thematically to his old classic "The Crow Road". One of his more highly acclaimed novels, I think it was seen as one of his first fully "mature" works and popular enough to be made into a BBC miniseries (with a young Peter Capaldi!) several years later. The tale of a young Scottish slightly estranged from his family and trying to solve an old family mystery, its sense of place and how personal it felt resonated with a lot of people, including me. Though he wrote a lot of stuff after that, nothing quite feels like "The Crow Road".
This one sure tries though. Much like that old chestnut, we have a young man estranged from his family, navigating the various quirks and internal politics that come with large families and doing his best to puzzle through a family secret in the process. He's held back from fully maturing by an old romance that he has to learn to make his peace with before he can embrace the future. Oh, and its told in a similar present day alternating with flashbacks structure. Good golly, is nothing sacred?
But if anyone can make this likable, its Banks. Young Alban comes from a family that a hundred years back invented a popular board game. A few years back they told part of their interest to an American company that was helping them create a computer version of it. Now the family is considering selling the whole shebang to that same company, divesting themselves of the family treasure but making everyone rich in the process. His cousin Fielding comes to find him in the hopes of recruiting his help for a "no" vote at the big family meeting in Garbadale and so he reluctantly has to immerse himself in the family fold again.
Its not all altruistic, of course. He's keen on seeing first cousin Sophie again, who he had a torrid romance with when they were teenagers and he's never quite let the magic of that time go even if its possible she has. He's also curious about the fate of his mother, a woman who killed herself when he was very young but recent information makes him wonder if there was more to it. In the meantime he has to sort through his memories, figure out what his family means to him, what ownership of the game means to both he and them and maybe decide just what it is he wants out of life. Simple, right?
Put off a little bit at first by how similar it felt at first to "The Crow Road" once I got into it I felt a cozy familiarity settle in and while nothing quite has that acute ache that the earlier novel did, Banks is excellent at divvying out flashbacks, at setting scenes that sketch out relationships that feel like they extend into both the past and future and at writing dialogue between family that has both the easy and uneasy feel that comes from talking to your older relatives as an adult when you're far too aware that they remember what you were like as a child. Alban's interactions with his various aunts and uncles and cousins over the years are the best parts of the book and do a good job at disguising how the stakes don't feel quite as high here (the choice seems to be between a well-off family staying well-off or getting even richer and Alban seems to take his stance mostly out of reflexive principle, not even sure why he cares so much). Whether he's getting high as an orbital satellite with a cousin in Singapore, having a quiet chat with an ostracized uncle in Hong Kong, meeting relatives in the US, talking with his father over drinks, verbally sparring with his fearsome grandmother or finally trying to integrate himself with everyone at the big meeting, Banks gives us a sense of a family that feels like the large messy families that some of us have and some of us wish we have (unless we hate other people), a sense of people bound by blood and shared history and not just a collection of weird quirk.
There's a tangible joy in reading those scenes, even the cutting ones, at seeing Banks slip into a mode that he rarely indulged in, just taking fully fledged characters and bouncing them off each other in various combinations just to see how the interactions go. There's an ease here and a definite affection as well, for families and for Scotland even if both are far from perfect. Alban probably doesn't break any new ground for Banks but he's likeable enough, both fumbling and charming, sometimes too sure of himself but with just enough moral high ground to steady the course. Perhaps he's a little too hung up on his cousin but of course Banks gives him a viable alternative, a maths professor who loves him dearly but has no interest in marrying or having children with (reading their scenes, I wonder how much of that was autobiographical as he only married his last partner after he got his terminal diagnosis . . . its possible their relationship started around the time the book was written, for those who like to read into such things).
I'm not going to lie, for me this one went down easy. Its not nearly as piercing as "The Crow Road" was, with its philosophical struggles (this time out, everyone is pretty much an atheist except for one American, of course) and its immersion in what felt like a deeply personal journey. I also read that at a more formative age, fumbling through the process of ordering my own thoughts into something that could be construed as maturity. But it brings back a vibe that I remember fondly while giving us a new set of characters to watch careen into each other and spin again, always acutely aware that they can never completely cut themselves free. The secret revealed here only underscores that, a shock that allows a blank to be filled in but ultimately means nothing, nothing that will define a life unless we allow it. For all its familiarity what appealed to me was how deeply humanistic it felt, the underlying plea that we're all in this together, family especially, and that doing the right thing means thinking about more than just ourselves or even the people in our immediate vicinity but maybe about those you've never met or are never going to meet. Its that strand of hopeful decency even in the most imperfect of people that strikes me as honest in a way I recognize and can't help but respond to. Maybe its something that his family and friends miss about him now that he's gone and, if you're allowed to miss someone you've never met, its what I miss about him too. But at least we have books like this, so that'll do if we aren't allowed a better option.
August 4, 2011
OK, and so this is my review where I reveal that all my ratings are crap. After talking to Ick the last time we got together, we more or less concurred on certain things (kind of in a negative vein) about Simmons (that would be Dan Simmons, by the way), and I'd highly recommended Banks to him as an actual good read (stand by it, absolutely one of my favorite authors). And then, not long after, I noticed how many five star ratings I'd recently given Simmons, but many less to Banks, of whom I'm MUCH more fond. I came to realize that I was forgiving Simmons for his sub-par endings in return for gripping stories (up until the end), but to some extent, penalizing Banks for being excellent throughout (that is to say, I expected more of him because he was SO good). I was, to an extent, rating them against their own selves (or whatever would be the appropriate way to properly phrase that-I think it's clear where I'm going).
As a general rule, if you look at my ratings of Simmons, it'll give you a rough idea of how good one Simmons novel is compared to another.
If you look at my ratings of one Banks novel compared to another, the same.
But, if you took just the two authors, mashed them together, and compared (based simply on my feelings), Simmons would probably get one five star review (Darwin's Blade) and Banks would be swimming in them. If I were then forced to rate them so that there was at least one of every grade (or that it spanned the whole five star rating system), without double-checking my work, I think Banks would have nothing lower than a three, and Simmons would have little above (possibly just DB, and that might just be a four).
SUBJECTIVITY.
Ah, well.
So, there's a number of passages about politics and religion, to some extent incidental to the story and in some respects integral, that I would love to quote to give some idea of why I loved this novel, they so mirror my own (and it would save me the time of articulating it to those who don't already know/aren't prepared to listen), but, short of tracking down copies on the internet, I don't feel like typing up a bunch of passages from someone else's work before I bring it back to the library.
Nice run-on sentence.
OK, so, back to ratings. I think I've judged this one, in light of the foregoing and against EVERYTHING I've read, properly. Loved it. Not going back to look now, but judged against how I'm feeling now, if I didn't give The Business a five, it was mistake. I'll stop retro-rating now.
As a general rule, if you look at my ratings of Simmons, it'll give you a rough idea of how good one Simmons novel is compared to another.
If you look at my ratings of one Banks novel compared to another, the same.
But, if you took just the two authors, mashed them together, and compared (based simply on my feelings), Simmons would probably get one five star review (Darwin's Blade) and Banks would be swimming in them. If I were then forced to rate them so that there was at least one of every grade (or that it spanned the whole five star rating system), without double-checking my work, I think Banks would have nothing lower than a three, and Simmons would have little above (possibly just DB, and that might just be a four).
SUBJECTIVITY.
Ah, well.
So, there's a number of passages about politics and religion, to some extent incidental to the story and in some respects integral, that I would love to quote to give some idea of why I loved this novel, they so mirror my own (and it would save me the time of articulating it to those who don't already know/aren't prepared to listen), but, short of tracking down copies on the internet, I don't feel like typing up a bunch of passages from someone else's work before I bring it back to the library.
Nice run-on sentence.
OK, so, back to ratings. I think I've judged this one, in light of the foregoing and against EVERYTHING I've read, properly. Loved it. Not going back to look now, but judged against how I'm feeling now, if I didn't give The Business a five, it was mistake. I'll stop retro-rating now.
March 6, 2014
This is an unabridged version, 189MB, running for 14 hours.
The Barnes & Noble Review - It's almost impossible to quickly catalog the delights of this novel from the mischievous imagination that produced The Wasp Factor and The Crow Road.
There's the large and eccentric clan of the Wopulds, the decaying stewards of a British board-game dynasty that culminated in the classic Empire! There's Alban, sensitive and alienated young scion of the aforementioned tribe, living the life of a couch-surfing slacker to avoid the family ghosts that haunt him; and Alban's smart and cynical foil Fielding, now in charge of much of the family business. There's the complex, equally cynical merger deal with a big-bucks American firm (the occasion for a delicious comic deconstruction of a PowerPoint presentation). And there are a host of wonderful secondary characters: Alban's voluble and profane roommate Tango, the fading but still powerful Wopuld matriarch, Grandma Win, and the American schemers Feaguing and Fromax, just to name a few.
It's ultimately Alban's story that emerges from this noisy hurlyburly, as a surprisingly warm and engaging melody. When he reenters his family's world, he inadvertently opens doors to the past through which a new vista can be seen, casting all of this novel's pleasurable distractions into a different light. As Banks leads the reader to the final revelation of his rich tale, laughter and grief equally enter the glorious view.
Read by Peter Kenny
mediocre story line
my first Banks - may be my last
1*
Becoming convinced that contemporary fiction is really not my cup of tea.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 20, 2010
One of my friends dislikes Banks' Dead Air for its perceived rantiness, and in Garbadale he takes Banks to task for "glib bits of politics that come not from the mouths of the characters but feel like the author ranting".
He then quotes one of my fave passages from the book and laments its inclusion.
He's not wrong - the authorial voice does break through sometimes but I like it when that happens. I don't necessarily always want an author to retain a cool distance from his work.
Those of Banks' books where he does most explicitly so - Inversions springs to mind, as does Look To Windward - seem to me to be his most unsatisfying, bloodless tomes. I want a bit of perhaps ill considered passion to seep through in the writing, it reminds me I'm reading a piece of work by a person of strong principles.
"In fact, some of Banks’s best work is where he tells a story from a point of view he doesn’t agree with," adds mty friend, and he's right. But even then the very act of forcing himself to write from an opposing viewpoint is revealing of Banks' feelings.
It's those books where he just relates the facts and doesn't either strongly agree or disagree with his protaganist that he seems to me to be most detached and unengaging - which brings us back to Inversions and Windward and, even The Business to an extent.
Anyway, Garbadale doesn't see Banks breaking new ground - far from it - but it's touching, clever and heartfelt, at one point so brilliantly funny I laughed out loud on the train, and written with such seemingly effortless facility that it marks a highpoint for Banks' literary technique if nothing else.
He then quotes one of my fave passages from the book and laments its inclusion.
He's not wrong - the authorial voice does break through sometimes but I like it when that happens. I don't necessarily always want an author to retain a cool distance from his work.
Those of Banks' books where he does most explicitly so - Inversions springs to mind, as does Look To Windward - seem to me to be his most unsatisfying, bloodless tomes. I want a bit of perhaps ill considered passion to seep through in the writing, it reminds me I'm reading a piece of work by a person of strong principles.
"In fact, some of Banks’s best work is where he tells a story from a point of view he doesn’t agree with," adds mty friend, and he's right. But even then the very act of forcing himself to write from an opposing viewpoint is revealing of Banks' feelings.
It's those books where he just relates the facts and doesn't either strongly agree or disagree with his protaganist that he seems to me to be most detached and unengaging - which brings us back to Inversions and Windward and, even The Business to an extent.
Anyway, Garbadale doesn't see Banks breaking new ground - far from it - but it's touching, clever and heartfelt, at one point so brilliantly funny I laughed out loud on the train, and written with such seemingly effortless facility that it marks a highpoint for Banks' literary technique if nothing else.
January 18, 2016
Feckin' hell, I'm chuffed! Wanted an audiobook to make the tedious work I'm doing more bearable, stumped to the library in search of something that I wouldn't otherwise read (I usually go for trashy beach reads a laBridget Jones or something of that ilk when I'm after a book on tape; don't want to ruin a good read, you know). Saw 'Iain Banks' and confused him with 'Iain M. Banks', figured some space opera would do the trick nicely, but found this hilarious brit-lit romp instead!
J'adore!! I love writers that can reproduce the sounds of English language dialects (think Irvine Welsh and his Trainspotting et. al crew), and Banks does this masterfully. I'm one of those lucky readers that can 'hear' voices in her head; I've no problem conjuring David Sedaris' nasal tones, for example). That talent would have stood me in good stead here but was completely unnecessary, as narrator Peter Kenny was spot on in his fabulous renderings. He convincingly portrayed a quite large & diverse cast of characters ranging from all over the British Empire.
Suffice it to say, I'll read more of Iain-without-an-em (probably The Crow Road first, as I saw that several reviewers suggested that Garbadale is just a pale version of that). And I won't make the mistake of relegating his sci-fi writings to the audiobooks only category again, either; anybody that can write like this deserves to be read in text form.
J'adore!! I love writers that can reproduce the sounds of English language dialects (think Irvine Welsh and his Trainspotting et. al crew), and Banks does this masterfully. I'm one of those lucky readers that can 'hear' voices in her head; I've no problem conjuring David Sedaris' nasal tones, for example). That talent would have stood me in good stead here but was completely unnecessary, as narrator Peter Kenny was spot on in his fabulous renderings. He convincingly portrayed a quite large & diverse cast of characters ranging from all over the British Empire.
Suffice it to say, I'll read more of Iain-without-an-em (probably The Crow Road first, as I saw that several reviewers suggested that Garbadale is just a pale version of that). And I won't make the mistake of relegating his sci-fi writings to the audiobooks only category again, either; anybody that can write like this deserves to be read in text form.
September 29, 2013
Alban McGill is a member of the wealthy Scottish Wopuld family, who have built a fortune on a game called Empire! (which resembles Risk, and involves taking over the world). Alban has abdicated his place in the family, and has been slumming for the past few years, working as a forester, hanging out with decidedly non-upper-class friends, and slowly building a relationship with a commitment-phobic math-genius outdoorswoman/professor. However, a big family reunion is calling him back into the fold. An American corporation wants to buy out the Wopulds, and they need to vote on whether or not to go through with the deal. Alban is reluctant to go - not least because it will mean seeing his cousin Sophie again - the girl who was his first love, and who still stirs up all kinds of nasty whirlpools of emotion whenever Alban encounters her.
As the novel progresses, we gradually learn more about Alban, his relationship with Sophie, the complexities, oddities, and dark secrets of the Wopuld family - and not least, the repercussions involved with the possibility of giving up Empire! (With some quite blatant but rather wonderful political metaphors and outright rants.)
Banks is one of my favorite authors, so my expectations for one of his books are always high - but this novel did not disappoint. I do think he should have gone with its working title (Empire!), though.
As the novel progresses, we gradually learn more about Alban, his relationship with Sophie, the complexities, oddities, and dark secrets of the Wopuld family - and not least, the repercussions involved with the possibility of giving up Empire! (With some quite blatant but rather wonderful political metaphors and outright rants.)
Banks is one of my favorite authors, so my expectations for one of his books are always high - but this novel did not disappoint. I do think he should have gone with its working title (Empire!), though.
November 4, 2021
I don't read a lot of romances and this was a good one, and written from a male perspective which is even rarer to me.
I really enjoyed this element of the book and was always hopeful that Sophie or VG would be in the next chapter.
But the romance is wrapped in a story about the death of the main character's (Alban) mother and the imminent sale of the family business.
I found this part of the story a bit boring as there is so little at stake.
Alban has a great step mum and doesn't seem that bothered about his biological mother - a woman he hardly remembers and never really questioned her death. So I didn't care what happened.
The same with the sale of the family business, no one really cares about it being sold - either way some rich people get a bit richer, the only thing in question is by how much.
Win stands out as a great character, the matriarch who oversees and directs the family affairs from the family mansion in the remote highlands. I loved the way she switched from formidable, savvy business woman to frail old lady whenever needed.
The rest of the family just kind of drifts in and out like clouds and I often forgot who they were.
Overall I really enjoyed this but I did find my interest sagging at several points in the middle.
I really enjoyed this element of the book and was always hopeful that Sophie or VG would be in the next chapter.
But the romance is wrapped in a story about the death of the main character's (Alban) mother and the imminent sale of the family business.
I found this part of the story a bit boring as there is so little at stake.
Alban has a great step mum and doesn't seem that bothered about his biological mother - a woman he hardly remembers and never really questioned her death. So I didn't care what happened.
The same with the sale of the family business, no one really cares about it being sold - either way some rich people get a bit richer, the only thing in question is by how much.
Win stands out as a great character, the matriarch who oversees and directs the family affairs from the family mansion in the remote highlands. I loved the way she switched from formidable, savvy business woman to frail old lady whenever needed.
The rest of the family just kind of drifts in and out like clouds and I often forgot who they were.
Overall I really enjoyed this but I did find my interest sagging at several points in the middle.
February 22, 2008
This was reminding me of another book of his (although I'm only 80-some pages in), and all I had to do was look at other reviews to recall its name - The Crow Road. Yup, I agree with all of you - smells like The Crow Road.
I read this quickly - couldn't wait to get back to it - and found it enjoyable enough. But, it was quite predictable and I had a sense of deja vu the whole time. I'm glad Alban came to his senses; I was a getting tired of his sadsack rountine over an incident that was far in the past. Get over it! I wanted to yell. This proves yet again, I guess, that I'm not the romantic type. I also felt a little uncomfortable when Alban was railing against the USA. Guilty as charged, but these passages seemed very forced (and all at once) at the end of the book.
I think I enjoyed the way Banks put his words together here more than the actual plot.
I read this quickly - couldn't wait to get back to it - and found it enjoyable enough. But, it was quite predictable and I had a sense of deja vu the whole time. I'm glad Alban came to his senses; I was a getting tired of his sadsack rountine over an incident that was far in the past. Get over it! I wanted to yell. This proves yet again, I guess, that I'm not the romantic type. I also felt a little uncomfortable when Alban was railing against the USA. Guilty as charged, but these passages seemed very forced (and all at once) at the end of the book.
I think I enjoyed the way Banks put his words together here more than the actual plot.
May 9, 2008
A bit of a shaggy beast of a novel. Full of good things, the usual dry Banks wit, clear cut (I am being complimentary) characters, fumbling adolescent sex and adolescent lovelorn lollopings, some neat observations on the business world, a few great and memorbale scenes, a highly unusual use of the first person narrator (which is worth considering if you move a bit deeper), a focus on the specific dysfunctionality of one family standing in for all families, and a real page turner, easygoing confection of a book. The plot and themes showed at the seams, and wilted more than once. He seems to have been content with an unsuitable lens that renders everything a bit out of focus, and low budget. He would do better, Banks, to spend longer on reaching less people, and taking more time and care with his stuff, because he has it in him to do better than this.
July 5, 2012
I'm quite disappointed in this book, because I love reading Ian, or Iain Banks. I love the interplay of ideas in his books, the thoughful challenge. This book is about a man, who I think can best be described as an arrogant, self-important, sarcastic little s**t. He takes a walk through memory lane focusing on his lovers, whilst getting very involved in the proposed sale of his family's firm, though peversely professing very little interest in that sale. His Mum killed herself, and he is haunted by nightmares about it, and sure enough he finds out more than he wants to about that unhappy event by the end - and SPOILER ALERT, in the best chick lit tradition he ends up wealthy and with a devoted companion without deserving either.
I was never exactly bored whilst reading the book, but it was a near thing.
I was never exactly bored whilst reading the book, but it was a near thing.
September 9, 2014
A holiday impulse buy that i read over a couple of days. I've heard a lot about the author but never read anything by him and chose this one at random...Loved the start, loved the shifts in narrative and the way that the story kicked off. Kind of reminded me of the Crow Road in many ways - young male protagonist, wealthy family and a Scottish Estate - its all there and actually its OK. Banks creates convincing characters here and I felt that they were consistently believable. But somewhere around the middle I started skipping some of the longer passages because I felt that somebody was lecturing me and it really didn't seem to be moving the story on. The end of the book happened but to be truthful it could have happened sooner.
I'll try another one...
I'll try another one...
July 4, 2008
Disappointing outing for Iain Banks. This is a re-write of The Crow Road. The rambling scottish house, the eccentric set of relatives, a unresolved family secret, a sexually frustrated "hero" harbouring yearnings for an unattainable cousin, it was all there. You can even subsitute VG for Ash as the rock solid, no-nonsense love interest that you just know is going to win through in the end.
It is not a bad story, but if you have read any Iain Banks novels it is all just becoming a little too familiar.
It is not a bad story, but if you have read any Iain Banks novels it is all just becoming a little too familiar.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2008
My copy of this book has a quote on the cover, from The Sunday Telegraph "As good as anything Banks has ever written, if not better". Maybe they meant it totally ironically. In my opinion it´s just the opposite, probably the worst novel Banks yet wrote*.
*But I have not read Song of Stone or Canal Dreams yet. And I rather like The Business.
*But I have not read Song of Stone or Canal Dreams yet. And I rather like The Business.
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