The Wasp Factory
First edition
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| Author | Iain Banks |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Macmillan |
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Publication date
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16 February 1984 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 420 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 22766221 |
The Wasp Factory is the first novel by Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1984. Before the publication of The Wasp Factory, Banks had written several science fiction novels that had not been accepted for publication. Banks decided to try a more mainstream novel in the hopes that it would be more readily accepted, and wrote about a psychopathic teenager living on a remote Scottish island. According to Banks, this allowed him to treat the story as something resembling science fiction – the island could be envisaged as a planet, and Frank, the protagonist, almost as an alien. Following the publication and success of The Wasp Factory, Banks began to write full-time and would go on to write several more novels before his death in 2013, including several acclaimed science fiction novels that formed the Culture series.
The Wasp Factory is written from a first person perspective, told by 16-year-old Francis Cauldhame ("Frank"), describing his childhood and all that remains of it. Frank observes many shamanistic rituals of his own invention, and it is soon revealed that Frank killed three children before he reached the age of ten himself.
The book sold well, but was greeted with a mixture of acclaim and controversy, due to its gruesome depiction of violence. The Irish Times called it "a work of unparalleled depravity."
The story is told from the perspective of 16-year-old Frank Cauldhame. Frank lives with his father on a small island in rural Scotland, and he has not seen his mother in many years. There is no official record of his birth, meaning his existence is largely unknown.
Frank occupies his time with rituals, building dams, and maintaining an array of weapons (a small catapult, pipe bombs and a crude flamethrower) for killing small animals around the island and the coastline. He takes long walks to patrol the island and occasionally gets drunk with his only friend, a dwarf named Jamie, in the local pub. Otherwise Frank has almost no contact with the outside world. He is haunted by the memory of a dog attack in his youth, which resulted in the loss of his genitalia. He resents others for his impotence, particularly women. This is in part due to the mauling coinciding with the last time he saw his absentee mother, who had come back to the island to give birth to his younger brother, leaving immediately after.
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