I bet that approximately half of the reviews of 'The Crow Road' contain the opening sentence within them - and it truly is a remarkable one;

'It was the day my grandmother exploded.' If you add the next sentence, you begin to get a sense of the book;

'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.' This book leans more towards the territory of Marian Keyes (yes, really!) rather than the excessive violence and gore found in 'The Wasp Factory' or 'Canal Dreams'.

I recently 'discovered' Banks (embarrassingly, I had thought he was a crime mystery writer for some indefinable reason). The four books I have read since then are astonishingly different. This Scottish family saga/coming-of-age story is, so far, the best one. The only reason it doesn't receive a full five stars is because of the overly long last third. Nevertheless, it is still good reading. This story could have done without the 'murder mystery' aspect, which feels almost tacked on and takes over a bit too much.

Banks' narrative requires some getting used to. The narrator switches between the main protagonist and third person and jumps between the present day and the past (often twice or even three times on a single page). However, once you become immersed, it works. The characters are truly excellent and well-developed, keeping you oriented throughout. Highly recommended!

Banks's book truly captivated me. Despite its nearly 600 pages, I finished it in just two and a half days as it was a page-turner. The writing style was a perfect fit for me, with its constant mild irony and exaggeration, the interweaving of multiple time periods, and the family saga based on the father (Kenneth) and son (Prentice) narrative. It was like a cup of tea that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The storyline about the search for the missing uncle Rory initially seemed like a side plot but ended up being the catalyst for the entire story. Paradoxically, it wasn't Rory's various escapades and adventures that defined his life but the novel he decided to write based on the family history. The countless bizarre situations that Banks imagined, from the grandmother's explosion at the beginning to Kenneth's death by a lightning strike on the church roof and Fergus's final flight, all form a wonderful mosaic of the story.

Ironically, it's hardest to write about such books as the basic plot is constantly disrupted by a series of subplots, and only from the context of all these diverse parts does the final picture emerge, just like in life. For me, this was definitely a great experience, and I'm looking forward to reading more of Banks's works soon.

I truly adored this book.

It is an utterly absorbing, delightfully warm, hilariously funny, and exquisitely written Scottish family saga and coming of age tale. There is also a considerable amount of intrigue interwoven into the narrative.

The fractured and jumpy timeline was initially a bit off-putting. However, once you manage to settle into the rhythm and get to know the characters, it functions extremely well.

Prentice, around whom the story revolves, is a captivating narrator. I found myself truly invested in his story.

This book is certain to become an all-time favorite! It has all the elements that make a great read - engaging characters, a fascinating plot, and beautiful writing. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a heartwarming and entertaining story.

I can't wait to read more by this author.

Rereading this book has been an absolute pleasure. It evokes a sense of nostalgia that is both profound and bittersweet. The story unfolds in a subtle and nuanced way, drawing the reader in and keeping them engaged from start to finish. Even the explosion in the first chapter, which might seem jarring at first, serves to set the tone and create a sense of mystery and anticipation. As I turn the pages, I find myself transported to another time and place, fully immersed in the world that the author has created. The characters are vivid and real, their emotions palpable. I can't help but feel a connection to them, as if they are old friends. This book is a true gem, one that I will undoubtedly return to again and again.

If I could choose no stars, I would have.

I really cannot stand books that have characters I don't care about. In this jumble of family, extended family, and friends of the family, no one was even remotely memorable.

I could care less about their issues as well. I read this book because it's on the 1001 books list and I had never read anything by Iain Banks before - and I wasn't missing anything.

The reviews for this book were great, so I was very disappointed in its lack of, well, everything! It was far from brilliant. Nor was it funny, 'exhilarating', or phenomenal.

It seems like when the story is seriously lagging, Banks just throws in things like "oh, and we did drugs" and "oh, someone else dies".

The one thing I did like was laughing about how it semi-tries to be a murder mystery. What was that about?

If this novel is a representation of modern British literature, I want nothing to do with it.

I expected so much more from a book with such high praise, but it failed to deliver on almost every front.

The characters were flat, the story was unengaging, and the writing style didn't do much for me either.

I'm glad I read it to cross it off my list, but I won't be recommending it to anyone.

This book is presented in a highly non-linear style.

At the start, it was extremely challenging to fathom what was unfolding.

However, once I grasped the rhythm of the narrative, a well-written and captivating story of a family in Scotland emerged.

Banks did an outstanding job with characterization.

Not only did he define the characters clearly, but he also made me deeply invested in their fates.

This is a slower-paced book that managed to maintain my interest until the very end.

In fact, it left me longing for more.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a unique and engaging read.

It offers a refreshing departure from the traditional linear storytelling and provides a rich and immersive experience.

The detailed characterization and the development of the family's story make it a truly memorable read.

Whether you are a fan of Scottish literature or simply enjoy a good story, this book is definitely worth checking out.

If you desire a thoroughly engaging, wickedly humorous Scottish family saga that is filled with often strange, complexly convoluted intrigue and sibling rivalry and such, then look no further, as they say, you know?

‘Did I ever tell you about the time I used to be able to make televisions go wonky, from far away?’

It was a bright and warm day, during that same summer when Rory had come to the Hebrides with us. Rory and I were strolling near Gallanach, moving from the marked rocks in one field to the stone circle in another. I recall having a pain in my side that day and fretting that it might be appendicitis (one of the boys in my class that year had nearly died when his appendix ruptured). It was just a stitch, though. Uncle Rory was a brisk walker and I was determined to keep up with him; my appendix waited another year before it required removal.

We had been visiting some of the ancient monuments in the area and had begun discussing what the people who had built the cairns and stone circles had believed in, which then led us to astrology. Then suddenly he mentioned this thing about televisions.

‘Making them go wonky?’ I said. ‘No.’

‘Well,’ Rory said, and then turned and looked behind us. We stood on the verge as a couple of cars passed by. It was hot; I took off my jacket. ‘Well,’ Rory repeated, ‘I was... a few years older than you are now, I guess. I was at a friend’s house, and a group of us were watching Top of the Pops or something, and I was humming along with a record. I hit a certain deep note, and the TV screen went wavy. Nobody else said anything, and I wondered if it was just a coincidence, so I tried to do it again, and after some adjusting I hit the right note and sure enough, the screen went wavy again. Still nobody said anything.’ Rory laughed at the memory. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and carried a light jacket over his shoulder.

‘Well, I didn’t want to make a fool of myself, so I didn’t say anything. I thought maybe it only worked on that one particular television set, so I tried it at home; and it still happened. The effect seemed to work from quite a distance, too. When I stood out in the hall and looked into the lounge, it was still there, stronger than ever.

‘Then we were going up to Glasgow, my mum and I, and we were passing a shop window full of TVs, and so I tried this new gift for messing up TV screens on them, and hummed away to myself, and all the screens went wild! And I was thinking Great, I really can do magic! The effect is getting stronger! I could appear on TV and do this! Maybe it would make everybody’s screens go weird!’

‘Wow,’ I said, eager to get home and try this myself.

‘So,’ Rory said. ‘I stopped in my tracks and I asked my mum. I said, “Mum; watch this. Watch those screens.” And I hummed for all I was worth, and the pictures on the screens went wavy. And my mum just looked at me and said, “What?” And I did it again, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get her to see the effect. Eventually she got fed up with me and told me to stop being silly. I had screens going crazy in every TV shop we passed in Glasgow that day, but nobody else seemed to be able to see it.’

Rory grimaced, looking across the edge of the plain beyond Gallanach to the little rocky hill that jutted up from the flat fields.

‘Now, I wish I could remember just what it was that made the penny drop, but I can’t. I mean, usually a beautiful assistant says something stupid and the clever scientist says, “Say that again!” and then comes up with the brilliant plan that’s going to save the world as we know it...but as far as I remember it just came to me.’

‘What?’ I said.

Rory grinned down at me. ‘Vibrations,’ he said.

‘Vibrations?’

‘Yeah. The vibrations I was setting up in my own skull - actually in the eyeball, I suppose - were making my eyes vibrate at about the same frequency as the TV screen flickers. So the screen looked funny, but only to me, that was the point. And it made sense that the further away you were from the screen - as long as you could still make it out, of course - the more pronounced the effect would appear.’ He looked down at me. ‘You see?’

‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘I think so.’ I studied the road for a bit, then looked up, disappointed. ‘So it doesn’t really work after all?’

Rory shook his head. ‘Not the way I thought it did, no,’ he said.

The Wasp Factory was a book of raw brilliance. It spoke to me like no other book before.

There was the paternal disconnect, the playful violence, and a psychopathic anti-hero who, paradoxically, was easy to identify and empathise with.

If not zeitgeist, then it felt like a book of its time - something that just needed to exist, even if Banks himself hadn't written it.

The Crow Road is a return to form. After The Wasp Factory, Banks seemed to lose his way a little.

He was trying to recapture the brilliance of the first book while growing as a writer. Each subsequent book became better in terms of story and writing, but got further away from what made The Wasp Factory so great.

Canal Dreams was a low point for Banks. It was an effort to write a political thriller rather than a book about something.

It had a good plot structure and a protagonist that stretched his imagination, but it was tedious. After the failure of Canal Dreams, Banks went back to The Wasp Factory for inspiration.

The Crow Road starts with a funeral, ends with a murder mystery, and has deaths throughout. It returns to the familiar ground of Scotland and deals with family issues, sibling rivalry, and a troubled paternal relationship.

It ponders the meaning of death and mocks religious explanations. While it doesn't capture the magic of his first book, it has some outstanding writing that is engaging and surprising.

It even has a satisfying ending. The Crow Road will appeal to fans, but in some ways, that's its failing.

The elements that once felt so close to my heart now seem naive or clumsy. The politics and atheistic proselytizing can be annoying.

But after 20 years of avoiding Banks's non-genre works, it was enjoyable to rediscover him in The Crow Road.

I was truly disappointed by this book. After reading a bit under 200 pages, I simply had to stop.

My head was constantly spinning due to the incessant back-and-forth of the flashbacks and forwards. Perhaps the author believed it would be amusing to make us guess what time period we were in and who the effective narrator was at any given moment. However, I found it more of a burden than enjoyable.

I also have the impression that the author aspires to be a bit like Nabokov with his language. He sprinkles in fifty-dollar words like "susurration." While it can be interesting when I understand their meaning, otherwise, it feels like an unnecessary display of elitist intellect. If Nabokov dances with words, Banks merely ushers them around.

Finally, and most importantly, is the story itself. To avoid spoilers, I'll be vague. I didn't sense much dramatic tension. I didn't feel as if there was a significant problem to be solved. I didn't fall in love with any of the characters and have a desperate desire to know what would happen to them. The world created was too distant and overly proud of its Scottishisms for me to fully immerse myself in.

I left with the feeling that I was walking out of an art theatre showing a slow and pointless movie, beloved by critics for its resemblance to other plodding stories. Maybe Banks wants this to be his "Portrait of the Artist." But it simply wasn't for me.

PS I do feel a bit bad for being so negative. I would be willing to read more by this author if he doesn't try to conform too much to literary tradition. I believe he has a lot to offer on his own terms.

The original article: 3.5/5

Expanded article:

The rating of 3.5 out of 5 is a rather interesting assessment.

It indicates that the subject being evaluated has both positive aspects and areas that could use some improvement.

A score of 3.5 suggests that it is above average, but not quite at the level of excellence.

Perhaps it has some notable features or qualities that make it stand out, yet there are also certain不足之处 that prevent it from receiving a higher rating.

This rating can serve as a useful guide for others who are considering the same subject, as it provides a balanced view of its strengths and weaknesses.

Overall, 3.5/5 is a rating that shows potential and room for growth.

Banks' best non-sf books are those that are dark and creepy. It's truly astonishing to think that it has been 25 years since they were written. These books have such a unique atmosphere and storyline that they are crying out to be made into a movie. The vivid descriptions and engaging characters would translate perfectly onto the big screen, captivating audiences and leaving them on the edge of their seats. Imagine the intense emotions and spine-tingling moments that could be brought to life through the magic of cinema. It's a no-brainer that these books should be adapted into a movie. With the right director and cast, it could be a cinematic masterpiece that would haunt viewers long after the credits have rolled.

My favorite first line of a book ever is: “It was the day my grandmother exploded.”

This line immediately grabs the reader's attention and sets a tone that is both darkly humorous and mysterious. The use of the word “exploded” is so unexpected and outrageous that it makes you want to know more about what could have possibly happened.

The rest of the book does not disappoint. It continues to build on the themes introduced in the first line, maintaining a perfect balance of dark humor, mystery, and joy. The author's writing style is engaging and unique, making it a page-turner from start to finish.

If you're looking for a book that will make you laugh, gasp in surprise, and feel a range of emotions, then I highly recommend giving this one a read. You won't be disappointed.