When the Wasp Factory was first published in 1984, reviewers did not seem to understand the story. They criticised the book for its matter-of-fact descriptions of violence towards animals and children and seemed to know nothing of the author, Iain Banks, as it was his first published novel.
But the reviews would not matter, for The Wasp Factory would become a best-seller and would jettison Banks’ career to allow him to write full time and become one of the best Scottish authors of all time.
So, what was it about The Wasp Factory that made it so controversial, when the likes of Stephen King and James Herbert were kicking about around the same time?
I don’t think it was necessarily the violence itself but really the first-person narration of Frank Cauldhame, a sixteen-year-old boy living on an island in Scotland with his distant, somewhat eccentric father who has kept Frank in isolation for most of his life by not registering him for a birth certificate and home-schooling him.
Frank may be the protagonist of the story, but he’s far from being the hero. He’s a misogynist, kills small animals around the island he lives on and admits candidly to killing three children in rather cruel, inventive ways, referring to it as nothing more than just a stage he was going through.
At the start of the novel, Frank’s brother - Eric- has escaped from the mental hospital. We know more about Eric than Frank straight away; he was once a promising a young man with a bright future ahead of him, only to become severely mentally unstable and became a menace to the locals. There is a sense of excitement yet fear from Frank who idolises and cherishes his brother; it is one of the few times we witness any feelings of affection from him.
Apart from the occasional visit to the pub, we rarely ever leave the island. This isn’t familiar territory, this is Frank’s world, his laws and his religion and we are nothing more than stranded tourists trudging along with him.
The Wasp Factory is a short read, consisting only of 244 pages, but the way it lures you into Frank’s isolated world is hypnotic, deadly, and disturbing. It shrouds everything in mystery as he shines quick but brief flashes to his ritualistic activities from his sacrifice poles to the infamous wasp factory which he worships. He’s not the only one with secrets though; His father keeps the door to the office locked and Frank wants nothing more than to discover what is hiding inside.
Everything unravels at a slow, nail-biting pace, brilliantly building up suspense to the climatic ending when all the doors in the wasp factory are burst wide open, exposing all the family skeletons in the closet that will shock the reader. It is a reveal unlike any other and will stay long with you even when you finish the book.
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