The Crow Road
by Iain Banks
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Book Summary Information
Author: Iain BanksEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-07-28
ISBN: 1596923075
Number of pages: 501
Publisher: MacAdam/Cage Publishing
Book Reviews of The Crow Road
Book Review: More traditional novel for Iain Banks, and still entertaining!
Summary: 4 Stars
Sometimes there's a lot of meaning and power in a simple opening line. "Call me Ishmael." Now there's a classic.
How about, "It was the day my grandmother exploded."
That's how The Crow Road begins, with a taste of the macabre, gloom, and, well, action in a perverse way. But this opening line morphs into something understandable, and the novel begins.
Prentice McHoan, is obsessed with his missing Uncle Rory and the untouchable beauty Verity. McHoan's family has its idiocentricities, and there is tension regarding religion, politics, and relationships.
""But dad, Mrs. McBeath says there is so a God, and you'll go to a bad place.'
'Mrs. McBeath is an idiot.'
'No she's a teacher, dad! She's a teacher!' (p. 25-26).
As Kenneth and Prentice were discussing the very sudden death of one of Prentice's friends. Kenneth said "'Fairness is something we made up... It's an idea. The universe isn't fair or unfair; it works by mathematics, physics, chemistry, biochemistry... Things happen; it takes a mind to come along and call them fair or not.'" (p. 337). And later, Kenneth argues, "'You're too frightened to admit how big everything else is, what the scales of the universe are, compared to ours; distance and time. You can't accept that individually, we're microscopic; here for an eye-blink. Might be headed for better things, but no guarantees. Trouble is, people can't believe they're not the centre of things, so they come up with all these pathetic stories about God and life after death and life before birth, but that's cowardice. Sheer cowardice. And because it's the product of cowardice, it promotes it; 'The Lord is my shepherd'. Thanks a ... lot. So we've got to live like sheep'" (p. 337).
Banks flows the story between generations, focusing on Kenneth, McHoan's father, and McHoan. There is a lot of storytelling, real and imagined.
The title? "Her flat was on Crow Road, not all that far away, down near Jordanhill. As she showed me into the place, down a hall lined with old movie posters, I asked her if she'd heard Grandma Margot use the saying:away the Crow Road (or the Craw Rod, if she was being especially broad-accented that day). It meant dying; being dead. 'Aye, he's away the crow road," meant 'He's dead.'" (p. 126).
There's mystery developed in this book, and Banks works to tie off all the loose strings before the end. Enjoy.
Summary of The Crow Road
From its bravura opening onwards, THE CROW ROAD is justly regarded as an outstanding contemporary novel. 'It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach's Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.' Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Full of questions about the McHoan past, present and future, he is also deeply preoccupied: mainly with death, sex, drink, God and illegal substances.Contemporary Books
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