He resents others for his impotence, particularly women. He's haunted by the memory of a dog attack during his youth, which resulted in the loss of his genitalia. Otherwise, Frank has almost no contact with the outside world. He takes long walks to patrol the island and occasionally gets drunk with his only friend, a dwarf. There is no official record of his birth, meaning his existence is largely unknown.įrank 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. Frank lives with his father on a small island in rural Scotland, and he has not seen his mother in many years. The story is told from the perspective of 16-year-old Frank Cauldhame. The Irish Times called it 'a work of unparalleled depravity.' Plot The book sold well, but was greeted with a mixture of acclaim and criticism, due to its gruesome depiction of violence. 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 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. Following the success of The Wasp Factory, Banks began to write full-time.

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. 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. Before the publication of The Wasp Factory, Banks had written several science fiction novels that had not been accepted for publication. The Wasp Factory is the first novel by Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1984.

The wasp factory book