I love Iain Bank’s books but I
wouldn’t recommend them all because of their challenging content. His books are
often on reading lists for literature courses for older students. They usually
involve stories about dysfunctional families in Banks’ native Scotland. If you
treasure happy family life, his books are probably not for you. In this case,
the story is told by a 19-year old woman called Isis Whit (after the Egyptian
goddess, not the recent terror movement). Her grandfather founded a religious
cult in odd circumstances and all of the family are members. They live in a
closed community near Stirling. She is sent into the outside world on a
mission. It is a story about a young woman discovering herself, finding that
she has been lied to and about what she does with that knowledge. It tells of
how she copes with being let down by people she should have been able to trust.
Of Iain Banks’ books, I have found it one of the most sympathetic and
accessible.
