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From: Ron
, 661 months, post #1 |
"It's almost impossible to describe this book"???? I wish someone
had.
Because it's on the list, I assumed some change happens. None does,
and It's
all really depraved and grotesque. If you have a chance to order
it, Don't!
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From: anonymous
, 661 months, post #2 |
SHE WAS A GIRL ALL ALONG!
...Just given hormones, dressed like, and made to believe she was a
guy. (Yup, a well deserved spoiler.)
Zero transformation takes place amidst vile, dreary, nihilistic
horrorpunk narrative.
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From: Anne-Mal
, 284 months, post #3 |
Yes, this was a dreary book and I do not recommend it. But it does
deserve to be here since it is one gender being brought up as
another.
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From: Corwin
, 284 months, post #4 |
Atrocious!
Appalling!
Disgusting!
and worthless!
Strictly cross dressing. There is no change. It's inconceivable
what the author was thinking and whoever stuck this ditty on this
list must not have read it.
Beyond bleccch!
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From: A. Beeker
, 262 months, post #5 |
Summary: Frank, while out checking his totem like sacrifice poles
that are scattered around the Cauldhame owned island, notices the
local policeman coming to the island for a visit. As his presence
is something that the rest of the world is not, in a legal sense,
aware of he keeps out of sight and awaits Diggs' departure. To
amuse himself he spends time using his catapult and inspecting the
island for more items for his sacrifice poles.
Once he returns to the house he is informed by his father that
Diggs brought news of his mad brother, Eric, having escaped from
the high security insititution where he was being kept. It is now
feared that he is returning to the island and it's surrounds,
perhaps to embark once again on a campaign of burning dogs and
trying to feed the local village children worms. Frank, having been
warned enigmaticly by the Wasp Factory of this, has premonitions of
dread and feels sure that this was the news the factory had been
trying to tell him.
There then ensues preperations as Frank tries to strengthen the
protection his sacrifice poles, weapons caches and various other
facilities dotted around the island can offer. In the course of
doing this family history is revealed in a series of, dispersed,
flashbacks to past events. We are told the means by which he has
disposed of his three murder victims (one by snake, one by large
kite and a final one by bomb) and the reasons for each of the
murders. Also revealed is the primary cause of Eric's madness.
(Lets just say it ties in with headaches and worms, and leave it at
that.)
Further it is revealed that Frank has been castrated by an accident
involving the family dog when he was younger. During these days of
preperation Frank receives sporadic phone calls from his brother
Eric signalling that he does indeed plan to return home, although
not why he wants to return. At the end of about the fourth day of
this he finds evidence of his brothers presence in the area, namely
one almost dead burnt dog.
Returning home he begins a vigil in the loft of the house keeping
lookout for his brother's approach. His father, having received
word through channels unknown of Erics arrival, had left for town -
ringing once in a drunken state to try and get Frank to leave the
house. Returning home, still fairly drunk, he tries call Frank out
but in the end finishes up sleeping on his own bed.
Frank, having seen no sign of his brother and actually having
fallen asleep for a few hours, comes down from the loft to find
that his father has left the study keys out. Seizing the
opportunity to see what is in the study Frank uses the keys and is
confronted with a specimin jar containing a small, immature and
torn set of male genitals. Furthermore finding male hormones and
tampons it's his Father's desk in the study he becomes enraged,
suspecting his father of being a female transvestite.
Confronting his still not sober father Frank discovers, much to his
surprise, that his father is not a female transvestite but in fact
a bona-fidde male. Before he can cogitate on this Eric signals his
much anticipated arrival by setting fire to, and panicing, a whole
herd of sheep. In the ensuing kerfuffle Eric manages to obtain an
axe to compliment his burning torch and procedes to try and break
into the basement of the house where, for family historical
reasons, a large cache of ex-naval cordite is stored.
Suceedingly in opening the door Eric then fails in his attempt to
light the cordite and runs off into the night again, leaving behind
a fairly substantial mess. After effecting temporary repairs to the
basement door Frank returns inside to be told the truth about why
his father has male hormones and tampons locked in his study. It is
revealed that Frank is not actually Frank, but rather Frances -
with the attendant implications to gender the name implies.
Awaking the next morning and still stunned by all the revelations
the previous night has brought, Frances (aka Frank) discovers her
brother still sleeping out on the island and has an epiphany about
her life to date and the motivations behind her actions. Reflecting
on that and other events she muses that Eric is now going to be
even more confused than before after having fought so hard to
return home to see his father and brother, only to now be greeted
by his father and sister.
Comments: This is a book that won't be to many people's taste. It
details, in a fair amount of detail, a sordid little world where
animal mutilation and mis-treatment is commonplace. Even ignoring
the physical acts themselves the psychological aspects of the novel
can be downright unpleasant as more and more of the relationships
in Frank's family are revealed.
But for all that, and with a reasonably fortified stomach, the book
has an appeal to it that is hard to resist. Perhaps it is
fascinated horror as you await the next grisly twist in the tale.
Or it is more the black humour present throughout the novel.
Whatever it is the book makes an absorbing and terribly funny read.
One of the more disturbing aspects of the book is realising exactly
what it is you are laughing about.
The book does describe some quite vicious acts in detail, along
with the justification and psychology behind them. This is done so
adeptly that you never really question why the character is acting
in the ways they do. It merely all hangs together as a part of the
grisly puzzle of what went on in Cauldhame history.
I loved this book and I can see why Iain made such a splash with it
when he was introduced to the literary world with this books
release. He includes a variety of quotes, mostly the more vicious
ones, at the front of the book in the reprinted editions so you can
get some idea of how the reviewers of the time felt about the book.
All in all a complex, well told tale that has me just wondering if
it wasn't all a massive semi-private joke on Iain's part about
Freudian psychology.
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