This novel was originally published in the UK in 1992 and was the basis for a popular BBC series. Banks himself has said the novel is “about Death, Sex, Faith, cars, Scotland, and drink.” What he doesn’t say is that it is also darkly funny as it follows ne’er-do-well Glasgow student Prentice McHoan’s struggle to come to terms with his family, his beliefs, and his burning, unrequited love for beautiful Verity Walker. From its startling opening sentence (“It was the day my grandmother exploded”) to its bittersweet conclusion 500 pages later (“I raised my arms to the open sky, and said, ‘Ha!’”), Banks revels in techniques ranging from saucy dialogue to hilarious first-person narration to intense descriptions of class, place, and religion. The Scots dialect and sudden shifts in time and point of view may, at first, be confusing, but readers who persevere will be richly rewarded. A deeply felt portrait of a young man who, in between rounds of pints and an illegal substance or three, learns to face up to the darkness of life and love. --Joanne Wilkinson
Description:
From Publishers Weekly
When Prentice McHoan, the irrepressible hero of Banks's wily novel whose loves include drink, cars, girls and history, returns from university in Glasgow to his family home in Gallanach for his grandmother's funeral, his thoughts turn to his uncle Rory, a travel writer who disappeared eight years earlier. When Prentice runs into Janice, an old girlfriend of Rory's, the two wonder together if Rory has gone away the Crow Road (Scottish for died), and Janice reveals that Rory gave her a folder of his poems and notes before he disappeared. Rory's writings are tantalizingly cryptic and turn out to include outlines for a novel-in-progress titled Crow Road. Fueled by his uncle's notes, his own curiosity and a good bit of brown liquor, Prentice sets off to find his uncle in an engaging narrative that admirably balances bawdy Scottish humor, crafty character development and some good old-fashioned mystery. Prentice finds his closure—for better or for worse—and things are tied up neatly (maybe too neatly) by the end. Readers unfamiliar with Banks's prodigious output have a great starting point here. (Aug.)
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From
This novel was originally published in the UK in 1992 and was the basis for a popular BBC series. Banks himself has said the novel is “about Death, Sex, Faith, cars, Scotland, and drink.” What he doesn’t say is that it is also darkly funny as it follows ne’er-do-well Glasgow student Prentice McHoan’s struggle to come to terms with his family, his beliefs, and his burning, unrequited love for beautiful Verity Walker. From its startling opening sentence (“It was the day my grandmother exploded”) to its bittersweet conclusion 500 pages later (“I raised my arms to the open sky, and said, ‘Ha!’”), Banks revels in techniques ranging from saucy dialogue to hilarious first-person narration to intense descriptions of class, place, and religion. The Scots dialect and sudden shifts in time and point of view may, at first, be confusing, but readers who persevere will be richly rewarded. A deeply felt portrait of a young man who, in between rounds of pints and an illegal substance or three, learns to face up to the darkness of life and love. --Joanne Wilkinson