Saturday 4th August

The wonderful Iain Banks has written some great books, I would hardly call them novels, as they have consistently refused to fall into that category, but blow me down it looks like he might have written one at last.  He alternates, writing weird contemporary thrillers and futuristic science fiction (under the name of Iain M Banks).  His last contemporary book was a flop, I cannot even remember the title but it was about transitioning between different worlds, and somehow failed to convince.  I was therefore a bit wary about his latest effort Stonemouth, but I have read so many great books of his I forgave the one before last.  Surprise surpise, this was really a love story, not only a fairly conventional one; boy meets girl, boy fucks up, boy loses girl, boy get girl back again, but far more than that this was a love song about the East Scottish coast where Iain came from.  The descriptions of the mist shrouded and desolate expanses of sea and beach and forest are beautiful, but this novel is also very much about the here and now, i-phones and gadgets and young professionals partaking of drugs and sex.  There is the necessary spice of a jealous family and a sprinkling of violence just so you realise he hasn’t gone completely soft on us.  The sense of threat and oncoming resolution is nicely contained and the story is well paced with a few vital flashbacks at just the right places.  In the end it leaves you wanting more of the town called Stonemouth and its young protagonists, always the sign of a good book .  And one suspects that the hero Stu, bears more than a passing resemblance to Iain himself.  So eight out of ten, and now leave me alone while I sink back into the well-upholstered soft furnishing of yet another Anthony Trollope.