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Walking on Glass by: Iain Banks

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Rating: - Three in one.

Walking On Glass consists of 3 seemingly distinct storylines, whose characters never actually meet, but whose tales seem curiously linked. The first tale concerns the hopelessly romantic artist Graham Park and his tentative affair with the mysterious Sara ffitch - a story that ends with a viciously unexpected twist. The second tale concerns the mishaps of the obviously mentally deluded Steven Grout, whose paranoia is taken to extremes both hilarious and tragic. Finally, long before Iain Banks clearly divided his science fiction output under the name Iain 'M' Banks, the third tale is of two prisoners forced to play games in a decaying castle on a far future Earth. Taken on their own each of the three tales is rich in language and character, with the storylines tending towards the tragic. The linking between the tales of Graham Park and Steven Grout are fairly direct, as one unknowingly affects the other, but the links to the far future tale are less explicit - are the two games players a delusion born of Stephen Grout's science fiction literature strewn room, or are the modern day characters themselves merely fiction? Are they two other metal patients glimpsed from afar at the novels end? Or are they voyeurs from the future influencing the actions of the modern day characters? Walking on Glass offers no definite answers, but offers a dream-like state where the characters tales dance around one another in a hypnotic fashion. The Wasp Factory was a vivid debut, but Iain Banks tops it with this startling second novel. Highly recommended.

Rating: - ...but you might enjoy it more

This is a novel based on the simple notion that all is not what it seems.

We have three separate stories, which we cycle through, so we have the first part of each story in turn, then the second part of each, and so on.

We make assumptions, we make presumptions and we draw early conclusions about the characters and the plot. Mostly because it is in our nature to do so, but also because Banks deliberately encourages us, steering us towards our undoing.

As a result the book is something of a game between author and reader. On a purely intellenctual level I would rate this 4 stars, but ultimately the book has to stand up as a good read, and on that basis its drops down to 3 stars.

It is certainly well written - clever and witty. But it suffers from its format. With 3 short stories there is no room to develop the cast, so we end up with a collection of cartoon characters. Devices rather than individuals.

Some books leave you wanting more. This left me amused but with no real sense of enrichment. But as I said at the beginning, you might enjoy it more.

Rating: - Another of Banks' Inspirational and involved novels.

What is our judgement reality? Banks creates three, twisted through a matrix of connections that seem to simaltaeously disprove one another. Each scenario is destroyed by logic, stripped bare by coincidence. The idea of reality Banks has us cling to creates an intricate web of mixed reality and confusion. An inspirational and complex universe created in the journey from an office to a girlfriend's flat. Amazing.

Rating: - is this really a novel?

Many reviewers seem to like this for its obscurity - that precisely what I disliked.

As others have stated this book has three parallel stories told in alternating chapters, and the reader reasonably expects that as the novel develops so links between these apparently disconnected stories will appear. They don't, other than a slightly contrived one between 2 of the stories to engineer the 'dramatic' ending. By which time I was too bored & irritated to care.

Walking on Glass is really a short story collection pretending to be a novel by mixing up the stories. By presenting it in the way he does Banks leaves lots of room for those with over active imaginations to find a 'deeper meaning' in the book. However there is little real substance here the individual stories are slight though told with Banks usual style.

One for Banks completists only, if you are looking for somewhere to start with him don't start here. I did and nearly didn't read any more of his books which would have been a mistake.

Rating: - Of human weakness; our fleshy souls.

This is a grabbing book for a number of reasons. Three stories, linked more by philosophy, and by the degree to which they represent the capacity for self deception, rather than by any intrinsic aspect of the plot(s), hang rather incongruously, but not to the detriment of the reality we are cast in.

The rare immediacy, and proximity, of the stories is framed in a vivd description of London, remarkably evokative for east end residents, and knowingly clever by its subtlety (although perhaps diminished by recent street refurbiushments and building.) Further realised in a naive and credulous, third person, account of the stories, this supends disbelief and places the whole in the realms of believability.

The three stories perhaps represent three levels of psychopathology avaliable to all of us in our vulnerable moments. The first is of a man caught in love's optimistic miasma; the second is of one struck by florid psychosis, this the highlight for its compassionate and objective perspective of a, presumably schizophrenic, man, and its witty insights into our capacity to find the invisible and paint it real; the last of a couple seemingly trapped in senile romance.

The knowing, and literary, events portrayed, in each character's story, are poignant and lasting reminders of our frailty. The concrete reality seems to haunt one in every passing estate agents, or lonely pub, or bored weekend of navel gazing.

fantastic

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