I like reading Banks' mainstream novels, as they always remind me why I should write more mainstream fiction. This was an enjoyable glimpse into a family, though the big reveal at the end kind of made me roll my eyes. But the writing was silky as always, which is a joy to read.

(Dug review out of the depths of LiveJournal.)

Anyway, this is the only book by Banks that I've liked other than Player of Games.

It's well-crafted (with the exception of the recipe in the middle). Not much else to say, other than the fact that he seems to write best when he's not trying to cover huge grey areas in as few words as possible or putting in stomach-twisting things just for the shock value. Which is as it should be, but it definitely isn't true of all the books of his that I've read.

If you only know Iain Banks from his science-fiction, you owe it to check out his non-fiction. Garbadale is an intimate portrait of a very screwed up business-family, as seen through the eyes of one of it's junior members. The book tends to amble without purpose, but the natural appeal of Banks' characters and writing carries through any slackness in the plot. Away from the spaceships and galactic espionage, Banks shows that its those we're closest too who can hurt us the most.

Very good read, if a bit slow at times. Probably not quite the right age to read it, but I still recommend it

I'd put it on my TBR list eons ago and couldn't remember why... and the book was not at all what I expected. But I utterly enjoyed it. Banks made his name with SciFi, written as Iain M. Banks. But this story unfolded well and good on this planet. It's about a large and wealthy Scottish family that has made oodles for generations from a game not unlike Monopoly. An American firm wants to buy them out. The story centers on a family black sheep, Alban, who moves through flashbacks of his childhood and his obsession with cousin Sophie as he comes to term with feelings for family, his role in the business and his love life.

Nothing deep nor particularly literary, just an engaging-enough plot, good humor, gorgeous settings and family secrets enough to keep the pages quickly turning. A true summer book. If I lived in a place that experienced summer, that is

Originally published on my blog here in March 2008.

My impression on reading The Steep Approach to Garbadale was that it was more a mixture of elements and ideas from Iain Banks' previous non-Culture novels (that is, those published without a middle initial) than a new story in its own right. The Wopuld family are rich on the back of a Victorian boardgame, now a successful computer game, but they are as dysfunctional as the Simpsons. When the novel opens, the protagonist, Alban, whose mother was a Wopuld, is estranged from the family and living on a Scottish council estate, not too close to the family's Highland estate at Garbadale. His problems with the family (and vice versa) started when his uncle and grandmother (the matriarch of the clan) found him having sex with his cousin Sophie, both being underage. The book, half flashback, tells how this happened and how the rest of Alban's life was affected (obviously Sophie's was too, but she is not the centre of the novel), up to the climactic event of the novel, an extraordinary general meeting of the Wopulds (as company shareholders) to decide whether to sell the company to an American corporation that wants to take over the game.

Comparing The Steep Approach to Garbadale to earlier novels, there is the anti-American-Imperialism, anti-Iraq War sentiment of [b:Dead Air|12006|Dead Air|Iain Banks|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348566073s/12006.jpg|919765], with Spraight Corp perhaps partly a symbol of American domination: the real winner of the game of Empire!. There is a Scottish family with dark secrets, like the one in [b:The Crow Road|12021|The Crow Road|Iain Banks|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1330063373s/12021.jpg|950451] (and Alban is a very similar character to Prentice McHoan). The tone of the novel, the affluence of the characters and the corporate politics are like [b:The Business|290583|The Business|Iain Banks|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1340522880s/290583.jpg|1418704]. There are even links to Banks' first novel, [b:The Wasp Factory|567678|The Wasp Factory|Iain Banks|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1303915010s/567678.jpg|3205295].

There is a balance to be struck by any writer who has a career more than a few novels long, between offering something new each time and retaining the familiar elements which are part of his or her style. Usually, there is a fair amount of variation between Iain Banks' novels (ignoring for the moment the series of science fiction stories with a shared background published with-an-M: challenges for a writer who sticks with a single series are rather different); more at the beginning of his career perhaps, but still some change in recent years. This time, there is nothing really recognisably new, and the re-used old ideas seemed to me to be somewhat too intrusive, almost as though a lack of originality were being flaunted at the reader. One particular problem was that Alban failed to grab my attention as a protagonist: the biggest difference from Prentice McHoan is that he's not as interesting.

So The Steep Approach to Garbadale is likely to disappoint long term fans of Banks' work, but there is much to enjoy in the novel particularly if read in an uncritical spirit.

I pleasant stroll of a book... nothing challenging or particularly engaging about this. Other reviews compare this to "The Crow Road", which I know I've read but totally can't remember. So maybe it IS like this book. A tonal complement to 'Espedair Street', which was a much better book. Well, it came before anyway. Harmless, sweet and charming in places.

Though I did find myself enraged when I found out what the metaphor in the title was. Iain, you can be such a tosser sometimes.

Very frustrating book. Way too many characters and unnecessarily over complicated as far as the plot.

Some of it held my interest, the present day family reunion, Alban and Sophie's history and the stuff about Alban's mother up to a point. The "big reveal" near the end was fairly obvious and had the story just been about Alban's mother it may have been excusable but trying to tie it into the Alban/Sophie story too seemed silly and completely unnecessary.

Also, I really didn't get the point of Alban's friend in Perth occasionally taking over the narrative. Again unnecessary and messy, especially the last bit. It felt like Banks was struggling to write certain parts so just threw in these random parts where someone else just spelled it out for the reader.

I did feel that this wasn't up to the standard of The Crow Road or Espedair Street but once I got past the first few chapters I started to enjoy it. Iain Banks does the dysfunctional family plot very well, if several times already, and once again he produced a good page turning novel.