The Quarry by Iain Banks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I will start by admitting that I have only previously read one of Iain Banks books which was The Wasp Factory; it fascinated me and I was absolutely in awe that someone could pin point the darkness in someone’s character so adroitly. So, I probably had high expectations from The Quarry: they were met.
Kit is 18 and looking after his cancer ravaged father, Guy, in a house on the edge of a quarry. Autistic and intelligent, Kit, aware of things in a no-nonsense, factual kind of way, has to remember to look beneath the surface of an ordinary question, look for emotion and second-guess what the actual meaning of a remark or question is. Abandoned as a baby on his father’s doorstep Kit has had an unusual upbringing, loved by his father’s friends but always questioning who his mother was.
Before Guy dies and the old house is sold he decides on a reunion with his old college friends and accordingly they turn up to the house where they spent many weeks as students. Though time has passed they settle back into familiarity and reminiscing gets under way, old scores and secrets come to the fore and chief amongst them is a tape; they all know about this tape and each one of them has a reason for wanting it.
Although nothing about the tape is given away to the reader until near the end, it is obviously very important to the cast of this reunion and it is as they all join in the search for it that we learn more about their characters and a very colourful bunch they are. Iain Banks gets right into the nub of his characters; they are flawed, not always very nice but very definitely real and they are what make the story. Kit is the character who stands out amongst all the others with his idiosyncrasies and deep thoughts and he is the only one for whom I had any sympathy. Of course, no punches are pulled when it comes to the dying Guy either with horrendous detail of the ignominies suffered by those with the disease which again make for very real and enlightening read.




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