Declare Books Conducive To Stonemouth

Original Title:	Stonemouth
ISBN:	1408702509 (ISBN13: 9781408702505)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Stewart Gilmour
Setting:	Stonemouth Kincardineshire, Scotland

Stonemouth Hardcover | Pages: 357 pages

Point Appertaining To Books Stonemouth

Title	:	Stonemouth
Author	:	Iain Banks
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 357 pages
Published	:	April 5th 2012 by Little, Brown (first published 2012)
Categories	:	Fiction. Cultural. Scotland. Mystery. Contemporary. Crime

Interpretation In Pursuance Of Books Stonemouth

iain (m.) banks writes supersmart sci-fi books that "you wouldn't understand, karen." but he also wrote this, which i am proud to say i completely understand, and i really enjoyed. it is a crime thriller, set in a small town in scotland, which is presided over by two competing, but not actively warring, gangster families who have made their fortunes and reputations getting their hands dirty. and not by doing any manual labor, yeah? although whacking people is, i suppose, technically "manual." stewart gilmour has returned to his hometown for a funeral for one of the family's patriarchs, after having been run out of town five years earlier in a "romeo and juliet gone bad" situation. he and his juliet didn't plan a suicide pact so much as "he cheated on her", and then had to escape to london when her thug-brothers came looking for him. he became successful in exile, but never really got over his past. so now he is back in town for the funeral of the man who also happens to be his ex-fiance's grandfather. will he see old friends? will people try to hurt him?? will he reconnect with his scorned love? will he reminisce and kick himself for his mistakes?? will the two families start to feel the tension when the prodigal returns home?? will there be supplementary mysteries to drive the plot? yes, all of these things. and it is very good. he does the smalltown thing so well, and his supporting characters are well-drawn and sweet and funny (or terrifying, depending on the character), and he manages to create a believable microcosm, complete with backstory childhood flashbacks and a shared history of loves and grievances. so many scenes came to life with a vibrancy that made me feel as though i were an observer rather than a reader, and the bantering and anecdotes were just spot-on. (the pop-tart story was probably the funniest one, with the most perfect delivery) the only problem i had was with the pop-culture references. they just seemed oddly misplaced in the world banks created, for some reason. it was the one instance where he didn't seem in control of his prose, and they jutted out at me. maybe it's because he has this reputation as being a brilliant, brilliant man, "you wouldn't understand them, karen," and when brilliant people talk down to us, it just feels off, but this might just be a personal gripe and others might not notice.* but - yes - a great thriller with great characters. and i didn't feel confused or dumb even once! at least, not because of the book - life is a different story. * i have since read other reviews of this book on the goodreads, and no - it is not just me!! phew. come to my blog!

Rating Appertaining To Books Stonemouth

Ratings: 3.78 From 6039 Users | 566 Reviews

Evaluate Appertaining To Books Stonemouth

a good book, funny and touching, with a vein of danger and darknessit has all the banks staples - humour, irony, secrets, history and episodes of sickening violence. my kind of book. some fantastic characters, particularly ferg - an alcoholic omnisexual with a penchant for withering one linersperhaps a little sentimental for banks, makes it a 4.5 in lieu of a 5

This is one of those odd books that I found enjoyable to read at the time, but when I put it down, I lapsed into so-what? apathy. The premise is a fairly trite one. A mid-twenties man returns to his childhood home for a funeral, and spends the time reminiscing about growing up, being astonished at the changes that have taken place and equally astonished at the things that remain unchanged, and resolving a few loose ends from his departure five years before. So far, so ho-hum. The twist here is

It's always a fairly comfy kind of feeling when Iain Banks returns to writing about a parochial small town in Scotland, even more so when he's got strained personal relationships and matters of family hierarchy to deal with. You can tell he's deep within his comfort zone by the beauty of his prose, so few writers manage to maintain the pace of an airport read while maintaining a real earthy dark lyricism. So far so good. Iain seems to have written this book by creating a huge cast of characters,

The dialogue in this book is superb, I could see how it would translate into great TV or film. This is a thoroughly good yarn too; centred around a found man who skips town after upsetting a local crime family, the plot held my attention throughout, as did the love story which is the real meat of the book. In summary, it's an excellent read and in my eyes only fell short of 5 stars because it's not quite as good as Dead Air (not many books are!)

Stonemouth is my second Iain Banks novel. I read The Wasp Factory not long after his death and although I found it very well written I was really disturbed by all the animal cruelty in it. Stonemouth is nothing like The Wasp Factory, in fact is difficult to believe it was written by the same author.In Stonemouth, a young man is returning home to a town that is rife with corruption ruled by two crime family clans. He left home 5 years ago, escaped really, and now must return for the funeral of

The first Iain Banks book I read ended up with a 16 year old finding out that they were actually a girl and her dad had been secretly doping her with testosterone pretended she'd lost her bollocks in a dog attack. I can't even remember the second book of his I read, but apparently I liked it. So when I accidentally left my Kindle at home and I saw this book hanging around my office, left by a former co-worker, I haven't a clue what I expected. But it had that triumvirate of romance, violence and

This is not a sympathy vote for a writer fighting against cancer. Stonemouth might be my top romance read of this year. I was already familiar with the daring, Big concept, galaxy spawning Culture books, but there is little to recognize in style and in plot when the writer turns towards contemporary fiction, towards the intimate, the understated character study. If I were to find a term of comparison, I would go for Graham Joyce, writing about growing up in a small town, learning about death and