The Crow Road

Reading this again after twenty-three years was like catching up with an auld pal, which made this a very appropriate book to end 2021 with since I did a lot of that this year. Iain Banks mixes literary fiction with dry Scottish humour in such a unique way, and this is him at his hilarious, bawdy, wicked best. Endlessly quotable, but “...when I started to understand the lyrics of a Cocteau Twins song, I knew I was wrecked” made me guffaw, and you cannae beat the genius threat of “last one there's a Tory!”.

I love how this book is constructed, it's like a Scottish version of a John Irving novel. Definitely coming back for more Ian Banks books in 2018!

This was a reread to tie in with the new 25th anniversary edition. It's still marvellous, a wonderful evocation of early manhood and looking for one's place in the world, wrapped up in an eccentric family saga and murder mystery. It's Scottish to the core, but also completely universal.