Espedair Street
Iain Banks
249 pages
published in 1987

It's always nice when you discover a writer with a big backlog; plenty of good stuff to read Ian Banks isn't a new discovery for me, as I've been reading his science fiction novels for the better part of a decade, but his mainstream novels I've only started reading fairly recently. I'm not the type who when he discovers a new writer, immediately rushes out to buy their entire backlog. I depend on serendipity instead. Espedair Street was the latest of Banks I found and of the ones I've read sofar (The Bridge, Complicity, A Song of Stone), his most accesible.

Espedair Street is a novel about Rock, about how it feels to be an international rockstar and what happens afterwards. Daniel Weir used to be an rockstar, but at thirty-one he's a reclusive, living in an absurd faux church in the middle of Glasgow. Espedair Street is the name of a street in Paisley, where he lived before the band, before Frozen Gold became famous. Like many of Banks books, there's no linear plot. Instead you get the story in flashbacks, somewhat willy nilly as Weir reminisces on his life, and the tragedy that ended his rock career. It's only after you've read the book for a while you notice that this is actually a strange sort of love story, wrapped inside the story of how Weir comes to grips with himself.

What I like about banks is how believable he is: Espedair Street felt right, it read as if it could be true, was real. Not everybody can do that. What I also like about Banks is how he can spin out those little side anecdotes, that don't always move the plot forwards, but which are just so enjoyable. As are most Banks novels, Espedair Street is recommended.