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Stonemouth

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 894 ratings · 187 reviews

Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth, Scotland. 

After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of local patriarch Joe Murston, even though the last time Stewart saw the Murstons he was running for his life. An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day.
On a bleak one it can seem to offe...more

Hardcover, 448 pages

Published October 10th 2012 by Pegasus (first published 2012)

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Nov 09, 2012 karen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, distant-lands

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."

stew...more
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.(less)

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Feb 22, 2013 Bettie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: radio-4, spring-2012, fradio, published-2012, gangsters, britain-scotland, recreational-drugs

Book at Bedtime : Stewart Gilmour returns home to Stonemouth after fleeing five years ago.

bbc synopsis - Stewart Gilmour is back in Stonemouth. After five years in exile his presence is required at the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston, and even though the last time Stu saw the Murstons he was running for his life, staying away might be even more dangerous than turning up.

An estuary town north of Aberdeen, Stonemouth, with its five mile beach, can be beautiful on a sunny day. On a bleak one, it...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book. I've read everything Banks has written and think this is probably his best, certainly up there with them anyway and better than his recent novels. Why? Because its a simple story written very well. He doesn't confuse the reader with science or technology, this book is set in the real world and is utterly believable. Such is his way that I couldn't help but read it quickly but then I realised I'd finished it and was going to miss it. The relationship between Stewart and Ellie a...more

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May 19, 2013 Stuart rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

From the opening lines, you know you're in Iaian Banks's comfort zone. I love Banks; if I had to have a fan favorite, it might him. He writes passable plots and decent romantic arcs, but what really sets apart Iain Banks from others in his field is Banks' fealty to the Scottish highlands, their towns and citizens that colorfully populate the otherwise simple parables. There are greatly flawed men, in a Banks novel, men with violent pasts, women still wary of a lover's betrayal; the occasional do...more

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May 02, 2013 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

5 years ago, Stewart Gilmour was run out of Stonemouth by the Murstons, the local Bad Men, having gravely offended them. Now he's returned for a funeral. He's cleared it with the Murstons, so theoretically its OK for him to come back for the funeral and head away afterwards, but old feelings resurface again and Stewart finds negotiating his return to the old town a little bit more tricky than he would have liked.

Banks has hit stride again with this novel, his best non-SF effort since Complicity...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Tossers trying to make good

Recommended to Alan by: Previous work, though usually with the "M."

The basic shape of Stonemouth is plain from the beginning. Stewart Gilmour did something very, very stupid—life-threateningly stupid, in fact. He got caught, and was exiled from the Scottish coastal town of Stonemouth, north of Aberdeen, which had heretofore been his home. He's been gone for five years, done fairly well for himself in London while he was away, and now he's been permitted to return under special dispensation in order to attend the funeral of Joe Murston, the patriarch of the Murs...more The basic shape of Stonemouth is plain from the beginning. Stewart Gilmour did something very, very stupid—life-threateningly stupid, in fact. He got caught, and was exiled from the Scottish coastal town of Stonemouth, north of Aberdeen, which had heretofore been his home. He's been gone for five years, done fairly well for himself in London while he was away, and now he's been permitted to return under special dispensation in order to attend the funeral of Joe Murston, the patriarch of the Murston clan who ran him out of town to begin with. That much is clear going in.

The divil is in the details, as it were.

From present to past and back again, Stonemouth comes in waves, as Stewart reconnects with his former friends (and enemies), and those encounters bring back progressively clearer memories of the night when everything went wrong. He even engages in some amateur sleuthing, despite having been warned off such shenanigans in no uncertain terms. Gilmour's not a stupid lad, though, and he does still have friends in town as well as enemies.

Most notable among the former would be Ferg, with whom Stewart banters dryly and incessantly whenever they're together. Their conversations, in fact, are some of the best parts of this book, to my mind...

"Gilmour, you look like the croupier on an Albanian cruise liner."
"Hilarious! Epic! Yeah. And you finally found a tartan to compliment your vacuity: Clan Thermos. Well done. Evening, Ferg."
—p.199

I guess you had to be there...

However, even as an Anglophile who has (I flatter myself) a fair familiarity with Rightpondian parlance, I found Stonemouth sometimes difficult to translate—it's very much a British book, made even more obscure by the liberal use of Scots dialect which—as is pointed out in the book itself—is quite distinct from more southern usage. Just a couple of examples from early on (neither shows up in Wikipedia's list of British words not widely used in the U.S., by the way): a "semi" isn't a truck, it's a place people live—what we'd call a townhouse, in the U.S., I think; short for "semi-detached." And (quite sensibly, in my opinion), those formerly-mobile homes arranged in parks with gardens around the spots where their wheels used to be (and never will be again) are called "statics."

But that sort of thing just adds to the exoticism of what is otherwise a fairly realistic, if rather unusually eventful, tale. Stonemouth comes from the other side of Iain Banks' auctorial split personality, you see—the side that gets published without the middle initial, the side he's reserved for... let's call it mimetic fiction: stories which confine their imaginings to the realistic, Earthbound human society we actually live in, or something very close to it. This is in pointed contrast to Iain-with-an-M., whose wide-ranging science fictions encompass universes, but should not be taken as a value judgment in either direction—both sides of the man have exhibited the power to tell a great story.(less)

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Apr 05, 2013 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, thriller

The author's name "Iain Banks" usually means science fiction to me. I was quite surprised by this remarkable novel. Stewart Gilmour returns to the gritty town of Stonemouth in Scotland, after five years of exile. We don't really know why he was exiled, but it had something to do with one (or both) of the crime families in the town. Banks maintains a tension as the story bounces between the present time and events that occurred five years ago. There is always an undercurrent of dark hatred and po...more

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Feb 09, 2013 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

If you are a fan of Ian Banks you will not be disappointed. If, however, you are unfamiliar with his work then you are in for a treat.

This has all the hallmarks typical to Banks: page turning narrative; very tightly plotted; dry Scottish humour; an edgy darkness to the story; intelligent and perceptive writing; descriptive to the point of feeling that you are actually there in the locations of the book and totally believable characters (foibles and all) with their motivations well understood and...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Simon Howard rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

Stewart Gilmore returns to Stonemouth, the small Scottish town of his birth, for a funeral. He's previously been run out of town by a local gang following an incident revealed only late in the novel, and possibly not entirely deserving of the lengthy build-up and sense of forboding. This novel is essentially his coming-of-age story.

This is Banks at his best, so there's plenty of darkness, and dark humour in spades. The strength of this novel is the relative mundanity of the darkness: nobody expl...more Stewart Gilmore returns to Stonemouth, the small Scottish town of his birth, for a funeral. He's previously been run out of town by a local gang following an incident revealed only late in the novel, and possibly not entirely deserving of the lengthy build-up and sense of forboding. This novel is essentially his coming-of-age story.

This is Banks at his best, so there's plenty of darkness, and dark humour in spades. The strength of this novel is the relative mundanity of the darkness: nobody explodes, nobody floats away with a bunch of balloons, and nobody's brain is eaten by maggots. Granted, is a little defaecation on a golf-course, but there's nothing in this novel that pushes the boundaries of plausability too far. As with some of Banks's previous novels, the strength is in the evocation of gothic themes within contemporary life.

The story is engaging, and the characterisation is great, with that uniquely evocative description which is a hallmark of Banks's work. In fact, the characterisation here is so deep even amongst the minor characters that I could readily enjoy a return to Stonemouth at some point in the future, with a plot centered around some of those other characters.

Normally, Banks's prose pours from the page. I don't know of any other writer that pulls off the same trick. Sentences are so carefully constructed that they rarely need to be re-read. The dialogue is natural and flowing. There's simply no effort to reading his novels. However, in this book, I kept 'tripping over' the pop culture references littered through the book. I have no idea why Banks feels the need to discuss iPhones, MacBooks, Family Guy, Cee Lo Green and the like so often. They don't add to the characterisation, and don't sit comfortably with Banks's prose, and their inclusion feels like an odd decision which will serve only to make the book date very quickly. It's a relatively minor quibble, but it is a little irritating.

All things considered, I thought Stonemouth was great. Other reviewers have criticised it for retreading old ground. That's probably fair, but I can't honestly say that it affected my enjoyment. This is the first novel I've read in quite some time that I've felt a little disappointed to have finished. As such, it comes highly recommended.(less)

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Dec 15, 2012 Maxine McLister rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stewart Gilmour. twenty-five, is returning to his hometown five years after being literally chased out by the Murstons, one of the local crime families. He is, in fact, returning to attend the funeral of Joe Murston, the old head of the family which is the only reason he is being allowed to return and, then, only for the weekend.

Stewart uses this time to reunite with old friends and avoid, although mostly unsuccessfully, old enemies. He also spends much of his time reminiscing about the past and...more Stewart Gilmour. twenty-five, is returning to his hometown five years after being literally chased out by the Murstons, one of the local crime families. He is, in fact, returning to attend the funeral of Joe Murston, the old head of the family which is the only reason he is being allowed to return and, then, only for the weekend.

Stewart uses this time to reunite with old friends and avoid, although mostly unsuccessfully, old enemies. He also spends much of his time reminiscing about the past and indulging in 'what-ifs' especially about Ellie Murston, the girl he loved and lost and the reason for his exile.

Stonemouth gives a very violent and fascinating depiction of small-town Scotland, one immersed in drugs and drink and run by crime lords. Despite references to video games and iphones, the town seems largely untouched by the outside world. In the five years that Stewart has been away, very little has changed - the poker games continue in the same place, the watering holes are all populated by the same people, and the conversations seem to take up exactly where they left off when Stewart was so unceremoniously sent packing.

The only real change seems to be in Stewart himself. He has matured and is now able to recognize and accept his own role in past and present actions. In possibly the best depiction of maturity ever given in literature, Stewart says, "we all sort of secretly think our lives are like these very long movies with ourselves as the principal characters obviously. Only very occasionally does it occur to any one of us that all these supporting actors, cameo turns, bit players and extras around us might actually be in some sense real, just as real as we are and that each one of them thinks that the Big Movie is really all about them".

At its most basic, Stonemouth is a book about sin, guilt, and redemption, about reconciling the past with the present, about maturing enough to overcome 'that core of childish greed within us'. The ending of Stonemouth could easily have descended into melodrama or, worse, falsity. However, it is Bank's ability to depict change within stasis which allows it to rise above and makes Stonemouth ultimately a very satisfying read.(less)

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Dec 06, 2012 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book's plot revolves heavily around the unbelievable selfishness of man child Stewart Gilmour; why is he back in town making everyone angry after being forced to flee years earlier? Because, basically, he wants to be, although also because a dead guy wanted him at his funeral. Why did he cheat on his fiancée, thus enraging her mafia-type family & leading to his forced exile? Because some other woman had a red dress on. When a pissed off & armed brother of former fiancée is on his wa...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Nigel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I suppose this marks a return to form of sorts for Iain Banks. With the thesis-undermining caveats that I haven't read Steep Approach To Garbadale and I bloody loved Transition, Banks' non-M books have been pretty lacking since Whit. Generally readable and fun - if you ignore Song Of Stone - but lacking in depth, perhaps, with his customary skill, narrative flair, formidable imagination and exquisite writing all more or less present and correct, but not quite gelling to produce more than the sum...more I suppose this marks a return to form of sorts for Iain Banks. With the thesis-undermining caveats that I haven't read Steep Approach To Garbadale and I bloody loved Transition, Banks' non-M books have been pretty lacking since Whit. Generally readable and fun - if you ignore Song Of Stone - but lacking in depth, perhaps, with his customary skill, narrative flair, formidable imagination and exquisite writing all more or less present and correct, but not quite gelling to produce more than the sum of their parts.

Stonemouth hearkens back to The Crow Road, Whit, and presumably Garbadale. It features family and friends in a small rain-battered Scottish location, ancient and not-so-ancient incidents rediscovered through the present, old secrets and tragedies and past mistakes, all subtly and profoundly shaping the here and now.

Stewart Gilmour returns to the town of Stonemouth which he left five years before under dramatic and unpleasant circumstances. Granted leave to attend the funeral of the patriarch of one of two crime families who run Stonemouth, Stewart visits old haunts, meets old friends, remembers episodes from his old life and pines guiltily for his lost love.

Despite the dramatic denouement, this isn't a thriller, nor is it full of terrible twists and appalling revelations - there's a bit of business involving cameras and such, but it's slight compared to, say, the central mystery of Crow Road. No, most of the things that we learn about in the past are flagged well ahead, and though that generates its own type of tension - the fate of Wee Malky and the incident in the hotel toilet are typically brilliant Banksian episodes of horror and hilarity - this is very much the story of a man who has everything going back to the town that threw him out in the forlorn hope of coming to terms with the frankly shitty thing he did.

And it's grand. A rattling story with real heft and weight. Perhaps it needed a Crow Road mystery or a Complicity-style revelation to boost it into the upper league, but it's a perfectly satisfying read with some lovely writing, and that brilliant thing Banks does over and over again in any genre, which is to create an utterly believable group of friends and show us their lives together and apart as they grow up, go their separate ways, and revisit the things that shaped their lives.(less)

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Jul 15, 2012 Ian Mapp rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: lit-fict

Its only when you read a master storyteller that you realise that most of what you have been recently reading has been very poor in comparison.

Banks is back on familar ground. We have remote scottish towns, young love, a past drama, funerals - all the usual subjects are ticked. Told from Stewart Gilmours perspective. He is returning to Stonemouth after being driven out of town 5 years previously. His mistake was taking up with a crime families daughter and getting cauaght cheating on her in the...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-mt-bookpile

As always, the problem with loving a living writer's work is the wait between books - Stonemouth was worth it!

Set in a smallish port town in Scotland, the action shifts between modern day and Stewart's youth (if one can count scenes at age 20 as "youth"). As a boy he was part of a group of boys, getting into a bit of trouble that includes the really tragic death of one of them in a paintball match. As a young man he was friends with one of the town's two Big Men, Joe (godson to the other), taki...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Frank O'connor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a book about the relationship between the past and the present. It is a subject Banks writes about a lot, and a common factor between his realist fiction and science-fiction. In the latter case, the present happens to be the past, in the former, vice-versa.

The protagonist specializes in floodlighting and his first word is 'Clarity'. This automatically makes me think he will be an unreliable narrator but Banks could well be playing a double-bluff game. That opening word also reads like an...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The key quote comes somewhere towards the end, when the narrator muses ""We all sort of secretly think our lives are like these very long movies, with ourselves as the principal characters, obviously. Only very occasionally does it occur to any one of us that all these supporting actors, cameo turns, bit players and extras around us might actually be in some sense real, just as real as we are, and that each one of them think that the Big Movie is really all about them."

The trouble is, that mean...more

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Apr 12, 2012 James Kemp rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, owned, scottish

While there are familiar elements to the story, it being set in small town Scotland, it is a new tale from Ian Banks. The story is told in a first person point of view style, and on a first reading at least, realistically leaves some loose ends where the protagonist cannot be sure of who did what and why.

Taking place over a long weekend the story unfolds with a mixture of narrative and flashbacks to explain the background relationships and the reasons why Stewart Gilmour ended up an exile from h...more

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May 14, 2013 David rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scottish, funny-haha, crime-pays

It could have been a taut, tense thriller about a man returning from exile to the home town where a grudgeful local gangster family still lie in wait. Instead, Iain Banks' - tragically penultimate - novel is an engagingly breezy old thing where you basically get to hang out with the main character as he tries to reconnect and/or make amends with all of the colourful locals he left behind in the mist-enshrouded Scottish coastal "toun".
It's amused, conversational first-person narrative often come...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Robert Ronsson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Banks is a master story-teller and in Stonemouth he has mixed all the traditional elements: place, character and plot to produce a satisfying read.
The town of Stonemouth is so well created that I looked it up on Google maps thinking that it must be real and that its residents would be railing against this depiction of their town which is at the same time seductive (in terms of its topography) and repugnant because of the reidents' corrupt acceptance of rule by the local crime families.
The chara...more

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Dec 25, 2012 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Iain Banks, author of The Wasp Factory, is back with a new novel titled Stonemouth. It is set in Stonemouth, Scotland and that already gets my interest because I love books set in the British Isles. Stewart Gilmore returns to Stonemouth after a five year absence to attend the funeral of patriarch Joe Murston. Joe was head of a drug cartel and one of the most influencial citizens. Stewart was engaged to marry his granddaughter when on the eve of his wedding someone took compromising photos of him...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Rob Adey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Iain Banks I've enjoyed most that isn't an Iain Mmmmm Banks for (checks publication date of The Crow Road) 21 years!

Many of the Iain Banks obsessions are here: a bridge, a ridiculous death, guilt about being well-off and socialist etc. - possibly just to make the author happy, if nothing else. Which is absolutely fine because Iain Banks when he's happy makes for great books. Solid and matter-of-fact and foggy and dreamy.

Also, I think Banks handles both smartphones etc. and the first genera...more

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May 03, 2012 Gordon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have read a lot of Mr. Banks. Ok, all of them actually, some more than once. Especially the ones with an "M" in the author's name.

I think Stonemouth is probably really a 3.5 but given the slight dip in contemporary novels from Banks recently I will go with 4. Unlike other comparisons I feel the book has the clarity and crispness in describing contemporary Scotland very similar to Whit or Isis Amongst the Unsaved with the single person slightly insular perspective from A Song of Stone, although...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Tony rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-crime-detection

STONEMOUTH. (2012). Iain Banks. **.
In the small town of Stonemouth, Stewart Gilmore has returned to attend a funeral. You can tell that he is not necessarily welcome by a certain family there, and has to check with their members that his being there for that function is OK. If it weren’t, he would likely leave there in worse shape than he came. We don’t know what he did, and it takes almost more than 1/3 of the book to find out. To get to that point, we have to put up with Stu’s internal narrat...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Josh Ang rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A young man, Stewart, returns to the small town that he grew up in to attend the funeral of an elder of an influential and shady family and revisits old wounds and the act of indiscretion that causes him to leave his childhood home in the first place. The premise is interesting enough, but the patchy writing and stilted dialogue are letdowns to an otherwise promising story.

Perhaps Banks tries too hard to make the setting and the youth of the protagonist credible - e.g. isn't it always the young...more A young man, Stewart, returns to the small town that he grew up in to attend the funeral of an elder of an influential and shady family and revisits old wounds and the act of indiscretion that causes him to leave his childhood home in the first place. The premise is interesting enough, but the patchy writing and stilted dialogue are letdowns to an otherwise promising story.

Perhaps Banks tries too hard to make the setting and the youth of the protagonist credible - e.g. isn't it always the young ones who lament that they are old? and therefore incessant instances of characters who hurl themselves over bridges or are misfits, and a little off-the-hinge. However, Banks is no Brett Easton Ellis or Chuck Palahniuk, and he fails to convince us that the characters are as conflicted as they claim to be, perhaps because they lack strong, plausible motivation to be the way they are. There is also overly enthusiastic (and unnecessary) references to modern tech gadgetry, which shows up the writer's anxiety to remind the reader that the characters are truly of the 21st century.

The spurts of caustic humour that dot the exchanges between Stewart and his gay/bisexual friend Ferg (his sexuality a character trait that the writer throws up presumably to titillate rather than illuminate) doesn't sound authentic when they seem to head nowhere. Most of the action of the novel takes place over a weekend, and there are numerous chance meetings with old school friends and meetings at pubs and someone's house, where above-mentioned stilted dialogue takes place.

To Banks's credit, there are some spots of brilliance when he tries to draw out an action sequence - eg at the pool room when Stewart is accosted by some ruffians, but unfortunately it becomes tedious, rather than engaging in the way perhaps another Brit author, Ian McEwan, styles his prolonged moments of suspense.

In brief, Stewart is embroiled with a druglord in a small town through his entanglement with the druglord's daughters, but Banks fails to keep the reader's interest when there is a whole host of other characters who make little impression, and who appear to assemble and disperse for no observable reason but for them to be there just in order for the protagonist to relate to in order for some action to take place. This is most apparent in what is supposed to be an explosive, violent climax near the end of the book.

I must say I am disappointed by this novel, when I had high hopes from such a prolific author.(less)

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Apr 29, 2013 Gavin Felgate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

At the start of the book, the central character, Stewart Gilmore, is standing on the parapet of a bridge in Scotland, apparently considering whether to jump off. Stewart also narrates the story, explaining how he has returned to his hometown of Stonemouth to attend a funeral. However, Stonemouth is run by gangsters and he has to request permission just to return.

What follows is a series of flashbacks to Stewart's youth in Stonemouth, growing up with his friends and his love interest, Ellie, as w...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Felonious rated it 3 of 5 stars

Stonemouth is a story about Stewart Gilmour, a man who is returning to his home town of Stonemouth, Scotland to attend a funeral. Stewart had to leave town five years earlier, after he got himself into a little hot water with one of the town's powerful crime families.

I have read more than a dozen books written by Iain (M) Banks. If this was the first book I had read by him I probably wouldn't have been eager to read any of his other books. Though there were a few redeeming factors about Stonem...more Stonemouth is a story about Stewart Gilmour, a man who is returning to his home town of Stonemouth, Scotland to attend a funeral. Stewart had to leave town five years earlier, after he got himself into a little hot water with one of the town's powerful crime families.

I have read more than a dozen books written by Iain (M) Banks. If this was the first book I had read by him I probably wouldn't have been eager to read any of his other books. Though there were a few redeeming factors about Stonemouth that kept me from giving it two stars instead of the three that it received. The story was good enough to keep me reading and wondering what was going to happen next, and what had happened in the past. When I finished the book Stewart seemed like a real person to me (I found myself wishing him the best of luck). There was also a conversation between Stewart and another character about how the events of the past could have happened, several of which surprised me and made prefect sense. I really liked this conversation, it was the only part that felt like I was reading a Banks book.

I found Stonemouth to be predictable and parts of the story felt awkward and forced, making the flow of the story choppy. There were times in the story that Stewart, sometimes drunk and sometimes sober, had thoughts about global warming, politics, religion and the darker side of human nature. Many books by Banks have similar subjects as an undercurrent and were done well and flowed in the story. However, in Stonemouth they sounded more like a rant and felt out of place.

The thing that bothered me most about Stonemouth was what appeared to be, for lack of a better term, a product placement for Apple computers and the iPhone. When Stewart loses his iPhone he has to replace it with what is referred to for the rest of the book as a “rubbish” phone. And Stewart comments how he can't wait to get to an Apple store to replace his good phone. When Stewart has to use his dad's computer he comments on how it felt like preschool compared to his Apple.

Three Stars but not recommended. (less)

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Oct 15, 2012 Stefanie Price rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Iain Banks was one of those authors everyone was reading back in the early 90s, when I was a teenager. He was like Douglas Coupland - one of the buzz-name writers within whose pages disenfranchised teens took refuge. He seemed to 'get it'. 'The Wasp Factory', 'The Crow Road', 'Espedair Street' - I devoured them all, and enjoyed them enough, but I don't think I ever really understood exactly what was so special about Iain Banks. Not when there were writers like Stephen King and James Herbert abou...more Iain Banks was one of those authors everyone was reading back in the early 90s, when I was a teenager. He was like Douglas Coupland - one of the buzz-name writers within whose pages disenfranchised teens took refuge. He seemed to 'get it'. 'The Wasp Factory', 'The Crow Road', 'Espedair Street' - I devoured them all, and enjoyed them enough, but I don't think I ever really understood exactly what was so special about Iain Banks. Not when there were writers like Stephen King and James Herbert about. I suppose I was after thrills of an exclusively supernatural nature back then.

I was recommended 'Stonemouth' by a member of my book group, and trusting his taste, dove into Banks' familiar prose once again. This follows the return of an estranged, exiled young scotsman to his hometown, which despite being on the edge of nowhere, is governed by two mafia-style families. Everyone knows everybody's business in Stonemouth, and is involved in it too - as everyone is interlinked in typical smalltown fashion. This small town has none of the cosiness of most depictions of british smalltowns though. The skanky local dive-bars, pool halls and social groups are little changed in the decade that our protagonist, Stewart Gilmour has been away. Having left his old life behind, he's now a successful lighting artist in London. He's just been promoted, is decked out in designer gear and life is looking rosy.

Somehow, as with all smalltowns, something indelibly familiar about one's hometown still has a pull on him, and he returns for a funeral. Not just any funeral - the funeral of the patriarch of the gangster Murston family that ran him out of town. The very family who'd happily toss him from the local suspension bridge, where many locals' lives end. Jumped or pushed?

The complicated tangle of entwined local lives gets even knottier as Stewart's ex-fiance/daughter of afore-mentioned gangster family turns up back in his life and his heart, despite the death-threats warning against contact.

Banks is an expert writer of humanity - of gritty lifestyles, and beautiful, if unwelcoming landscapes. He paints an enchanting picture of the north-Aberdeen coastal countryside and townships - somehow bewitching in it's formidable bleakness. Delving into the history and mess of inter-woven lives, families, truths and deceits of the townsfolk, Stewart's past unfurls as his present plays out. Stonemouth is many things, but most of all it's the people who live there. And it's more difficult to walk away from people than places.

It's a wonderfully immersive read - I would recommend it to anybody who's enjoyed Iain Banks before, and for those who haven't, but like the warts and all characterisations of Irvine Welsh. I loved it - Banks is a great storyteller. (less)

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Apr 26, 2013 Algernon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

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...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Tom Burke rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Take a healthy dollop of The Sopranos, add a splash of Mystic River, fold in a hint of a Scottish Accent and you have Ian Banks’ Stonemouth. The story follows Stewart Gilmour as he returns to childhood home in Stonemouth, Scotland after a five year exile. Stewart is an upwardly mobile “lighting architect” who left town in a hurry. It seems that screwing around on your fiancé a week before your wedding is not a good idea--especially if she is the daughter of Joe Murston, a local crime boss with a...more Take a healthy dollop of The Sopranos, add a splash of Mystic River, fold in a hint of a Scottish Accent and you have Ian Banks’ Stonemouth. The story follows Stewart Gilmour as he returns to childhood home in Stonemouth, Scotland after a five year exile. Stewart is an upwardly mobile “lighting architect” who left town in a hurry. It seems that screwing around on your fiancé a week before your wedding is not a good idea--especially if she is the daughter of Joe Murston, a local crime boss with a dysfunctional family tree. And just to keep things in duality, there is a rival crime boss name of MacAvett who also has a daughter in Stu’s sights. Really.

And now Stewart is back. The entire story takes place over a long weekend and bumps along well while Banks slowly and dramatically unveils one crazy offshoot after another. The narrative is peopled by twenty somethings holding close to their smart phones, drugs, booze, cigs, and not much else. We learn of fratricide disguised as suicide, paintball games played for keeps, and the occasional jumper off the old bridge at the edge of town.

If it sounds bit contrived, maybe it is. But the interesting thing is the genuineness of the characters and their stories. Ferg, Stu’s best friend, is torn between drinking himself into a stupor and seducing anyone and everyone he meets—even Stewart! Stu’s finance, Ellie, is the perfect Juliet to his Romeo. Solid and unfazed by her family’s overbearing criminality, Ellie seems to be looking for a way out. Maybe that’s because the rest of the Murston clan is hell bent on making Stu’s life miserable, especially now since its obvious he still has feelings Ellie. Will they, can they, should they?

Yes, the story has been done a million times before. And no, it doesn’t break any new, undiscovered ground. But Stonemouth has its charms in the characters and the skillful way that Banks bakes them into his strange little stories. And how often do you get to visit Scotland anyway?(less)

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Jul 10, 2012 David rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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,...more

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About Iain Banks

This author also publishes science fiction under the pseudonym Iain M. Banks.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edi...more This author also publishes science fiction under the pseudonym Iain M. Banks.

Banks's father was an officer in the Admiralty and his mother was once a professional ice skater. Iain Banks was educated at the University of Stirling where he studied English Literature, Philosophy and Psychology. He moved to London and lived in the south of England until 1988 when he returned to Scotland, living in Edinburgh and then Fife.

Banks met his wife Annie in London, before the release of his first book. They married in Hawaii in 1982. However, he announced in early 2007 that, after 25 years together, they had separated. He currently lives in North Queensferry, a town on the north side of the Firth of Forth near the Forth Bridge and the Forth Road Bridge.

As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.

In late 2004, Banks was a prominent member of a group of British politicians and media figures who campaigned to have Prime Minister Tony Blair impeached following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In protest he cut up his passport and posted it to 10 Downing Street. In an interview in Socialist Review he claimed he did this after he "abandoned the idea of crashing my Land Rover through the gates of Fife dockyard, after spotting the guys armed with machine guns." He relates his concerns about the invasion of Iraq in his book Raw Spirit, and the principal protagonist (Alban McGill) in the novel The Steep Approach to Garbadale confronts another character with arguments in a similar vein.

Interviewed on Mark Lawson's BBC Four series, first broadcast in the UK on 14 November 2006, Banks explained why his novels are published under two different names. His parents wished to name him Iain Menzies Banks but his father made a mistake when registering the birth and he was officially registered as Iain Banks. Despite this he continued to use his unofficial middle name and it was as Iain M. Banks that he submitted The Wasp Factory for publication. However, his editor asked if he would mind dropping the 'M' as it appeared "too fussy". The editor was also concerned about possible confusion with Rosie M. Banks, a minor character in some of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves novels who is a romantic novelist. After his first three mainstream novels his publishers agreed to publish his first SF novel, Consider Phlebas. To distinguish between the mainstream and SF novels, Banks suggested the return of the 'M', although at one stage he considered John B. Macallan as his SF pseudonym, the name deriving from his favourite whiskies: Johnnie Walker Black Label and The Macallan single malt.

His latest book is a science fiction (SF) novel in the Culture series, called The Hydrogen Sonata, published in 2012.(less)

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