Iain Banks
Hardcover | Pages: 256 pages Rating: 3.88 | 6666 Users | 223 Reviews
Specify Books As Espedair Street
| Original Title: | Espedair Street |
| ISBN: | 0316858552 (ISBN13: 9780316858557) |
| Characters: | Daniel Weir |
| Setting: | Glasgow, Scotland |
Narration Toward Books Espedair Street
Daniel Weir used to be a famous - not to say infamous - rock star. Maybe still is. At thirty-one he has been both a brilliant failure and a dull success. He's made a lot of mistakes that have paid off and a lot of smart moves he'll regret forever (however long that turns out to be). Daniel Weir has gone from rags to riches and back, and managed to hold onto them both, though not much else. His friends all seem to be dead, fed up with him or just disgusted - and who can blame them? And now Daniel Weir is all alone. As he contemplates his life, Daniel realises he only has two problems: the past and the future. He knows how bad the past has been. But the future - well, the future is something else.Declare Of Books Espedair Street
| Title | : | Espedair Street |
| Author | : | Iain Banks |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 256 pages |
| Published | : | July 5th 2001 by Little, Brown (first published 1987) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Contemporary. Music |
Rating Of Books Espedair Street
Ratings: 3.88 From 6666 Users | 223 ReviewsJudge Of Books Espedair Street
Everything seems to take about the right amount of time at the time, but later...Jeez, where did it all go? You look back, and sometimes you think, Did I really do all that? And other times you think. Is that all there is? Is that all I managed to get done? We are never satisfied. Dont even know the meaning of the word.Daniel Wier has a story to tell. A story of his search for satisfaction. A writer of songs, a bass player and a man who nearly loses his way as a member of the successful band,There are few novels as sexist and self-centred as this one. The worst part? It feels like the author is projecting himself in this book. Thankfully, I live in Germany. Wouldnt want him to see that all women arent mothers and sex objects made to please him and his giant ego. Wrote your own songs? It sounds more like you just learned how to write rhymed verse.
After learning about the untimely passing of Iain Banks a few years ago, I made it a task that I would finish reading his quite substantial body of work, both his contemporary novels (of which I had read several over the years, starting with the infamous Wasp Factory back in the very early 1990's) and his Science Fiction based ones, written under Iain M. Banks. In fact I had started on the Culture novels before I learned he was dying. He was a great writer, his contemporary, more 'mainstream'
Everything seems to take about the right amount of time at the time, but later...Jeez, where did it all go? You look back, and sometimes you think, Did I really do all that? And other times you think. Is that all there is? Is that all I managed to get done? We are never satisfied. Dont even know the meaning of the word.Daniel Wier has a story to tell. A story of his search for satisfaction. A writer of songs, a bass player and a man who nearly loses his way as a member of the successful band,
I'm so glad that when I asked for recommendations on a good "first" Iain Banks novel to read, I had forgotten that I had read (and didn't enjoy) Wasp Factory. If I had remembered, I would have missed out on this wonderful book. From the start I absolutely loved the voice. The story was funny and sad and I truly cared about Weird's story.
Originally published on my blog here in September 2003.Ever since I first read it, not long after it first came out, Espedair Street has been one of my favourite Iain Banks novels. It is his first more or less mainstream novel, neither experimental nor genre fiction, and every time I read it it still manages to amuse and move me.Espedair Street is a novel which is pretending to be a rock star autobiography; the story of (fictional) seventies band Frozen Gold as told by bass player and song
While reading this book, which was written and set in the late 1980s, brought to mind issues that were dominate at the time. (The cold war , nuclear arms race punk rock! etc). It just goes to show we're living through history.
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