848. The Crow Road

The Crow Road
Iain Banks
1992
Around 500 pages

The Crow Road is one of my favorite novels, and contains what I believe is the best opening sentence in literature: "It was the day my grandmother exploded." I had to take a long walk after finishing this novel, just to fully absorb how brilliant it was. Banks has never been more funny, romantic, philosophical, strange, or entertaining. 

Prentice's uncle Rory disappeared eight years ago while writing a book called The Crow Road. Prentice becomes obsessed with his uncle's papers and sets out to solve the mystery. I feel like the best mystery novels disguise that they are mystery novels, which just makes the twists and turns more shocking. I was perfectly content following Prentice's coming of age journey as he dealt with family turmoil, unrequited love affairs, and sibling drama. And then Banks throws in a masterfully crafted murder, just to show off. 

I also have to give a shout out to the secondary characters, with Lewis and Ash being my favorites. Really, this novel had just about everything I love. Dark humor, sexual tension with pay off, thoughtful religious discourse...man, is there a better moment than discovering a novel, and feeling like it was made just for your tastes specifically? I cannot recommend this story highly enough.

Interesting Facts:

Adapted for television in 1996.

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