‘The Wasp Factory’ by Iain Banks

Cruel, bizarre, macabre and with an abundance of dark wit, it’s hard to believe Iain Banks’ polarising debut novel was published nearly 40 years ago.

Critics and readers in equal measure loved and loathed it – a repulsive piece of work wrote the Evening Standard or a work of unparalleled depravity stated the Irish Times. Yet Punch described the same novel as a minor masterpiece whilst a first novel of such curdling power and originality was Cosmopolitan‘s perspective.

There’s no denying the vividly grotesque imagination of the author, as seen through teenager Frank and older half-brother, Eric. An isolated existence on the west coast of Scotland, our narrator Frank lives with his dad but has the run of their small island to himself. A product of a hippie lifestyle, the mom cleared off not long after the birth and Eric… Well, Eric has escaped from the mental institution down south and is slowly working his way back to the family.

But then Frank has three murders to his name, all before his tenth birthday – although I haven’t killed anybody for years, and don’t intend to ever again. It was just a stage I was going through. Shocking as they are, there’s no denying the humour in the mordant imagination of Frank’s methodology. Shamanistic rituals are now his main concern (along with getting blind drunk with his best mate): Frank has created a personal mythology where animals become sacrificial victims. Dotted round the island are Sacrifice Poles, caves, bunkers all used for the acting out – with The Wasp Factory itself located on the top floor of the Cauldhame home (a bad leg prevents a taciturn dad climbing the steep stairs).

Banks has given us a splendid and spellbinding Gothic horror story full of chilling cruelty, sadistic carnage – and deep, sardonic wit. As with Frank, who has checked the signs the Wasp Factory has provided, we know that this particular narrative is slowly building towards its climax as Eric gets closer and closer to the island. We also know, as in the best traditions of a good yarn, we will get through the locked door of dad’s study with Frank. Only what it reveals is not quite what was expected.

(In spite of – or because of – the polarising reviews, The Wasp Factory appeared as one of the top 100 books of the 20th century in a 1997 poll of over 25,000 readers of The Independent newspaper).

‘Alfie’

Draw-droppingly misogynistic – whether she or it, still a bird claims the eponymous London Lothario, Alfie (Oscar-nominated Michael Caine) as he charms and swaggers his way through a series of casual encounters.

It’s the swinging London of the 1960s – and on release, director Lewis Gilbert’s character study of the cocksure Alfie Elkins was seen as on the mark, capturing the zeitgeist following the oppressive post-war years. Alfie was a bit of a lad up for a lark – his male entitlement facilitating the fathering of an illegitimate child with Julia Foster, becoming involved with a couple of older women – and any number in between, married or otherwise. It’s confronting the backstreet illegal abortion of Vivien Merchant that brings some semblance of realisation to Alfie’s behaviour. His charismatic veneer slips. But it’s all too little too late.

Adapted by Bill Naughton from his own stage play, whilst the female characters are well-developed (as the wealthy businesswoman Shelley Winters more than matches Alfie at his own game), this is Michael Caine’s show all the way. His asides to the audience direct to camera allow a justification that, in today’s environment, do not carry muster.

Nominated for five Oscars in 1967 (Caine, Gilbert, Naughton, Merchant as well as best film).

Rating: 54%

Director: Lewis Gilbert (Moonraker, Educating Rita)

Writer: Bill Naughton (The Family Way, Spring & Port Wine) – adapted from his own stage play

Main cast: Michael Caine (The Cider House Rules, The Italian Job), Vivien Merchant (Accident, The Homecoming), Shelley Winters (The Poseidon Adventure, The Dairy of Anne Frank)

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Get – Ha’mishpat shel Vivian Amsalem: גט)

An emotionally devastating experience as Viviane Ansalem (Ronit Elkabetz) appeals to the rabbinical court to annul her marriage to Simon Abkarian, who refuses to agree.

Filmed entirely within the claustrophobic confines of the court’s white-walled office space, witnesses are called during an extraordinary five year process. With the system stacked aginst her, it’s for Viviane’s attorney (Menashe Noy) to persuade, cajole, argue and threaten. Logic, contempt of court, a short prison spell imposed by the court fails to shift Simon as his brother, a manipulative Sasson Gabai appeals to the court. A woman’s place is in the home with her husband and children.

It’s tough, it’s wordy, it’s infuriating with Elkabetz (sadly, her last role before a premature death at the age of 51) phenomenal – a powerhouse performance of anger, disdain, disbelief and silence. Directed by Ronit with her brother, Shlomi Elkabetz, Gett is a mesmerising and wholly riveting slow burn.

Rating: 86%

Director: Ronit Elkabetz (To Take A Wife, Shiva), Shlomi Elkabetz (To Take a Wife, Shiva)

Writer: Ronit Elkabetz (To Take A Wife, Shiva), Shlomi Elkabetz (To Take a Wife, Shiva)

Main cast: Ronit Elkabetz (To Take A Wife, The Band’s Visit), Simon Abkarian (To Take A Wife, Skyfall), Menashe Noy (Working Woman, Big Bad Wolves)

‘The Bookshop’ by Penelope Fitzgerald

As a teenager during the early history of the Booker Prize, my opinion was very much about the shortlist being of little relevance or interest. I was an avid reader – but not, for a 15-16 year old, the boring academic tomes of VS Naipaul or the literary tedium of older white women. A broad brushstroke, admittedly, but pre-internet, with little to no interest in the shortlist/winner, these views remained unchallenged.

Such views have changed over the last few years as I have become more and more exposed to the likes of J.G. Farrell, Doris Lessing, Thomas Keneally, Nadine Gordimer and Iris Murdoch from those early shortlist years – along with what I believe to be more socially relevant recognition over the last 20 or so years. But I have yet to pick up a VS Naipaul. And Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Bookshop sits firmly in that literary tedium of older white women bracket.

To be fair, the book is not tedious. It’s simply not particularly relevant! Set in the dreary (fictional) East Anglian village of Hardborough in 1959, recent widow Florence Green establishes a bookshop in a run down building that has some historical interest. In doing so, she finds herself at odds with the bank manager and Mrs Gramart, a wealthy socialite and self-proclaimed doyenne of the art scene. Turns out she had her eye on the building for an arts centre. Networks of power and privilege are used to drive Mrs Green out. And there we have it.

There’s a level of unsentimental detachment to the novel as characters come and go – some in support of the bookshop, others pro-Mrs Gramart but indifference is the dominant factor. There’s a brief period of success with the publication of Nabakov’s Lolita along with the short holiday season, and she gains a champion to her cause in the respected but reclusive Mr Brundish, who admires Florence’s courage in taking on the establishment. But behind-the-scenes string pulling sees that success is short lived.

Peter Bradshaw, film critic of The Guardian, wrote of the recent film adaptation this strange, subdued, rather miserable film. It also perfectly sums up the book of postwar Britain’s cold war of generation and class.

Shortlisted for the 1978 Booker Prize, Penelope Fitzgerald lost out to Iris Murdoch and The Sea, The Sea.

‘Caravaggio’

Stylistically staged, shot wholly in the studio, lit as a Caravaggio canvas heavy with chiaroscuro, Caravaggio is a stripped back yet sumptuous fictionalisation of 17th century Italian painter, Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio.

A series of tableaux tell the story of the artist’s love for both petty thief and street-boxer Ranuccio (Sean Bean) and his girlfriend Lena whilst pleasing his patron, the orotund Cardinal Del Monte (Michael Gough). It’s a cut throat world and it’s a relationship that leads to murder, deceit – and some of Caravaggio’s most famous works.

Caravaggio is often beautiful to watch (exactly what you would expect from artist, set designer and writer/director Derek Jarman) with its painterly, 1980s homoerotic aesthetic but the narrative is disjointed and overly indulgent. As the lead, Nigel Terry is mesmerising and the film marks the film debut of Tilda Swinton. But a young Sean Bean struggles, his lack of menace creating an imbalance in the film’s harder edged, incisive moments.

Rating: 61%

Director: Derek Jarman (Edward II, The Last of England)

Writer: Derek Jarman (Edward II, The Last of England), Nicholas Ward Jackson

Main cast: Nigel Terry (Excalibur, The Lion in Winter), Sean Bean (TV’s Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings), Michael Gough (Batman, Out of Africa)

‘The Assistant’

 There’s no question as to the basis of documentary filmmaker Kitty Green’s debut feature, The Assistant.

Just five weeks into her job as an assistant to a high flying movie executive (who we never see, only hear through open doors or via the telephone), an excellent Julia Garner is concerned. As the new girl in the office, she arrives before dawn, turning on the office lights, unpacking bottles of water, answering phones, printing out scripts, tidying away any evidence of her boss’ previous night’s liaison. Everyone knows. Nothing is ever said.

There’s no melodrama, no grandstanding, no blow outs or confrontations. The Assistant is as much about duplicity and complicity within a wide corporate culture. Power enforces silence – and fear.

It’s a procedural day in the life (a very long day for Garner), full of silences and uncertainties, occasional glances, a lot of quiet exasperation as the new assistant needs to decide whether she wants to walk away – or use the opportunity to gain unprecedented professional kudos.

Rating: 74%

Director: Kitty Green (Casting JonBenet, Ukraine Is Not a Brothel)

Writer: Kitty Green (Casting JonBenet, Ukraine Is Not a Brothel)

Main cast: Julia Garner (Grandma, TV’s Ozark), Matthew Macfadyen (In My Father’s Den, Anna Karenina), Noah Robbins (Indignation, Miss Sloane)

‘The Goldfinch’

Donna Tartt’s novel is a sprawling mystery and sorrow of survival, beauty and obsession, and the promise of art (Booklist). Not so director John Crowley’s confused, disconnected adaptation penned by Peter Straughan.

To be fair, the novel clocks in at nearly 800 pages, so it’s a big undertaking as a young Theo Decker (Oakes Fegley) survives a bomb attack at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that kills his mother. He spends the next 20 years (Ansel Elgort) hiding a 17th century painting, The Goldfinch, that he took from the rubble and which reminds Theo of his mother. But as a result, he finds himself drawn into the underworld of stolen art.

It’s not that the film is a failure – The Goldfinch is simply an over-laboured try-too-hard. Elgort is miscast, and the likes of Nicole Kidman, Jeffrey Wright and Sarah Paulson are wasted. 

Rating: 58% 

Director: John Crowley (Brooklyn, Closed Circuit)

Writer: Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Snowman) – adapted fromt he novel by Donna Tartt

Main cast: Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver, The Fault in Our Stars), Nicole Kidman (The Hours, Bombshell), Jeffrey Wright (The Hunger Games, The Laundromat)

‘The Lowland’ by Jhumpa Lahiri

Covering a time period from the 1960s to the present day, The Lowland, set in both India and the US, is surprisingly slight, superficial and lacking any real depth considering its subject matter. Its forced narrative suggests it would likely have been more successful as a short story.

Growing up in Calcutta, brothers Subhash and Udayan are close but polar opposites. The older (by 18 months) Subhash is quiet, bookish and straight-laced whilst his brother is a risk-taker who, by the time they reach college age, is a political idealist and activist. He becomes involved in the burgeoning Naxalite movement, the Maoist political organisation fighting for the rights of feudalist farmers in the north of India. As Udayan becomes more and more politicised, Subhash, unpersuaded by the imported ideology, finds solace in academia, eventually moving to Rhode Island to pursue oceanographic studies.

And with the elder brother heading for the US, the dramatic narrative of The Lowland sadly ends and the soap-opera storyline takes over. Subhash settles into a level of lonely domesticity and study, knowing little of what is happening at home in Calcutta, believing his brother is no longer involved in political activism. Thus news of Udayan’s death at the hands of the police comes totally out of the blue, forcing Subhash to return home to see his family for the first time in several years – and meet his brother’s widow, Gauri.

Events unfold that ultimately result in Subhash deciding to rescue Gauri from a grim future in his parents home. Educated, politically astute, the unwelcome Guari is almost ignored – and carrying Udayan’s child (something he was unaware at the time of his death). Against strong parental objection, Subhash marries an initially reluctant Gauri and they return to the US.

What follows is 30 years of uncompelling domestic drama; Bela’s paternity, Gauri’s neglect of her daughter and husband, her rise to academic acclaim, her abandonment of family whilst Subhash and Bela are in Calcutta together for the first time. The father/ daughter relationship is pushed to its (restrained) limit. The Lowland has settled into a conventional migrant saga – but without any significant exploration of integration, grief and its effects, growing older (Bela is suddenly 34!) and lessons learned. Undercurrents of politicisation, in both India and the US, are merely touched upon – Neel Mukherjee’s The Lives of Others and the rise of the Naxalite movement is a far superior fictional exploration – resulting in an all-round disatisfying read.

Shortlisted for the 2013 Booker Prize, The Lowland lost out to The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton.

‘The Square’

An Australian thriller from 2008, The Square sadly does not quite pass the test of time.

A bag of cash, an illicit affair, a hitman contract, blackmail, under-the-table building construction corruption and atrocious unseasonal weather all become embroiled in director Nash Edgerton’s cleverly scripted feature (brother Joel Edgerton with Matthew Dabner). A not very convincing David Roberts wants out of his marriage and get out of town with Carla (Claire van der Boom). When she turns up with a large amount of money, the product of some illegal deal by her husband (an excellent, menacing Anthony Hayes), the pressure to leave is seriously ramped up.

There’s plenty of well-staged action but the energy starts to pall – The Square is all a little too single paced and, cramming the narrative with just about everything bar the kitchen sink, has insufficient subtly.

Rating: 58%

Director: Nash Edgerton (Gringo)

Writer: Joel Edgerton (The King, Boy Erased), Matthew Dabner

Main cast: David Roberts (Unbroken, The Matrix Revolutions), Claire van der Boom (Palm Beach, Chronic), Anthony Hayes (Animal Kingdom, Suburban Mayhem)

‘Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich’

Three-part mini series exploring the sordid world of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and the lead up to his suicide whilst in detention in New York prior to trial.

It’s an emotional journey as survivors talk of the manipulation, sexual and emotional abuse at the hands of Epstein – some of them 14 or 15 years old at the time. Whether in his homes in New York, Florida, Arizona or the Virgin Islands, his power and reach held no bounds. American presidents, British royalty, powerful businessmen, State politicians and wealthy socialites all became embroiled to some degree in Epstein’s inner circle.

Lisa Bryant’s distressing yet wholly engrossing docuseries gives voice to the survivors whilst highlighting how the system failed them. In doing so, serious questions of the justice system and the culpability of past and present (white male) politicians are raised. With most of the girls from broken, working-class families, predatory wealth and power on voiceless poverty results in an almost untouchable system of abuse.

It’s haunting, it’s traumatic, it’s a must-watch. Initially based on the 2016 book by James Patterson, John Connolly and Tim Malloy, Epstein’s 2019 arrest and death added currency to the reveal. But the June 2020 arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, British socialite, girlfriend of, and groomer for, the evil that was Jeffrey Epstein adds even more relevance.

Rating: 79%

Director: Lisa Bryant