I read this as a teenaged boy and adored it. Re-reading it many decades later, it's still - objectively -a fantastic book. But it didn't affect old me as it did teen me. Is that because the book speaks to a younger audience? Or because I had read it before so the shock of the new was gone? Impossible to say, but I did re-read Wasp Factory recently and that still packed all of its original wallop.

I could not get into this book, ultimately it was not form me and I could not finish it. It may be one for other readers

I really struggled with this - just couldn't connect with it. It was well written but something just didn't gel for me.

Rarely get time to re-read books as so many new & discovered ones to read. However, this one is just as good as I remember it back when I read it when it was first published. A rare talent in that Iain Banks mixes the everyday life with his unique mix of humour and take on life. This and 'Espedair Street' are a good starting point for his work.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. This was an excellent read.
Thoroughly recommended

The Crow Road behind with the immortal line "It was the day my grandmother exploded". Genius. The narrator is Prentice McHoan, a final year college student embroiled in the consideration of life, death, God, sex and family, in particular the long-missing Uncle Rory.

The narrative, in true Banksian style, is not straightforward. Prentice provides a funny, moving and very winning voice as first person narrator as he navigates the pitfalls of relationships with a motley crew of friends and foes and family. But Banks also interjects sections in the third person, often switching between past and present as Prentice's quest to uncover family history unearths old events. It's cleverly and effectively done and give the narrative an enjoyable twist without feeling like a gimmick.

The rambunctious McHoan family is the heart of the novel. From story-teller and patriarch Kenneth, a staunch atheist appalled by his son's Christianity to rich, landed uncle-by-marriage Fergus Urvill and his niece Fiona. The complex and spirited family relations make for an absorbing and very funny read. Banks isn't afraid to be silly at times and his characters'lighter antics carefully balance the darker aspects of the tale and the complex narrative style

There was much to enjoy here, but I found I couldn't connect with it. I'd read more from this author in the future though.

An absolute classic and must-read for anyone in possession of eyeballs and a heart. If you haven’t read this already, you must.

Nasty Party

Most tragedies begin and end at home within the family. The Greeks knew that.

With this superb novel we understand what we have lost with the premature death of the author: the breadth of his imagination, the bravura writing, the humour and wit, the superb characterisation, plotting and narrative structure. What we have is a novel which dwells in childhood, young adulthood, generational conflict, success, failure, happiness, despair. Yes, and a possible murder or two as well.

Where did uncle Rory disappear to all those years ago? What really happened to auntie Fiona? Why can’t Prentice see what is right in front of his eyes, his own soul-mate? All this I enjoyed immensely, and also the razor-sharp dialogue, the close eye on childhood perceptions, the angst of adulthood and middle age, the wonderful descriptive scenes of Scotland. Great stuff from start to finish.

This was a rare case of reading a novel almost entirely because of its famous first line: “It was the day my grandmother exploded.” I was familiar with the quote from the Bookshop Band song “Once Upon a Time” (video on bottom right here), which is made up of first lines from books, but had never read anything by the late Iain Banks, so when a copy of The Crow Road turned up in the free bookshop where I volunteered weekly in happier times, I snapped it up.

There’s a prosaic explanation for that magical-sounding opening: Grandma Margot had a pacemaker that the doctor forgot to remove before her cremation. Talk about going out with a bang! To go “away the crow road” is a Scottish saying for death, and on multiple occasions a sudden or unexplained death draws the McHoan clan together. As the book starts, Prentice McHoan, a slothful student of history at the university in Glasgow, is back in Gallanach (on the west coast of Scotland, near Oban), site of the family glassworks, for Margot’s funeral. He’ll be summoned several more times before the story is through.

Amid clashes over religion with his father Kenneth, a writer of children’s fantasy stories, plenty of carousing and whiskey-drinking, and a spot of heartbreak when his brother steals his love interest, Prentice gets drawn into the mystery of what happened to Uncle Rory, a travel writer who disappeared years ago. The bulk of the book is narrated by Prentice, but shifts into the third person indicate flashbacks. Many of these vignettes recount funny mishaps from Kenneth or Prentice’s growing-up years, but others – especially those in italics – reveal darker matters. As Prentice explores Uncle Rory’s files from a project called “Crow Road,” he stumbles on a secret that completely changes how he perceives his family history.

This reminded me of John Irving at his 1970s‒80s peak: a sprawling coming-of-age story, full of quirky people and events, that blends humor and pathos. In all honesty, I didn’t need the mystery element on top of the character study, but it adds direction to what is otherwise a pleasant if lengthy meander through the decades with the McHoans. I particularly appreciated how Prentice’s view of death evolves: at first he’s with Uncle Hamish, believing there has to be something beyond death – otherwise, what makes human life worthwhile? But Kenneth’s atheism seeps in thanks to the string of family deaths and the start of the Gulf War. “They were here, and then they weren’t, and that was all there was,” Prentice concludes; the dead live on only in memory, or in the children and work they leave behind.

I'm aware this book is a classic but unfortunately I was unable to connect with the story at all. After a few attempts I have had to admit defeat. It just wasn't for me.

I love this book, and Iain Banks. I did my Alevel coursework on a comparison of this, Whit and The Wasp Factory, examining the presentation of religion through characterisation.
It's funny. touching and tackles existential questions through the lens of a murder mystery. It also starts with the line 'It was the day my grandmother exploded', a classic indeed.
Read this if you like good story telling, then read the rest of his novels. Feel free to move to Iain M Banks' science fiction after that too!

(Taking "better late than never" to the next level with a review of a book I've considered passing over entirely more than once!)

The Crow Roads is a funny sort of book - the third thing I've read by Banks, of which two have been his literary, rather than science fiction work - a slightly odd fact given that I'm almost exclusively a science fiction and fantasy reader, but here we are. I'm not sure what I was expecting from this contemporary fantasy saga, but my expectations didn't involve quite this level of meandering.The Crow Roads follows Prentice, both as a child and as a young adult vaguely attempting to study at university, and his extended family both past and present. In the MacHoan clan, being dead or disappeared is no barrier to playing ones full and active part in family drama, and indeed its some of the absent characters - notably Uncle Rory, a missing travel writer whose regular postcards are the only evidence that he may not be dead - who make the biggest impression. Prentice himself isn't an offensively bad protagonist, but he is an aimless ones, and that means that his sections of the narrative tend to involve a rather meander-y lens; mooning over one cousin while apparently ignoring better romantic prospects with a close childhood friend (neither are blood relatives but the feeling of benign incestuous is pretty pervasive in the book as a whole), dealing with fatherly disappointment and a much more successful brother, looking back on childhood incidents and old family deaths with the same air of vague detachment, it feels like he's getting a lot of mileage out of being the least interesting member of an otherwise very intense family. The outright meandering goes on for over half of the Crow Roads, before something of a plot coalesces around the fate of Uncle Rory and long-buried secrets with Fergus, a family friend who married Prentice's (dead, of course) aunt. Even then, the elements resembling a plot don't kick the novel into a much higher gear, and the resolution, while it plays into wider changes for Prentice and the McHoans, doesn't make a huge difference overall. Most of the people involved are dead, after all, and those who remain are already at peace with their bizarre family without having to necessarily solve the mysteries involved in the dead ones' fates.All of this might make it sound like I didn't like The Crow Roads, which isn't true - it's an entertaining novel, with characters who really shouldn't be as sympathetic as they end up being (especially not the dead ones). It's a book that I read slowly, alongside other things, and I think that was the right way to go about it - a novel whose characters and events stay alongside you rather than compelling a page-turning binge to find out the resolution. The Crow Roads is an experience rather than a story, and as an experience its one I'm glad I had.

Thank you for the advance review copy, took me long enough but enjoyed reading it and would recommend!

A classic, gritty, and interesting story told with great style. I liked this and was glad to have read it.

Received from Netgalley for honest read and review.

Well what can I say,really disappointed in this one.So looking forward to reading it,but I understand that this is not one of his best.

Don't think I will revisit any of his books

One of those rare books that I couldn't get in to, and was actually off-putting from the first chapter. I gave up forcing myself to read it.

I enjoyed reading this fictional classic that kept me engaged and looking forward to reading the whole story.

The Crow Road is very much a classic these days, one of Banks's best-loved books. From its opening line, "It was the day my grandmother exploded" you are swept up in Prentice's quest to understand what happened to his uncle. It's funny, poignant, and entirely encapsulates Scotland at the start of the 90s, with all its acerbic humour, and is full of gloriously larger-than-life characters. Nothing I say is going to do justice to it - it may not be Banks's greatest novel (actually, I'd find it really hard to say which is, there are so many to choose from) but it's an absolute must-read, and if you're interested in Scotland, one which captures the zeitgeist.

An inimitable classic, A plethora of characters in an entangled extended family, Banks writes with depth and credibility so much so that the reader is drawn into the story at a slow and enjoyable pace. Highly recommend.