Ian Banks
Background.
I got to know Banks's work a year and a half ago when I read his most popular book, Wasp Factory".
The Factory has its own charm, but I didn't really appreciate the book. It's not about the trash that the author described there, but the fact that the plot, in my opinion, fell short. Neither the characters, nor the disclosure of the topic.
Nevertheless, I've heard that I.B. has other books that are just as good, if not better, than O.F. So I started Steps on Glass.
The plot of the book. "Steps on Glass" consists of three different plots, the chapters of which alternate with each other. Throughout the book, the stories don't seem to be interconnected in any way... right up to the last 3 chapters.
The first plot is the story of a young guy, Graham, who experiences love at first sight for a girl named Sarah. There are three main characters in this cycle:
1. Actually, Graham, who acts as the protagonist of his story. Kind person.
2. Sera, who, as I said, is the subject of the hero's interest. The lady is a mystery.
3. Slater is Graham's friend with his own idiosyncrasies.
The story is extremely interesting for the development of the relationship between the main characters, a couple who , after meeting at a party, begin to spend more and more time with each other, despite the fact that Sarah has a husband, from whom she left, and a biker lover. However, in the end, the seemingly romantic and sugary arch of Graham and Sarah comes to an extremely harsh conclusion, which is very surprising.
* * *
The second story tells about a construction worker named Steve Grout, who quits his job and starts wandering back and forth. The peculiarity of Steve is that he is... mentally ill, who believes that he is being hunted by alien "Tormentors". He dodges invisible lasers and sees traitors and scammers everywhere.
This is the least of my dreams. Paranoid nonsense about aliens, sociopathy and the nonsense that the hero is talking, and the story as a whole, is even slightly annoying and boring, but by the end of the storyline you even show empathy for the hero. Still, the guy was unlucky.
* * *
The third plot has a mystical/sci-fi motif, as it tells about a pair of old men, a man named Quiss and a woman named Ajaya, who enter a mysterious castle that is beyond time and space. In order to get out of the castle, the heroes must play unusual games of varying degrees of difficulty and guess the answer to the riddle: "What happens if an unstoppable object gets in the way of an unstoppable force ?".
The door lock hides a lot of secrets, just like its inhabitants.
* * *
The moral of this fable.
The connection between the three stories begins to show up in the last chapters. But the degree of this very connection depends purely on the reader. From the superficial references to the deeper meaning.
And the stories, like the whole book, have a lot to tell.
Why is the name "Steps on glass"? Because life is a leisurely journey across a glass floor.: you know or guess what's ahead, but at any moment there may be a crack in the glass that will change your plans. Or it will burst altogether. But even realizing the risk and planning the fate in advance, the landscape behind the glass is distorted, and it is not always clear what the truth is.
And it is precisely in truth and falsehood that the whole dilemma lies.
As Morpheus asked: which pill will you choose?
Find out the disgusting truth and live with it, or amuse yourself in your cozy little world, even if it's not true?
What will happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
Book: "Steps on glass".
Author: Ian Banks.
Genre: I would classify the book as mystical realism.
Written: 1985.
Verdict: 8.5/10. It is easy to read, not voluminous and interesting.
