Iain Banks - Whit

review by Ro Guru Bennett on show 20th Jan
I thoroughly enjoyed this book I like Iain Banks style of writing and his humour and found it a page turner with lots of unexpected twists and turns and I was sorry to finish it. It has encouraged me to read more of Iain Banks work. The main character, Isis Whit, who was normally referred to as Blessed Isis or Beloved Isis was very well depicted and her innocence and sweetness and pluckiness made me feel very sympathetic towards her. She is a member and future leader of a religious sect founded by her grandfather, Salvador. Like him, she is very important to the faithful - she holds the position 'Elect of God'. However as she plummets from being highly venerated, enjoying almost goddess status in her community to being falsely accused of inappropriate behaviour, shunned and just about ex-communicated - I so hoped that things would work out for her in the end. She was so unhappy and wretched by the unexpected and undeserved turn of events and I felt so sorry for her! Besides Isis there are

This is the Product Description:
A little knowledge can be a very dangerous thing. Innocent in the ways of the world, an ingenue when it comes to pop and fashion, the Elect of God of a small but committed Stirlingshire religious cult: Isis Whit is no ordinary teenager. When her cousin Morag - Guest of Honour at the Luskentyrian's four-yearly Festival of Love - disappears after renouncing her faith, Isis is marked out to venture among the Unsaved and bring the apostate back into the fold. But the road to Babylondon (as Sister Angela puts it) is a treacherous one, particularly when Isis discovers that Morag appears to have embraced the ways of the Unsaved with spectacular abandon. Truth and falsehood; kinship and betrayal; 'herbal' cigarettes and compact discs - Whit is an exploration of the techno-ridden barrenness of modern Britain from a unique perspective.

Most reviewers enjoyed the book although one called it boring and annoying but I thought it had a good plot and it made me chuckle - for instance in the community they ate Scottish dishes with an Asian flavour, for example haggis vindaloo and tandoori stovies! The book is full of wry humour and in my opinion an excellent read.

Ro Bennett