Canal Dreams [Paperback]

Iain Banks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 19, 1990

Hisako Onoda, world famous cellist, refuses to fly. And so she travels to Europe as a passenger on a tanker bound through the Panama Canal. But Panama is a country whose politics are as volatile as the local freedom fighters. When Hisako's ship is captured, it is not long before the atmosphere is as flammable as an oxy-acetylene torch, and the tension as sharp as the spike on her cello...CANAL DREAMS is a novel of deceptive simplicity and dark, original power: stark psychological insights mesh with vividly realised scenarios in an ominous projection of global realpolitik. The result is yet another major landmark in the quite remarkable career of an outstanding modern novelist.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Because she is afraid to fly during a time of international tensions, famous Japanese cellist Hisako Onoda boards a tanker en route to her concert in Rotterdam. When a conflict erupts and the Panama Canal is closed, the ship is forced to drop anchor in Gatun Lake. A guerrilla faction takes the passengers and crew captive, Hisako is raped, and we watch as the sensitive musician metamorphoses into a grenade-toting avenging warrior. This stunning, hallucinatory, semi-surreal fable pits an artistic, precariously balanced sensibility against a world of brutal political forces. Among the ship's passengers, all taken hostage by the People's Liberation Front, are a South African engineer, an erudite Egyptian and Hisako's wimpy young French boyfriend. Banks ( The Wasp Factory ) doesn't do much with these characters. His wrenching story, which can be read as a parable of the feminine principle reasserting itself and taking revenge on earth-destroying males, derives its power from the exploration of Hisako's mental states, her violent nightmares and her flashbacks to Japan, where she became a prodigy, strove to please her mother and missed a father she never knew, dead from radiation sickness in the aftermath of Hiroshima.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Stranded in Panama during an international crisis, cellist Hisako Onodo witnesses the death of her French lover at the hands of terrorists and brings her hitherto untested powers of will and desperation to bear in a one-woman vendetta. Set in the near future, the latest novel by the author of The Bridge ( LJ 4/15/89) grows in intensity as its heroine divests herself of everything except for her desire for revenge. Not quite sf but more than realism, this tale of obsession should be considered by libraries that can afford to go beyond their priority lists.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Firebird Distributing; reprint edition (July 19, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034910171X
• ISBN-13: 978-0349101712
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 7.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,168,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Short, sharp, shocking Banks, June 4, 2004

By 

B. Caesar "caesartg" (Leeds, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Canal Dreams (Paperback)

Although this is one of his weakest works, it's still Banks. And he really is a good writer.

Notably, there's plenty of reference in the novel to Japan. From my experience of having lived in Japan for some time, learning the language, culture and way of thinking, I notice that sometimes Banks is a little Orientalist in his references to Japanese culture. There are plenty of exotic cultural and by-the-numbers historical references to, for example sumo, samurai, the atomic bombings, student riots of the 60s and some textbook Japanese psychology. However, this seems to me to be like a garnish added to make it more believable to people who know little about Japan. Like another reviewer pointed out, it's like Banks wants to show his knowledge to the reader, but the effect is that the work has been written by Banks without having in-depth experience of the country and people and results in a gentle stereotyping.

However, Banks is an intelligent, reflective and enjoyable writer and I did enjoy the book. It's true that some of the characterisations are rather undeveloped but that doesn't necessarily make it a bad book. In particular, the unusual pacing is such that the narrative lulls for a while, relaxing, and then suddenly surges to an explosive but emotionally-stunted conclusion.

Banks is a writer that doesn't seem to tread old ground, creating surprising and thought-provoking fiction. I reckon that for those who like Banks work, it'll be 50-50 for whether you enjoy this or not, but I do recommend you try it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Real-life horror, August 29, 2002

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Canal Dreams (Hardcover)

Banks' first novel, The Wasp Factory, was a surprise within a surprise--a well-written horror novel that was also a well-written "mainstream" novel. Since then, Banks has continued to surprise mainstream readers with surrealistic novels like Walking on Glass and The Bridge, as well as surprising science fiction readers with intelligent space opera like Consider Phelbas and The Player of Games (Banks' space opera compares favorably with Hyperion by Dan Simmons).

In Canal Dreams, Banks revisits the type of realistic horror found in The Wasp Factory. Hisako Onada is a Japanese cellist who refuses to fly, yet wishes to tour Europe. Her agent books her passage on a Japanese freighter, and she gets caught up in a revolution when her ship becomes trapped in the Panama Canal. That's one part of the story. Another story line explores Hisako's background, from the sacrifices that her mother makes early on as she makes it clear that she wishes to play the cello, through the very rigorous Japanese education process, to joining a major Japanese orchestra. The background serves as an important counterpoint to the other storyline, explaining that her refusal to fly is based on a true phobia. Banks is pointing out that phobias are irrational fears, that have no bearing on the bravery or bearing of the person. When the realtime storyline turns wicked, one isn't surprised at Hisako's actions or her ability to weather hardship.

Banks' horror is like Stephen King's Firestarter without the pyrokinetic, or Thomas Harris' Silence of the Lambs without the psychopaths. Canal Dreams is a novel about the kind of horror seen all too frequently in the news, and occurs even more frequently in the real world. And that is true horror.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not his best, but certainly good., September 9, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Nuernberg, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canal Dreams (Hardcover)

I enjoyed reading this book. This was one of the first Iain Banks novels which I read and I really liked it. Now, with hindsight, I must say that my opinion is that it certainly isn't his best, but good nontheless. If you've never read Banks before and enjoy intellectually stimulating novels, then I'd recommend A Song of Stone or State of the Art. If you just want a nice cosy book which is exciting fun to read and which is more intellectually written than you're average Hollywood Movie/Book, then buy this. Good for long journeys.

One other thing. All these people who just say "This book is pants, or bollocks!" to any book, should try writting one themselves. You might not like the book, and there is certainly no author around who can't accept that some people didn't like their book, but I believe each author deserves respect for what they wrote. Especially somebody like Iain Banks who perhaps doesn't writes nice and easy children books, but incredibly fascinating and encapturing books. I certainly enjoy the way when he changes his style of writing. Take Feersum Endjinn, Inversions, A Song of Stone, Use of Weapons, and more.

Iain Banks is cool and I hope he writes many more books in the future.