Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Le Business by Iain Banks, Christiane Ellis, David Ellis ISBN: 2-7144-3747-8 Publisher: Belfond Pub. Date: 20 September, 2001 Format: Paperback |
Average Customer Rating: 3.41 (29 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Corporate globalism can be fun
Comment: Known for his dark, wry wit and his speculative imagination (his SF novels are cult classics) Iain Banks' wide ranging novels ("The Wasp Factory," "Complicity") explore numerous facets of contemporary culture, duplicity and character. His latest, "The Business," takes on the comedy of corporate globalization.
Narrator Kathryn Telman is "a senior executive officer, third level (counting from the top) in a commercial organization which has had many different names through the ages but which, these days, we usually just refer to as the Business." Urbane and ambitious, Kate is a girl on her way up. She has a flippant, ruthless wit and an outspoken weakness for the vital concerns of the less fortunate masses, which has never prevented her from advancing the interests of her employer. Kate herself was plucked from bleak Scottish poverty at age 8 and groomed for success. Now, with her mother and benefactor both dead, Kate regards the Business with gratitude, loyalty, admiration and a sharp, observant eye. She will need all of these qualities for the new task the Business has set her.
The Business dates back to the Roman Empire (which it actually owned for a disastrous 66 days) and has a finger in almost everything, from the latest technologies to a collection of Michelangelo's pornographic paintings. Internally democratic - promotions are advanced by a vote of one's peers - the Business requires an atheistic oath from its management levels. Its highest level executives indulge themselves in hobbies firing barrages of heavy artillery and running derelict tankers aground.
Notwithstanding their costly lesson in running an empire, the Business feels its lack of political clout in this increasingly borderless world and hankers after a nation, something small and manageable with a seat at the United Nations and that ingenious smuggling tool, the diplomatic pouch.
Kate believes, like everyone else, that negotiations with a tiny Pacific Island are advancing despite occasional obstacles thrown up by the US and other nervous nations. But in a top-level meeting at a rambling Scottish castle she is informed that the island is a diversion. The Business has actually chosen a tiny Himalayan monarchy to acquire. And they've selected Kate to take charge; to go to Thulahn and judge how the Business's interests will mesh with those of the Thulahnese people.
Initially terrified by its terrain (landing requires serious aerobatics), appalled by its lack of amenities (no TV!), vicious weather, cantankerous Queen mother and sticky children, she is slowly won over by attributes that have nothing to do with business, only to discover that the Business has not - surprise - been entirely frank with her.
The fun is in the details - the little subplots, the maneuvering and manipulation, the over-the-top excesses (echoes of Richard Condon abound). Kate, by virtue of her lively narration, comes across as a real person who lives primarily by her wits. She's opinionated and articulate, sympathetic and humanistic, but not introspective. She lives in the moment and advances socialistic arguments at the dinner table while reveling in the prospect of her own private jet and a home on several continents.
The other characters are defined mostly by their excesses and eccentricities. Kate's true-love interest is bland and blurry while the Thulahn prince, in pursuit of Kate, is amiably pathetic.
Banks' energetic, imaginative prose and sharp wit bring the multinational corporate behemoth, if not to its knees, at least to its bottom line.
Rating: 4
Summary: A good read, but not his best book
Comment: The "business" of the title is a vast two-thousand-year-old entity that has been around since early in the life of the Roman Empire. However, this is not an "Illuminatus" novel; there is no conspiracy to take over the world here; no secret cabal controlling presidents and monarchs; no "Protocol of the Elders of Zion". This is a business, and they just want to make money. Of course they do it on scale that even General Motors might envy; much of the book's plot turns on their desire to get a seat at the UN by getting control of one of the tinier nations. (Quite openly, and with the agreement of that nation's government.)
The protagonist is Kathryn Telman, adopted into the business at an early age, and now, at 38, a rising executive with a sharp eye for company politics and a strong sense of ethics. She is faced with several ethical choices in "The Business", and she makes, by and large, intelligent decisions. However, the book is also, in a quiet way, a political thriller, and though there are no actual dead bodies, there is certainly some skulduggery for Kathryn to get to the bottom of.
One of Banks' greatest assets is his ability to weld a good story to a worthwhile problem, and tell the whole thing entertainingly. "The Business" is no exception. It's not his best book: I'd recommend "The Bridge" or "Complicity" if you want to start somewhere else, or "The Player of Games" if you like science fiction; but it's a fine, smooth, and thought-provoking read.
Rating: 4
Summary: Enjoyable ride, plot largely irrelevant
Comment: Such enjoyable and easy to read prose. Banks feels so comfortable and natural in what he's talking about, although he could easily sound nerdy or as if he's trying to show off with so many contemporary technology references.
There's a bit of a background thriller plot of some covert illuminati 'Business' of vast wealth, power and history, but it is largely that, just background. The foreground is the ramblings and reflections of the central character, a technology investment advisor in her late 30s. She's smart and won't compromise her views to flatter anyone, despite stating them with wit and respect. We get to like her and some of her close friends, and are buoyed along by settings and activities of outrageous extravagance and opulence.
I found the thriller ending a bit unconvincing: I suspect Banks doesn?t want to insult his readers by spelling it out too much (something which makes him far more enjoyable to spend time with that the usual blunt Clancy's et. al), but the crucial 'clue' to me seemed pretty weak. Also our heroine seemed foolish in her final confrontation - just created a powerful foe without giving herself any protection as far as I could see.
But if we leave the thriller conclusion aside (which we can with Banks), the ride is quite enjoyable enough on its own. There's a bit of the 'noble savage' myth happening with the visit to a poorer country, but it's still interesting that he even bothers to juxtapose the two worlds. Banks seems to enjoy playing with cool characters with massive wealth and power, the most extreme I've seen being the 'culture' of some of his excellent SF novels (when he adds his middle initial 'M' to differentiate), but it's also there with his millionaire bassist in Espedair Street.
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
