The Business by Iain Banks

[Sally Ann Melia]

I have read all of Iain Banks novels and this one is one of my favourites.

The Business from where the book gets its name is a centuries old concern, at one point in the novel it is suggested that its history stretches back as far as the Roman Empire, but the story postulates the compelling conceit that over centuries The Business has been built up with assets and resources that go beyond countries and national powers to influence every part of the world.

Unexpectedly, at the top of The Business is a strictly meritocratic management structure, and here we come to the main story which is that of Kate who by a chance encounter on a housing estate outside Coatbridge, Glasgow, was lifted out of dire poverty to become Kathryn Telman, a senior executive officer, third level (counting from the top).

I won't say much about the story, except to say it had me hooked from the very start. It keeps the reader interested by using a variety of styles, phone conversations, emails, interview extracts; but also by a globe spanning selection of locals from Texas to Tibet, Yorkshire to Geneva. When it comes to describing how the very wealthy and eccentric spend their money, Iain Banks is as ever witty and entertaining.

I think what I find compelling about this book is the character of Kate Telman, as always Iain Banks female heroines are excellent, and the overall story of not necessarily good vs evil, but greed vs the greater good. Also some interesting reflections on what makes a happy life.

 

[Vertigo]

I'm slowly working my way through Banks' mainstream books and still have a couple of SF ones that I'm saving up, since we'll sadly get no more, though Surface Detail is currently number 15* on my TBR list.

The Business is a bit further down (I have The Crow Road (9) and Complicity (20) scheduled before it*). But thanks for the review it does look interesting and I will be getting to it!

*not that the order of my TBR list stays even remotely constant.

 

[Sally Ann Melia]

I have had 25 years to read them, my only regret that are no new titles to look forward too. It has been my annual treat for such a long time...

 

[Vertigo]

I have now read Banks' The Business:


Iain Banks’ book The Business is about an organisation known, unsurprisingly, as “The Business” and, even if you’ve not read the blurb, the reader very quickly becomes aware that the Business has been around for a very long time:

“The origins of what we now call the Business predate the Christian church, but not the Roman Empire, to which it might fairly be said we owe our existence, and which, at one point — technically, at any rate — we owned.”

Unwelcome visions of tired conspiracy theory stories – Knights Templar, the Illuminati and such like – raise their ugly heads. And it wouldn’t be surprising for Banks, knowing his strongly held socialist beliefs to have written a book with an evil, secret organisation as the main antagonist. But this book is, surprisingly, almost the exact opposite. Yes the Business is a very wealthy and very powerful organisation but it is secret only in as much as it hides in plain sight – it just doesn’t advertise itself; rather owning companies whose names everyone may have heard of – and evil only in as much as it is a capitalist money making machine. But here’s the surprising part; it’s really quite a benign organisation; ruled by meritocracy, though helped by influence, the managers are elected by the people they will manage. In fact Banks here creates something of a utopian organisation, reminiscent in many ways of the Culture of his science fiction oeuvre. Like any organisation it is susceptible to corruption – unsurprisingly the main focus of this mystery/thriller – but playing the long game (two thousand years in business is a petty long game) means the Business does not go in for short term slash and burn tactics. I found Banks’ creation of what is effectively an oxymoronic socialist-capitalist organisation fascinating. But would such an organisation work? I don’t know but reading about it was, as I say, fascinating.

Set against this background Banks has given us a strong (though maybe a little clichéd) female protagonist (a senior executive in the Business) and a satisfying plot riddled with plenty of touches of his usual dark humour. An enjoyable easy read, The Business is not Banks’ best but is certainly one of his more accessible books and well worth a read.

4/5 stars