A Return to Boom or Bust (The Business - Iain Banks)

Member Name: samueltyler

Product:	The Business - Iain Banks
Date:	15/04/09 (124 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some interesting concepts

Disadvantages: Too bland, nothing happens, sterile

With the current collapse of the World Economy there has never been a better time to investigate globalisation and the integration of companies into giant world spanning conglomerates. No longer do you need a butterfly to flap its wings in the Rainforest for the world to change; it's easier for someone in Brazil to go directly to the source and embezzle billions from a Swiss account. Like it or not the World has shrunk. Personally, I find it depressing to watch a modern travelogue on TV and see yet another Starbuck's in the background. If there is money to be found in a third world country it won't be long until McDonalds and Coca Cola move in. The Credit Crunchies/Broken Britain/Robert Preston's Prattling have shown us that Big Business and Governments are so in bed together that they are expecting their first baby any day now. Iain Banks 'Business' takes a fanciful look at what kind of thing a multinational does when it gets too big - becomes a plain nation.

Kate Telman is a Level 3 Exec in a company known only as 'The Business'. Around since Roman times this Business is a group of shadowy and wealthy people who make money anyway they can. Without allegiance or home they roam the world looking for the next opportunity to make a Trillion. 'The Business' follows Kate across several weeks as she looks into some strange goings on at a computer chip factory. Whilst investigating this she is also asked to visit a remote Mountain country and smooze with the Prince. What is going on? Is one of the level 1 Execs trying to make a few trillion on the side and why does the Prince keep flirting with her?

As a fan of Bank's books I was looking forward to reading 'The Business'. Knowledge of his work had prepared me for the potential of a slow start, it had not prepared me for an entire book that was slow and never went anywhere. 'The Business' is a book about nothing much, where not that much happens. This is a surprise as there are plenty of elements that could easily have worked. There's Kate's investigation into embezzlement, her potential love affair with a co-worker and her relationship with a Prince. However, none of these elements is particularly explored and instead the book skims along the surface.

It is almost as it Banks is trying to portray a message that I am missing. The book perhaps is trying to explain the negative aspects of Big Business. Here 'The Business' is trying to buy one of two small countries for themselves so that they can get a seat on the UN. This is yet another interesting idea with some great potential, but Banks undermines it all with flights of fancy. Rather than create a believable corporation he creates one that is millennia old that has greased the cogs of industry since before Jesus. This shadowy group would be ok in a Dan Brown style book, but here they seem out of place. There are many giant corporations that exist in the real world that have enough money to buy a small country, why create one that is unbelievable?

Another issue with the book is the lack of emotion and overall blandness. The books attitude is personified perfectly in the character of Kate Telman. Kate is extremely business like and has no issue with evaluating things in a sterilised way. The only time this is not true is when she is thinking about the man she fancies, ironically this is the one element of her character that rings false. Like Kate, the book itself is too cold to be enjoyable. Banks paints a sterile setting and rather than it being a biting satire of modern economies it is instead juts bland.

With little in terms of story, action or plot there is not much to recommend 'The Business'; except to fans of Banks who want to read all his work. The idea of huge companies involving themselves in world politics should lead to exciting repercussions, but instead Banks gives us nothing. The story is supposed to be about Kate, but she is such a dry and calculating character that you end up disliking her and for that reason the book. I was left slightly bored by the end and no richer for the reading.

Author: Iain Banks
Year: 1999
Price: amazon uk - £5.99
play.com - £5.99

Summary: In 1999 recession hit Banks' writing