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Amazon.co.uk Review
The Business is the 1990s success story run riot. The eponymous organisation is ancient, rich and invisible. All it lacks is a certain political clout, something the Business has avoided for centuries but with which it is now beginning to toy. A seat in the UN is at stake as Kate Telman, Level 3 executive, is drawn into the (rather polite) machinations of her superiors. Those expecting John Grisham may be disappointed. No bad thing, perhaps: Kate's personal-professional life-- there is, of course, no conflict here for the successful individual of the 1990s--is the main concern. Banks' interest is in the moral debates about the position of the Business in a world it finds easy to manipulate, drawing the reader into a discussion of the place of the multi-national in contemporary economic and cultural life. "A lot of successful people are less hard-hearted than they like to think": is one view put forward, and not the only romantic but equivocal sentiment hiding somewhere in The Business. --John Shire
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My name is Kathryn Telman. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lost in the woods,
By
This review is from: The Business (Paperback)
The Business is a fair fairy story, at least in concept. There’s a prince seeking a princess, a Queen resigned to her bed for 25 years with a broken heart, a palace of a thousand rooms, snow-capped mountains, pied piper children, an all powerful James Bond style baddie organisation. And like any good fairy tale it tries to have a moral, arising from one hot pretext set just outside of reality. Banks lays it on thick but really fails to bridge the gap between fairy and really. That pretext is the Business itself, founded in times before modern civilization. The problem, unusually for Iain Banks, is that there is a lack of grasp of what this story is all about. Is it a licence to discredit the misty corporate world of international business? Is it about surviving on overhwhelming capitalist power through duplicity? Is it about human relationships, disrupted intimacy, and misplaced loyalty? Or is it just about a prince seeking a princess? By the end, there aren’t any answers. You are left feeling a little cold in the Himalayas. But it’s just such a great idea for a book. The shame is nothing of that mysterious corporate world is uncovered. The Business has worldwide influence and domination. It’s rich and powerful. It seeks a seat at the United Nations by buying up under nourished and unknown nations. Kate is the ambitious Level Three executive at its heart. Yet most of the 400 pages are devoted to her globe trotting and excruciating detail about her in-flight experiences; buying clothes; meeting whoever…. Banks introduces some thriller tension at the start; colleague has teeth taken out by dark adversaries, Kate uncovers a Business factory hiding some dark secret, the Board are either homely uncle / aunty characters or underworld nearly gangsters. Great, but we are then subjected to a long winded “travels with Kate” until we understand any link at the very end. You have wonder what it’s all about. Don’t be prepared to be too disappointed as Iain Banks has the undoubted and undisputed skill in writing and there’s never a word out of place, but overall it doesn't gell. Hot plot lines are introduced, and then disappear to the sidelines. Some motives never get off the ground. With a bit more discipline, this could have really rocked.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Business (Hardcover)
Another excellent and very readable (too readable - I easily read it in an evening) Banks. The story is a grower - for most of the book I wasn't sure where it was heading but that just kept me reading. Quite a "light" take on the whole conspiracy theory thing - very gentlemanly behaviour from the protagonists in retrospect. However that is the nature of the business. I wonder if the business is the very seed of The Culture?Interestingly the content is very contempary - it mentions pinochets detention in the uk for example. Its also odd reading about places that I know well - the buisness used to have offices in Blythswood square for example - just down the road from our offices... There are two reasons that I have only given it four stars. The first is that although the attempt at a female protagonist is excellent there are one are two places where it didn't quite convince, and secondly it ended too early - although it would be interesting to have a follow up with a different character set against the events instigated by this book. If you like Banks though rush out and buy this.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Loved it!,
By
This review is from: The Business (Paperback)
When I first started reading this book I really didn't want to read it! and as I read the first chapter (in a grumpy cant be bothered sort of way)I became hooked and it became one of those not putdownable reads......without giving too much away its an interesting read set in many countries with a shadowy big "business" corporation and a heroine........ by the end I really did care what happened to the characters,......try it!
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