- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Little, Brown & Company; 1st ed 1st printg edition (5 Sep 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0316860549
- ISBN-13: 978-0316860543
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (69 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 272,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Dead Air
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
There's no question that the anticipation for each successive Iain Banks novel grows ever greater, and Dead Air is a literary event. The sardonic, inventive prose guarantees a unique reading experience with each new book (the misfires may be counted on one hand), and whatever genre he tackles, Banks is one of the most stimulating writers at work in Britain today.
His protagonist here is Ken Nott, a character as penetratingly realised as ever. He's a committed contrarian, ekeing out a living as a left-wing radio shock-jock in London. He makes his home in a loft apartment in the East End, in a former factory due to be demolished in a few days. After a wedding breakfast, people begin to pitch fruit from a balcony on to a deserted car park 10 storeys below; then they begin dispatching other things: a broken TV, a loudspeaker with a ruptured cone, bean bags and other useless furniture. Then the guests enter a kind of frenzy and start dropping things that are still working, at the same time trashing the rest of the apartment. But suddenly mobile phones start to ring urgently and they're told to turn on the TV, because a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center. And Ken Nott finds his life is to change irrevocably.
Banks's subject here is nothing less than the survival of the individual in the face of a chaotic world. The destruction of personality under the lacerating values of modernity is a subject repeatedly addressed by JG Ballard (and that author's shadow is clearly evident here), and although this is one of the Iain Banks novels in which he pointedly does not use the "M" in his name that marks his science fiction, this nightmare vision of contemporary London has more than a trace of that genre in its sense of fractured reality. But all the caustic humour and dark character development that Banks excels in are fully in place. --Barry Forshaw
Review
The expectations for each successive Iain Banks novel grow ever greater, and Dead Air is unquestionably a literary event. Ken Nott is making a living as a radio shock-jock in London; he lives in a loft in the East End, in a former factory due to be knocked down. After a wedding breakfast, people begin to throw fruit from a balcony on to a deserted car park ten storeys below; then the guests become carried away and start dropping larger things while wrecking the rest of the apartment. But suddenly mobile phones begin ringing and they're told to turn on the TV, because a plane has just crashed into the World Trade Center. Banks' subject here is nothing less than the survival of the individual in the face of a chaotic world.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Where's the story ?,
By
This review is from: Dead Air (Hardcover)
I've read all of Iain Bank's works, so I guess I'm a fan, but I found this book disappointing. The main character - as in Complicity - is left-wing, works in the media, takes drugs, is sexually active. Unlike Complicity, there is little or no real story, instead the vast majority of the book is spent listening to the narrator's views on what is wrong - and right - with the world.Now, I'm a Guardian-reading liberal who would agree with over 80% of the polemic in this book, but listening to the main character's diatribes becomes tiring. I was turning the pages looking for a story, a twist, a revelation, and ultimately I was not rewarded. Iain, if you read this, I think you are a wonderful writer and I share your viewpoints but please next time bring more of your story-telling arts and capacity for drama and humour to the party, and leave the rants at the state of the world behind. Finally, why do I appear to be the first person reviewing this book ?
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Politics Passed Off as a Novel?,
This review is from: Dead Air (Paperback)
Have to say I have mixed feelings about this story of the life of fictional shock-jock, Ken Notts. For one thing, I can't stand it when authors discuss or express political views through the dialogue between their characters, and this is frequently the case in this novel as Notts embarks upon long, uninteresting rants on politics, society and sport. The character felt nothing more than an excuse for the writer to express posssible views of his own that would have seen him linched if this wasn't a work of fiction. In the end I skipped them all until he took the reader back to the narrative. The dialogues also slow the novel right down, too.
The other thing I don't like about the novel is what I'd consider a blatant exploitation of the 9/11 disaster, for there's very little reference to, connection with, or discussion, on the tragedy at all in the book. It has simply been used to attract the attention of the reader, which I find very bad taste, and has put me right off Iain Banks. The first half seems to drift nowhere in particular, with nothing of note other than the accident, the introduction of Nott's affair with a gangster's wife and the kidnapping, though these don't really hook you because of the distractions of the dialogue from the narrative. Then, all of a sudden, the book kicks into life in the second half, becomes a fairly enjoyable read with some real moments of tension and you wonder what Banks was playing at in the first half. I particularly enjoyed Nott's confrontation with a Holocaust denier - even if this reflected a possible political argument of the author! - and how he gets himself in and out of the tight spot regarding his affair with the gangster's wife, I also liked how he Notts related what was going through his mind. If you're the type of person that has a pile of books to get through, "Dead Air" is one to be put to the bottom until you've read all the others, since the first half makes it a get-it-over-and-done-with-style novel. If it hadn't have been for the second half I wouldn't have give "Dead Air" any stars.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Really good but just doesn't feel quite right...,
By
This review is from: Dead Air (Paperback)
Barcode: 9780349116648
I read this just after i read The Wasp Factory and well... let's just say this is a very different story, both in content and quality. Don't get me wrong, Banks is a fantastic writer and it shows in this book, thus the 4 stars. The plot is tense, the dialogue witty and the characters likable. Above all, it is intensely realistic, and that is where my doubts first come in. It is almost too realistic. When reading people like to escape but this is way too close to home, set as it is in contemporary London, dealing with terrorism and so on. This is one of those texts where you just wish the lead character would get a break and something good would happen but instead he just comes up against misfortune upon misfortune right up to the end. The sex scenes feel overly seedy, the true love that is behind them not shwoing through enough although aside from that are are quite a few moments of genuinely charming interaction between various characters. Also, like another reviewer said, prepare yourself for major social/political views to come flying at you - it is quite clear the author likes to invest his characters with what he thinks and it shows all too clearly. Now, as best i can remember, i didn't object to his views overly, they't just a bit in your face and are they really the thing you want to read about when you pick up a novel? I'd still recomend this book though as it is fascinating and it'd make for a great film. Bank's gift at realism is incredible and it is worth reading his book for that alone.
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