Product Description

Kate Telman is a senior executive officer in The Business, a powerful and massively discreet transglobal organisation. Financially transparent, internally democratic and disavowing conventional familial inheritance, the character of The Business seems, even to Kate, to be vague to the point of invisibility. It possesses, allegedly, a book of Leonardo cartoons, several sets of Crown Jewels and wants to buy its own State in order to acquire a seat at the United Nations. Kate's job is to keep abreast of current technological developments and her global reach encompasses Silicon Valley, a ranch in Nebraska, the firm's secretive Swiss headquarters, and a remote Himalayan principality. In the course of her journey Kate must peel away layers of emotional insulation and the assumptions of a lifetime. She must learn to keep her world at arm's length. To take control, she has to do The Business.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #36183 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 393 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
After the shock impact of the excellent The Wasp Factory in 1984, Iain Banks' work has split along two lines. On the one hand, he has written a series of acclaimed science fiction novels (with a devoted following, their own fan magazine and inclusion of his middle initial); on the other hand, a number of diverse, and eclectic, forays into contemporary fiction (for example, the successful television adaptation of The Crow Road).

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

Review
'.Satisfyingly readable to the end' - Maxim 'The Business is his tenth novel. and reveals no slackening in his imaginative energies' - Mail on Sunday 'Imagination, wit and complexity are his hallmarks and The Business is no exception' - Sunday Express 'The Business is the business' - Independent

Mail on Sunday
'The Business is his tenth novel... and reveals no slackening in his imaginative energies'

Customer Reviews

Lost in the woods
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.

If you've never read Iain Banks, start with The Business!
This is an excellent first book to read if you are just getting into Iain Banks, especially because so many of his other novels, while highly rated, are often considered as a bit on the weird side. Its a mix between a whodunnit and an account of one executive's rise to power. Don't expect a punchy ending - that's not the style of Iain Banks - but it's a rivetting read, and wonderfully written. I have gone on to read other books by the same author which have been disappointing, but The Business is a classic read. So go on, go buy a copy today....

A very disappointing read
When I first began to read this book I was excited by the possibilities, the ideas were there in the powerful and very secret 'Business' but it all fell apart and never actually went anywhere. I waited and waited for something to happen but it never did. It was a very disappointing read, it was boring and didn't even seem to want to try and grab the reader’s attention. I do believe it is the only book I have ever read in which nothing ever happens, there isn't even any interesting characters for the reader to care about. It was terrible from start to finish and the ending was just bizarre and completely unbelievable.