When
I first came across this novel, it was adapted on the radio. The
adaptation did not do this book the slightest bit of justice
however. I can't think how they could have effectively done the
opening passage with a single reader.
The opening is
hilarious. A business exec on a mobile phone who's just had half his teeth
taken out after a night on the town, trying to convince our heroine, Kate
Telman, that he is not drunk. Although this is played for laughs, it does
become more significant later on. Kate works for The Business, an almost
anonymous but all-powerful corporation. She's been an employee for years,
and even she finds it difficult to keep abreast of all its activities.
It's a strange company, in that it leanings towards democracy. Lower
employees can decide who their bosses are going to be. However, this is
not quite the workers' paradise that it might appear. It seems as though
The Business is a hybrid between a nation state and a large corporation.
It's here where Banks appears to be most visionary. No doubt he's
referring to all those big business protests in Seattle and the like, that
whole mysterious global corporate cabal thing. However, The Business
itself has been around for centuries. It even once owned the Roman Empire
for 66 days. Banks is to be applauded for digging up of the story of Didius
Julianus, a man who really did buy Caesar's crown - only to lose his head, poor
thing.
The current day
Business does not seem to have learned from too much from their past folly
however, as they're still determined to buy a state. Owning your own
state makes gaining diplomatic immunity just that wee bit easier, and can
even get you a seat on the United Nations. Thus Kate is sent to Thulahn ,
a Himalayan principality, in order to do some reconnoitering and to assess how
the Thulahnese will react to The Business. It doesn't help that the
Prince is madly in love with her, and that his mother is certainly batty.
Kate, used to all the amenities of modern life, didn't take to Thulahn on her
previous visit there. However, a little civilisation has seemed to have
encroached there , with the local merchants now accepting credit cards.
Preoccupying Kate is her love for an impossibly noble American man, something
which exposes her directly to a hint of corruptness in The Business.
There's also the fact of her own humble roots, and the impossibly sweet street
urchins of Thulahn. And then there's a dash of mystery of just what is
going on in that microchip factory in Motherwell? Why has Kate really
been sent to Thulahn?
There's a
couple of passages where Kate discusses her own morals and that of The Business
with her fellow executives which are really quite really quite revealing (like
that old chestnut about going back in time and killing Hitler before he did any
real harm). But Kate seems most open when discussing issues with her
therapy ridden American girl friend. However, as Kate stumbles on a
conspiracy, she begins to wonder who she can really trust. Swiss road
regulations may now make all the difference between life and death. Maybe
watching too much trashy cult TV has made her paranoid... Kate must make
the most difficult decision in her life: whether to be honest, or to look
away. Whether to be selfish or compassionate...
Iain Banks has
written an extremely witty and hilarious novel. Okay, so it may not be to
the taste of some Banks aficionados, but this is one writer who never does what
his audience expects, and long may he continue surprising. This comedy
thriller is highly entertaining and extremely compelling. The fact that
the pages whizz by has much to do with the sheer joy of the writing, not a lack
of substance as some critics would have you believe. And Kate is a
completely convincing and well constructed character, one of Banks' best and
least angst ridden. Of course, it's all a conspiracy led by the World
Banks. This World Class Banks clearly had fun writing this novel, and I
had great fun reading it. Perfect.
authortrek
rating 10/10.
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