A review by apechild
The Business by Iain Banks

4.0

I have come to this book by random chance, and although I enjoyed (if that is the best word!) The Wasp Factory, having glanced over the blurb on the back, I am not sure this is s book I would normally go for. Even though I know Iain Banks is good. I don't follow the intricacies and cunning of big business, am not interested in money, and it felt like I needed to have the Pet Shop Boys singing "let's make lots of money!" In the background. There's something of money money that made it feel like the eighties, although I think it is set in the 90s given some music references. And the utter consumerism, money and power being treated as the ultimate defining factors in a life well lived, and these well heeled business execs living a life of ridiculous luxury, and yet never seeming to actually do or produce anything (maybe a sign of upper management????) All really grated on me. It did take some time to get going for me. And yet now that I have finished it, I can say it was a really good book. For me it started to shine when our narrator Kathryn head to this fictional country, Thulan, which is a Tibet/Nepal style country. Cold barren and extremely high, so different to all the things she is used to and yet this feeling of well being and charm comes from it all. And I make it sound twee by writing that, but it really isn't. And the ending, that she ends looking at the bigger picture and doing something that has the potential to benefit a lot of people... its not all about her now. I loved that.

So glad I unexpectedly picked up this book.