Complicity

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Banks writes in a way I have never experienced: one minute he's spending long chapters describing a grey, dull-looking building. Then he shoots an image overladen by sex and drugs; the next is a discussion about Tory and Labour politics. And don't be surprised if you find a humorous touch inside a murder scene that is otherwise gory and unforgiving! We follow Cameron Colley, a journalist with a mild drug, drink and gaming habit. He doesn't actually seem to do much work, but runs around after an anonymous source called Archer, who is hinting at links between the deaths of Nuclear scientists and associated people. But what is going on is far more sinister. There's a series of brutal murders across the country and suddenly Cameron is arrested. He knows he didn't do them, but can he be sure he's not complicit in the crimes!

This is the first book in ages I've felt a real compulsion to read and finish, which is not to say it's necessarily better than the last few books I've read, just that it's the kind of book that's utterly compelling. I was so intrigued by this book that I bought an original DVD of the movie based on the book. But I admit without shame that I did not watch the movie before re-reading the book for the second time! Its two main characters are Cameron Colley, a journalist on a Scottish newspaper called The Caledonian (which resembles The Scotsman), and a serial murderer whose identity is a mystery. The passages dealing with the journalist are written in the first person, and those dealing with the murderer in the second person, so the novel presents, in alternate chapters, an unusual example of an unreliable narrator. The events take place mostly in and around Edinburgh. Furthermore, he reflects on his awful experience of witnessing the aftermath of the massacre at the ' Highway of Death' in the Gulf War, and covers the deployment of HMS Vanguard, Britain's first Trident nuclear missile submarine.I am a great Banks' fan, and was awaiting this film eagerly. I am quite disappointed, though the film would presumably, if taken at face value and not compared to the novel, be OK.

It is about hopes and disappointments, unrequited love, bravery and cowardice. Technically, it’s a quintessentially modern English novel. There are two stories travelling at once. Neither of them is told chronologically – heaven forbid we should start at the beginning and end at the end, too passe. We do indeed have exposed sex, unexpurgated violence and a Thatcherite setting. But as well as this: Given the reputation of Iain M Banks as a writer of unorthodox sci - fi and contraversial novels, I am surprised that only 2 of his works have ever been adapted for screen - The Crow Road (which I never liked either as a book or series) and Complicity, his only film outing.In Japan, this film is given the title Psycho 2001. The cover of the DVD shows a writhing figure in a bloody bathtub, apparently boiling in a stew of guts and organs after ritual disembowelment. What really made this book stand out and pushed it into a 5 star rating was how Banks told the story. Portions of it were told in second person narrative and, surprisingly, it worked perfectly. I truly felt as though I were in the story and believe me, the second-person narrative scenes are nothing I ever want to experience. There are a lot (and I mean it) of good things about this book. The book is written in Gonzo style, which basically means the story is being narrated in first person. Where the brilliance of this approach lies is that Banks uses this tool both for the protagonist Colley as well as the mysterious serial killer. As a result, you are perplexed as to whether Colley is indeed the culprit. The reader needs to be alert as Banks keeps switching the narration between Colley & the killer in almost every chapter until the identity of the killer is revealed. It all might seem a bit confusing at first but one gets used to it.

This witnessing adds a level of reliability (even if we don’t like it). And readers aren’t daft. They know they’re not really the you-character, which means authors could use it as a tool to create surprise when the ‘you’ is unveiled later in the book. Complicity is my second Banks novel, after The Wasp Factory. Both are 5 star reads, the main reason being that Banks is a captivating storyteller capable of evoking sympathy when the reader may not necessarily feel comfortable with the feeling. If life had not regularly intruded, then I would have happily and easily read this book in one sitting.I'm not a Scottish young male journo with a drug habit; this book is grim, brutal, uncompromising and convoluted ...so why do I like this so much? I also loved how Banks introduced and wove into the story the protagonist's memories and real-time drug use. In second-person narrative POVs, the pronoun is ‘you’. This narration is intimate, but strangely so, as if the author is talking directly to the reader as a character.

As with his friend Ken MacLeod (another Scottish writer of technical and social science fiction) a strong awareness of left-wing history shows in his writings. The argument that an economy of abundance renders anarchy and adhocracy viable (or even inevitable) attracts many as an interesting potential experiment, were it ever to become testable. He was a signatory to the Declaration of Calton Hill, which calls for Scottish independence.An excellent nervy book, both cool and terrifying at its dark centre where the perfect logic of the protagonist is devoid of pity. Banks's muscular style and gruesome imagination make this a fast-moving thriller not to be missed * Daily Telegraph * That intrusive element is both its strength and its weakness. It’s powerful because it places readers at the heart of the story, and yet we – the ‘you’ – know less than the narrator.