Complicity 2072939 207682171 2008-04-23T19:50:17Z Frank 1475157 Capitalist: remove link(s) to disambiguation page - [[WP:Disambiguation pages with links|You can help!]]) {{about|the novel by Scottish author Iain Banks|the legal term|Complicit}} {{infobox Book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books --> | name = Complicity | orig title = | translator = | image = [[Image:IainBanksComplicityEarly.jpg|200px]] | image_caption = | author = [[Iain Banks]] | cover_artist = | country = [[Scotland]] | language = [[English language|English]] | series = | genre = [[Novel]] | publisher = [[Little, Brown]] | release_date = 1993 | media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]]) | pages = 313 pp | isbn = ISBN 0-349-10571-5 | preceded_by = [[Against a Dark Background]] | followed_by = [[Feersum Endjinn]] }} '''''Complicity''''' is a [[novel]] by [[Scotland|Scottish]] author [[Iain Banks]]. It was published in 1993. ==Plot introduction== 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 narrative|first person]], and those dealing with the murderer in the [[Second-person narrative|second person]] (not the more common third), so the novel presents, in alternate chapters, an unusual example of an [[unreliable narrator]]. The events take place mostly in and around [[Edinburgh]]. ==Plot summary== Colley is a "[[Gonzo journalist]]" with an [[amphetamine]] habit, living in Edinburgh. He also [[tobacco smoking|smokes]] [[cigarette]]s and [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]], drinks copious amounts of [[alcoholic beverage|alcohol]], plays [[computer game]]s, and has adventurous sex with a married woman, Yvonne. He regrets his [[addiction]]s and misdemeanours and tries half-heartedly to give them up occasionally. 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 (S28)|HMS Vanguard]], Britain's first [[Trident missile|Trident]] nuclear missile [[submarine]]. He thinks he has a scoop when he receives anonymous phone calls about a series of mysterious deaths. Suddenly he has mysterious deaths of his own to worry about, when an [[editorial]] he wrote years before comes back to haunt him. In it, he suggested that certain named [[capitalism|capitalist]] and [[right-wing]] public figures would be better hate-figures than the conventional ones of foreign leaders or domestic criminals. It seems someone is killing off the people on his list, one by one. The description of the murders (which are ingeniously [[sadism and masochism|sadistic]]) is done in a fairly detailed manner. Under suspicion by the police, Colley finds himself involved doubly in the bizarre murders when the killer is revealed... At the end of the book, Colley is diagnosed with [[lung cancer]] (a downbeat ending omitted in the [[Complicity (film)|film adaptation]]). ==Literary significance & criticism== Banks has claimed in an interview that ''Complicity'' is "[a] bit like ''[[The Wasp Factory]]'' except without the happy ending and redeeming air of cheerfulness". ''The Wasp Factory'' is of course quite a macabre book itself. ''Complicity'' has been compared with ''[[Tam o' Shanter (Burns poem)|Tam o' Shanter]]'' in its portrayal of the human, and particularly Scottish, attitude to [[sin]] and transgression. The themes of [[violence]] and [[substance abuse]] in the book, along with the grim ending, seem to point to Banks' growing [[pacifism]]. Cameron Colley strongly resembles Ken Nott in Banks' later book ''[[Dead Air]]''. Significant sections of the novel are written in [[second-person narrative]]. ==Film, TV or theatrical adaptations== A motion picture called ''[[Complicity (film)|Complicity]]'' (or ''Retribution'' in some markets) based on the novel was filmed in 2000. ==Trivia== The two computer games Cameron plays are ''Despot'' (which strongly resembles ''[[Civilization (computer game)|Civilization]]'') and ''Xerium'', an invented spaceship game. An extract from the book was published in the Spring 1993 edition of the magazine ''[[Granta]]'' (#43) ''Best of Young British Novelists 2'', ISBN 0-14-014059-X with the title ''Under Ice''. ==Bibliography== ''Complicity'', Iain Banks, Little, Brown and Company 1993, ISBN 0-349-10571-5 ''Iain Banks's Complicity: A Reader's Guide'', Cairns Craig, Continuum International Publishing Group 2002, ISBN 0-826-45247-4 ==External links== *[http://web.archive.org/web/20070209225849/http://www.mysteryguide.com/bkBanksComplicity.html Mystery guide review (at archive.org)] *[http://www.booklore.co.uk/PastReviews/BanksIain/Complicity/ComplicityReview.htm Review] {{Iain Banks}} [[Category:1993 novels|Complicity]] [[Category:Novels by Iain Banks|Complicity]]