Quarterly Postal Markup Book Exchange discussion

Use this thread to discuss this novel. Feel free to create a schedule, agreed upon posting expectations, questions, etc.

I postponed writing down my thoughts on Complicity for a couple weeks thinking I might gain more clarity with time, but I'm just as torn about it as I was when I first finished it. To sum it up: there was a lot I disliked about this book and yet it managed to hook me at intervals, especially the last quarter. Even so, I didn't enjoy the introduction and it took me a while to go back and convince myself to finish it for the sake of discussion; if it were up to me, I don't think I would have bothered to go any further. It’s disappointing because I had high expectations of Iain Banks, and have been intending to read his work for a long time now (incl. The Wasp Factory).

I found the story saturated with political talk I didn’t understand, which didn’t help endear me to the characters and their lives. It could be due to the age of the book, or me not ever bothering to learn more about the political climate in the 90s UK, but I didn’t expect to feel so out of the loop as a reader. It struck me that the author must have written this book with a certain agenda or audience in mind, and I was clearly not part of it some 25 years later. Apart from politics, I was bored with the overall pace of the story, as it took a while for the Colley POV to pick up and become something more than retelling of his habits and work/life leading nowhere. And even then, it was easy to grow frustrated with him.

It was jostling to explore shifting POVs given the blandness of Colley versus the upbeat murder/torture scenes. I can’t be sure the author intended this contrast, though. And as much as it weirds me out to say it, I enjoyed the grounded approach of the killer in this novel – until I found out more about his state of mind, that is. His thought-process and actions were refreshing at first, (view spoiler)[ even though it was his delusions that led him to do these horrible things. (hide spoiler)] I guess I'm saying this because he deceived me into thinking he wasn't psychologically disturbed like most serial killers, which made his "humanity" so refreshing to witness in the first place. Ultimately, the revelation of who it was didn’t surprise me – I had guessed his identity as soon as his character was introduced to the Colley POV.

My biggest issue with Complicity was in fact the lack of character-appropriate reasoning for (view spoiler)[Andy (hide spoiler)]’s actions. It seemed to me Banks wrote the murderer POV with someone else in mind, perhaps someone less traumatised and more sinister than (view spoiler)[Andy (hide spoiler)]. The only way his development would have made sense, given what happened to him in his formative years, would be that he was killing these people out of anger, feeling of displacement, or even PTSD. That he, (view spoiler)[a rich and opportunistic man (hide spoiler)], would kill under the guise of cleaning society from evil men was ludicrous. He’s no fighter for social justice, and his breaking point is so personal that it doesn't sit right with the self-justifying speech he gave Colley. His character read like an amalgamation of characters with differing backgrounds and motivations, or it's just that the wrong man was given the role of a sadistic murderer, and it ruined the book for me.

Cameron Colley himself was not the kind of character you like or easily identify with either. He engaged in repetitive self-destructive behaviours to the point when I was numb to his antics. I spent more than half of the book frustrated with him, eagerly waiting for his turn to face the sadistic murderer so I could see if the encounter would change him. When he did at last, it was anti-climactic to say the least, and I found even more reasons to dislike him for it. The things he did (and didn't do) made it really hard for me to see past his faults and come to care for him. The same goes for the entire cast – not that we were allowed extended glimpses into the truly intriguing people in Colley's life, such as Yvonne.

I was also not fond of the rambling descriptions of computer hardware and software as well as the many repetitions throughout the story. I understand the author probably wanted to: 1. either paint a vivid picture of the character by overemphasizing his actions; 2. or convey the perceived regularity of the scenes. One such example was constantly describing Detective McDunn playing with his cigarette pack. It all got old pretty fast. I like to think I understand the motivations for this approach, but all it did was made me skim large portions of the story to get on with it.

Overall, I would rate Complicity with 2 stars for the ability to engage the reader as the mystery unfolded. Even then, I am not sure if my engagement was the product of the author’s skill or my sheer stubbornness to get through with this book. That said, I don’t mean to imply this author is a bad writer – it’s rather that his style is not compatible with my reading preferences, and that’s all I’ll say on the matter. I look forward to reading the other two books we have for this summer! Thanks for reading! :)