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A Delicate Truth |
Classic le Carré - the good and the not so good. The engaging plot centres on a top-secret mission to Gibraltar recounted in typical racy style. But half-way through, something goes wrong with the mission, and consequently the plot. Without spoiling the story, the premise that drives the second half is somewhat weak and surprisingly, he pulls his political punches. As usual, the ending comes quickly, perhaps too quickly but it is suitably enigmatic and bleak.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 69 Summer 2013) |
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A Legacy of Spies |
This is le Carré back to his very best. Brilliantly drawn, most characters will be very familiar to readers of his earlier work. Acquaintance however only enhances the intrigue. But like so many of his novels, the plot is not fully resolved; appropriately for the genre, he again leaves us in a state of suspended ambiguity. He says this is George Smiley's last outing. Addicts will be begging for more. How clever is that!
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 86 Autumn 2017) |
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A Most Wanted Man |
A failing British banker, a half-starved Russian and an idealistic civil rights lawyer; only le Carré can weave such disparate characters into an intriguing and claustrophobic tale. le Carré has always been 'good' on Germany. In this novel, the action takes place almost entirely in Hamburg - but a Hamburg that becomes the focus of the rivalry between American, British and German intelligence. A return to form after some recent disappointments.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 52 July 2009) |
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Absolute Friends |
After The Constant Gardener (bwl 8) which I loved, I found this disappointing though there is good stuff in it, in particular his portrayal of the two main characters: Ted Mundy, a British officer's son born in the newly independent Pakistan, and Sasha , the son of an East German pastor. They are caught up in 1960s Berlin rioting, then in Cold War espionage and finally in contemporary horrors.Worth reading if you like this sort of thing.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 27 December 2004) |
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Agent Running in the Field |
Le Carré shows he remains the master of dialogue. Although he takes a waspish but highly enjoyable swipe at contemporary politics, the core of the piece is surprisingly parochial. Aficionados of spy fiction will be amused that Le Carré's Haven, a defunct substation of 'London General' has uncanny echoes of Slough House, central to Mick Herron's Jackson Lamb stories (see bwl 94 review of Joe Country). Ragtag spies are in vogue. The king is alive thank goodness, but his successor is named.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 95 Winter 2020) |
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Our Kind of Traitor |
In a novel that promises much but sadly delivers little, le Carré returns to the murky and confused post cold war demi-monde where one never really knows on which side characters belong or even if there are sides. He writes very well but the biggest problem I have with this latest book is that he takes over 300 pages to tell what is, essentially, a very small story. Regrettably, another disappointment.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 60 Spring 2011) |
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Silverview |
Silverview published posthumously was, as le Carré's son explains in a postscript, complete but much revised and never signed off by his father. Some reviewers, de mortuis nil nisi bonum, have perhaps stayed their critical pens but I wonder if the great master would have approved of its release. There are flashes of le Carré's genius for dialogue but perhaps its biggest disappointment is the confined domestic canvas on which the story is painted.
(Jeremy Miller - bwl 104 Spring 2022) |
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Single & Single |
Sadly not about Smiley but I found this a good fast-paced thriller with the exotic topical settings and characters, tortuous plot and distinctive style Le Carré has led one to expect. Little violence, lots of humour. Like his previous books, should be even better on a second reading.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 2 March 2000) |
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Smiley's People |
After watching the 1982 DVD series recently I couldn't decide who was who and what was what. So I read the book. And what a convoluted tale of legends and spies as Smiley undertakes a lonely, covert mission to uncover the secrets which will finally cause the downfall of his arch-enemy Karla. Le Carré was so much more than a spinner of yarns, his characters from the General who defected to the girl incarcerated in a Swiss asylum are breathing human beings.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 100 Spring 2021) |
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The Constant Gardener |
In my view quite the author's best since the Smiley series. The story revolves around the murder of the wife of a British diplomat on the staff of the High Commission in Nairobi provoked by her discovery of unscrupulous goings-on in the international pharmaceutical field. Unlike Le Carré's previous novels, this one intertwines a movingly described love story. As well as in Africa, the action takes place in London, Cambridge, Germany, Italy and Canada.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 8 April 2001) |
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The Mission Song |
The intriguing main character and narrator, Bruno Salvador, orphan child of an Irish missionary and Congolese woman, is a freelance professional interpreter. He finds himself caught up in complicated political negotiations involving the Congo, described in many pages of detail. I found the story so difficult to unravel that, after 60 pages, I skipped to the end and read that before continuing. Altogether a frustrating and disappointing read.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 39 April 2007) |
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The Night Manager |
Like many others who watched the recent TV version, I'm looking forward to the next le Carré adaptation. It kept pretty faithfully to the original but what I hadn't expected when reading the book was that the writing, with its greater depth, would make the story even more nerve-wracking. I would encourage any and everyone to lay their hands on the book and enjoy the same powerful experience in the hands of the master. Wow!
(James Baker - bwl 83 Winter 2017) |
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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold |
Our unworldly lockdown was an interesting time to re-read this bleak story of a British intelligence officer seemingly at the end of his service in the Cold War. It's an excellent thriller, stark and compelling. No James Bond glamour here, it's a bleak and friendless World and chills appropriately as you try and work out the truth and where danger really lies in surreal circumstances.
(Rebecca Howell - bwl 97 Summer 2020) |
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