A Quartet of John Le Carré

Having just read John Le Carré by Adam Sisman I have looked back at the short reviews I wrote of the four Le Carré thrillers I read between 2001 and 2009. Below the reviews I have added comments inspired by reading the biography.

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40. – 90.) The Constant Gardner by John Le Carré - His best book in years. Justin Quayle’s investigation of his wife's death leads him around the world including Saskatchewan. The author has a sense of our winter as he creates a fictional (Saskatoon) Saskatchewan city. Often sad; always moving. It is a book that will not be quickly forgotten. Probable hardcover (probable only because of some recent novels). (Dec./01) (Second best fiction of 2001)

I found the Saskatchewan connection so unexpected in a book focused on Africa. I wondered at the time how Le Carré could write so knowledgeably about my province. Only after reading the biography did I learn of his research which included travels to the places in which he set his books. The biography does not say if he came to Saskatchewan. I remain impressed that he could be accurate about one of the minor settings in his books.

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8. - 263.) Absolute Friends by John Le Carré – A brilliant stunning novel of Cold War and post-Iraq War espionage. Ted Mundy, Pakistani born Englishman, and Sasha are 1960’s radicals in Berlin who form a close friendship. Later Mundy becomes an English spy in order to bring Sasha’s information from East Germany to the West. Actually each is a double agent but ultimately both for the West. They fade into instant oblivion when the Wall comes down in 1989. Mundy has built a simple life in Munich when, after the Iraq War, he is drawn by Sasha into a venture to counter America’s official world view. A shocking explosive pounding conclusion raises the specter of disinformation and utter ruthlessness in America’s war on terrorism. Personal loyalty betrayed by official deception. Better than The Constant Gardner. (Feb. 20/05) (Best fiction in 2005)

I had not realized the level of critical backlash in America to Absolute Friends. It was generally considered a polemic reflecting an anti-American attitude of the author.

In the New York Times the reviewer Michiko Kakutani said it was “a clumsy, hectoring, conspiracy-minded message-novel meant to drive home the argument that American imperialism poses a grave danger to the world order”.

And here I thought of it as a brilliant book that was my favourite book in 2005. I have not changed my mind and remain content to be of the minority who thought it a great book.

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45. - 455.) Mission Song by John Le Carré – Salvo, a Congolese zebra (white father and black mother) in London, is a skilled linguist and interpreter. He can speak a pack of languages starting with English, French and Swahili and including a variety from the Congo. The English Secret Service hires him to translate at a meeting between a new messianic leader for the Eastern Congo and representatives of three groups within the area. As Salvo is leaving London his marriage is dissolving and a new love affair commencing. At the conference Salvo skillfully handles his official translations and listening to secret recordings of private conversations. When he listens to some private conversations to which he should not have listened, he learns the official purpose of a grand reconciliation of the region under a charismatic leader is a façade for yet another grab at the valuable mineral resources. Salvo is an idealist who seeks to prevent yet another injustice perpetrated on his homeland by greedy foreigners. I feared as bleak and bitter an ending as the The Constant Gardner or Absolute Friends. Salvo is dealt with more discreetly by the Establishment. Salvo is another amazing character. Le Carre is such a master at creating fascinating characters. It was a good but not great book. (Oct. 28/08)

The biography also revealed to me that Le Carré was a linguist speaking English, German and French. His German skills reached the level of being a translator. It is thus no surprise why the book is so convincing about Salvo as an interpreter.

With its focus in Africa and Europe the book was better received in America.

In The San Francisco Chronicle it was viewed as “more relaxed” and “less strident” and that “Le Carré has regained his lighter touch”.

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37. - 500.) A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carré – Issa Karpov, half  Chechen / half Russian, barely makes his way to Hamburg after being imprisoned and tortured in Russia and Turkey. Issa denies he has been a Islamist radical. With the aid of a Turkish family he manages to find Annabel Richter, a lawyer devoted to helping immigrants seeking to stay in Germany. She is haunted by the deportation of another young Russian and will not let it happen again. She realizes Issa is no ordinary fugitive as he has particulars for a bank account in Brue Freres, a private bank, run by Englishman Tommy Brue. It was an account established by Issa’s corrupt father in the end days of the USSR. It is a Lippanzer account – a black account which turns white just as the horses change colour when they age. Richter seeks to find a way to keep Issa in Germany and let him fulfill his dream of becoming a doctor. At the same time the multiple German competing intelligence agencies have their eye on Issa and want to use him for their own ends. The interested agencies expand to include those of England and the U.S. I almost hate to read Le Carré’s books. The recent works have been so grim in their endings. As I read this book I dreaded what was going to happen to Issa. The cruelty of Western intelligence in battling Islamic terrorism is frightening especially if you are non-Caucasian and non-Western. If the book’s casual willingness to cast aside laws is correct there is a depressing lack of difference between Western democracies and the dictatorships of the rest of the world. There is no humanity, only competition among the intelligence agencies. I am not sure I am up to reading another Le Carre book. He does have the great talent shared by P.D. James of creating amazing characters. I know I will not forget Issa. It was a book to remember for my 500^th book of the decade. (Sept. 17/09)

It was A Most Wanted Man that ultimately kept me from reading another Le Carré novel for 7 years. While I had coped with his visions of brutal intelligence communities around the world in earlier books I found myself too discouraged by A Most Wanted Man. It was not an excessive amount of violence in terms of bodies that depressed me. Le Carré does not fill his books with bodies. I stopped reading his books as I did not want to accept that the current world of intelligence agencies was as vicious as he portrayed. Le Carré’s world was too bleak for me. I decided to read another after I read the biography. I wanted to see if my reaction to Le Carré had changed. I had an unread Le Carré book, The Night Manager, above the computer. It was actually written before the above books. My next posts will review and discuss the book.

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Le Carré, John – (2000) - Single & Single; (2001) - The Constant Gardner (Second best fiction of 2001); (2005) - Absolute Friends (Best fiction in 2005); (2008) - Mission Song; (2009) – A Most Wanted Man

Sisman, Adam - (2016) - John Le Carré  and John Le Carré as Real Life Spy