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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
Solid, classic spy thriller. A different tone than Le Carre or Fleming - more absurd, even bordering on surreal sometimes, but with a healthy dose of Serious.
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
An enjoyable read with a not particularly likeable maverick main character. By today's standards he'd have been kicked out for having an affair with his secretary, but things were different in those days. If you've seen the film, you'll find it isn't identical to the book, but they're both good in their own ways.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Clever writing, at times something like Vonnegut. An irreverent style similar in many ways to Graham Greene's 'Our Man in Havana', but more interesting - better.
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Definitely funny. Dragged a bit towards the end, but still enjoyable and quippy. A bit convoluted (though that might be because it was different to the film and I kept expecting film things to happen) but tbh that's par for the course in a spy thriller. I still liked it a lot.
Fun writing style at the beginning gradually gives way to normality until concluding with the boring and basic “but how did you know” conversation typical of pulp mysteries. His first book, so other Deightons may be better.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
Look, I'm just a lad from an irish country village sometimes I have to admit that the subtleties of the British class system and its cultural affect are a bit beyond me. You have the upper class chaps from the private schools, and then you have the unnamed agent, who is not upper class and did not go to a private school, yet he's the biggest snob you'll encunter on these pages, with his elegant good taste in clothes, coffee and food. Unnamed agent, of course, is a young person in swinging London, so maybe he's just at the heart of the zeitgeist while the stodgier old British institutions endure in mouldering but unshifting implacability. Unnamed agent keeps bothering people about expenses and back-pay, maybe that's the real difference.
Anyway, British boffins are leaking and defecting in weird numbers, and being kidnapped and put up for sale, Unnamed Agent is transferred to a slightly different department to help look into it, and things get very complicated from there. Pay attention, now, and it'll all make sense.
Anyway, British boffins are leaking and defecting in weird numbers, and being kidnapped and put up for sale, Unnamed Agent is transferred to a slightly different department to help look into it, and things get very complicated from there. Pay attention, now, and it'll all make sense.
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Very funny quips throughout the book. I never could have followed the plot without having seen the TV series which I thought was wonderful.
Not the quickest read ever, but certainly a good book. Interesting, funny, sad, and not full of Hollywood slick spies.