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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Closer to 4 1/2 stars. First John le Carre' I've ever read. I would also like to read The Little Drummer Girl and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.
I can't give this book a rating due to the fact that I couldn't finish it. I realize that it got a rather high rating, but I found it to be confusing as well as boring. Maybe if I had given it more time, I would have gotten more into it, but I was not in the mood to.
Ugh after reading two 900 page novels back to back I thought this classic spy novel would be a BREEZE. But alas, it, too, was a slog. From the foreword, I gathered that JlC is a great writer with classic British dry humor and wit, but this book is just so all over the place. I get that it's semi autobiographical and therefore looser than his other novels, and there were parts of the intrigue I did enjoy (specifically those from Mary's POV) but the majority of it I just couldn't relate to. Not that shocking, seeing as it narrates a father-son relationship from a British spy as the protagonist and author and I never have been, am not, nor ever will be a father, a son or British. Rough!
Do not recommend, try one of his other novels if you can.
Do not recommend, try one of his other novels if you can.
Very much a novel about father and son relationships along with the author's always believable take on the British Intelligence system during the Cold War. Listened to the audio version which was narrated by the excellent Michael Jayston.
3.5, a very good book! The prose paints a very detailed picture of the events, which elevates the mundane nature of the observations and actions that are happening within the story. There is not much action, and some of the backstory (particularly that of young Pym) can drag a bit. But, the good sections are great and the slow sections are not bad, but merely slow and a bit dense. I very much enjoyed how the central premise of the plot was slowly revealed to the reader, and how the mystery is solved. I felt that I solved some of the mystery before the characters, which I think marks a good mystery novel. The britishness of the novel is also great, are there better british character names than Jack Brotherhood and Sir Makepeace Watermaster? Would recommend to those who enjoy spy-craft (but not the action heavy variant), and to those who are interested in the making of the mind of 'A Perfect Spy'.
I was not a fan of the style of writing in this book , which shifts - sometimes mid-sentence - from first to third person. Sorry, but I don't want to work that hard at reading a leisure read. I only finished this book because I was too stubborn to throw in the towel. And then only to find that the book is missing the end page(s)?! Although it could really just cut off mid-sentence. It wouldn't surprise me. While unloved the concept from the book jacket, I hated the execution.
Nothing specific, just slow moving and hard to get into. Guess there was a reason I've owned it forever but never read it
Both Le Carré’s heavily autobiographical confession of sorts, and an attempt to craft a truly “classic” spy novel in so much as it feels heavily indebted to much canonical literature. A fine work, but not quite as searing or suspenseful as his very best.
I found this one hard to get through. The story line is complicated enough and the vocabulary is robust (both of which I like), but I found the switching among the characters to be confusing and I never really developed a solid mental picture for Tom, the protagonist's son. Consequently, I was frequently lost.