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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good but not great, some unsatisfactory story line endings and explanations that stretch thin. Some excitement and surprises.
33% espionage thriller, 33% reflection on a fascinating character's life and 34% FUCK YOU DAD from Le Carre to his real life father.
Once you learn the cadence of the story it is five star reading and writing. A great novel but takes a little work at the beginning.
Once you learn the cadence of the story it is five star reading and writing. A great novel but takes a little work at the beginning.
The more observant amongst you will notice that it appears to have taken me nigh-on two months to read this book.
And it sort of has — but with good reason.
First, I got asked to review the latest Dublin Trilogy book, something I was more than happy to do as it meant I could stop wading through interminable prose.
I then put off returning to it by reading Mick Fleetwood's first autobiography. It's still a toss-up as to whether that was a wise decision or not.
But finally I could put this off no longer. I had to give it a spirited go...
Now, I'm a big fan of Le Carre's work and to date haven't met a book of his I didn't like.
My how that has changed.
The first alarm bell was sounded with the quote on the front from Philip Pullman proclaiming A Prefect Spy to be one of the finest works of the 20th Century.
The second was the blurb on the back explaining how this was Le Carre's most autobiographical work.
Given this is, in a large part, about a man's troubled and tortuous relationship with his father, this did not bode well.
Le Carre may have exorcised demons here,. but the reader has suffered in the process.
At the centre of the 600-odd pages is a story about a man who may or may not be a Czech spy and the hunt to track him down.
These bits are tense, gripping, and executed with all the skill and dexterity Le Carre has become known for.
However, the vast majority of this tome is an overblown study of the author's relationship with his dad, told through the central character in a variety of styles and voices that are neither easy to absorb or comfortable to experience.
According to his Wikipedia page, Le Carre reflected that "writing A Perfect Spy is probably what a very wise shrink would have advised".
Possibly, although I suspect they'd rather have had the money.
A very wise editor would have advised seeing the shrink.
It's clear that there are a number of feelings and emotions bouncing around the pages, but they do not make for a cohesive narrative or even a particularly insightful peek into the author's life.
The relationship is established very early on. After that, the point just becomes laboured.
All of which is a crashing shame, because the actual spy thriller passages are really rather good.
And it sort of has — but with good reason.
First, I got asked to review the latest Dublin Trilogy book, something I was more than happy to do as it meant I could stop wading through interminable prose.
I then put off returning to it by reading Mick Fleetwood's first autobiography. It's still a toss-up as to whether that was a wise decision or not.
But finally I could put this off no longer. I had to give it a spirited go...
Now, I'm a big fan of Le Carre's work and to date haven't met a book of his I didn't like.
My how that has changed.
The first alarm bell was sounded with the quote on the front from Philip Pullman proclaiming A Prefect Spy to be one of the finest works of the 20th Century.
The second was the blurb on the back explaining how this was Le Carre's most autobiographical work.
Given this is, in a large part, about a man's troubled and tortuous relationship with his father, this did not bode well.
Le Carre may have exorcised demons here,. but the reader has suffered in the process.
At the centre of the 600-odd pages is a story about a man who may or may not be a Czech spy and the hunt to track him down.
These bits are tense, gripping, and executed with all the skill and dexterity Le Carre has become known for.
However, the vast majority of this tome is an overblown study of the author's relationship with his dad, told through the central character in a variety of styles and voices that are neither easy to absorb or comfortable to experience.
According to his Wikipedia page, Le Carre reflected that "writing A Perfect Spy is probably what a very wise shrink would have advised".
Possibly, although I suspect they'd rather have had the money.
A very wise editor would have advised seeing the shrink.
It's clear that there are a number of feelings and emotions bouncing around the pages, but they do not make for a cohesive narrative or even a particularly insightful peek into the author's life.
The relationship is established very early on. After that, the point just becomes laboured.
All of which is a crashing shame, because the actual spy thriller passages are really rather good.
I just couldn't get into this book at all. I loved the first chapter and had high hopes after all the rave reviews, but the next 4 chapters became increasingly confusing, and I gave up around page 93.
Reread and finished today. Even for Le Carre, a most complex psychological exploration of what it takes to live a life of espionage, treading between both sides in the final decade of the cold war. Though it takes place in real time in just one month, the story line jumps back and forth through six decades of the live of the "perfect spy," Magnus Pym. We gradually come to understand how his relationships growing up, notably with his con-man father, shaped the complex, contradictory character he became.
One could imagine that Le Carre wrote the book settling accounts with some of his own history. Who can say. The very intensity of the descriptions of people and the culture suggest it. There is a scene from a campaign rally, for example, that seems so extreme and yet so timely, even after the book's publication in the 1980s.
I don't think Le Carre means to suggest that you need to have as tortured a personal background as Pym had to succeed in "the game" of intelligence, that is, as a field agent, including dealing with double agents and more (without giving away plot). I suspect more that Le Carre invites the reader to explore how perhaps more mundane dilemmas of growing up affect all of us in our likely more mundane lives than Mr Pym. It is a reminder how hard it is and how important it is to "be present" entirely in our lives.
Having read this twice, I probably won't read it again for quite a while. I do find all of Le Carre's books worthy of second passes. He is unique for sure.
One could imagine that Le Carre wrote the book settling accounts with some of his own history. Who can say. The very intensity of the descriptions of people and the culture suggest it. There is a scene from a campaign rally, for example, that seems so extreme and yet so timely, even after the book's publication in the 1980s.
I don't think Le Carre means to suggest that you need to have as tortured a personal background as Pym had to succeed in "the game" of intelligence, that is, as a field agent, including dealing with double agents and more (without giving away plot). I suspect more that Le Carre invites the reader to explore how perhaps more mundane dilemmas of growing up affect all of us in our likely more mundane lives than Mr Pym. It is a reminder how hard it is and how important it is to "be present" entirely in our lives.
Having read this twice, I probably won't read it again for quite a while. I do find all of Le Carre's books worthy of second passes. He is unique for sure.
Crossposted at The Fish Place>
You see, what I like about Le Carre is the total lack of James Bond cool factor. Like the Looking Glass War, this will just leave you speechless. Wonderful BBC production as usual. If you have seen Law and Order UK, Harriet Walker is part of this cast.
You see, what I like about Le Carre is the total lack of James Bond cool factor. Like the Looking Glass War, this will just leave you speechless. Wonderful BBC production as usual. If you have seen Law and Order UK, Harriet Walker is part of this cast.
There are no car chases, few clandestine meetings and a sum total of one gunshot in A Perfect Spy. Le Carré's pace can feel more deliberate and slow-paced than you'd expect from spy novels. Here, it's a more profound sense of steady introspection, as this semi-biographic novel simultaneously tells the origin and downfall of Magnus Pym's intelligence career. Le Carré's usual themes of patriotism and responsibility are fleshed out with a third; the father-son relationship. This lens colours the entire book.
Magnus Pym has disappeared, sequestered himself in a safehouse to write his life story. One figure looms larger than any others, and that's his father, Rick Pym, a conman of the highest order who dragged Magnus along in his wake. In the present, three separate spy agencies hunt desperately for Pym the Younger, while his wife Mary and his mentor Jack Brotherhood try to find him before the authorities do.
In a similar way to how [b:The Spy Who Came In from the Cold|19494|The Spy Who Came In from the Cold|John le Carré|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327719782l/19494._SY75_.jpg|1177001] deconstructs Cold War espionage, A Perfect Spy examines paternity. If you like le Carré, and want to understand the man behind the text, I think this novel is not to be missed.
Magnus Pym has disappeared, sequestered himself in a safehouse to write his life story. One figure looms larger than any others, and that's his father, Rick Pym, a conman of the highest order who dragged Magnus along in his wake. In the present, three separate spy agencies hunt desperately for Pym the Younger, while his wife Mary and his mentor Jack Brotherhood try to find him before the authorities do.
In a similar way to how [b:The Spy Who Came In from the Cold|19494|The Spy Who Came In from the Cold|John le Carré|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327719782l/19494._SY75_.jpg|1177001] deconstructs Cold War espionage, A Perfect Spy examines paternity. If you like le Carré, and want to understand the man behind the text, I think this novel is not to be missed.
dark
mysterious
tense