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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
Listened to Michael Jayston reading. Been on a Le Carré binge lately. This, in my mind, is his best. It's closest to his own life. . The way that the author reveal Magnus' connections to his own con artist father reminds me of Geoffrey Wolff's DUKE OF DECEPTION.
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was my second Le Carre after enjoying "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" far more than I expected to. Unfortunately, this one didn't have the same effect. The first 90% of the book was confusing, with multiple narratives, shifts from third person to first person narration, sometimes almost within the same paragraph, a large cast of poorly differentiated characters and multiple different times and locations. The threads started to come together at the end, but I feel I just ploughed through the first 500 pages, which is a lot to plough through (I bought it on kindle, so wasn't fully cognizant of the size before I started reading).
Second half was where the novel went from decent to good. And the last hundred pages put it all together.
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This lost me at times with some confusing perspectives and lots of characters, but at the end I find myself strangely moved by the story so mission accomplished.
Immersive, almost meditative listening, I started John le Carre's A PERFECT SPY in Audio version recently, and was amazed by it. Partly a spy thriller, but really it's a character study in two parts. Magnus Pym, a young boy growing up with a con-artist for a father, who has become a successful officer in British Intelligence, marrying a fellow member of the service, having his own child, disappearing, holed up in a second life, in a bed and breakfast, with a new identity and an alleged book to write. The other the story of a con-man father, Rick, a man of huge appetites, mostly for the dodgy, a spectral figure that dashes in and out of the life of young Magnus, leaving confusion and chaos in his wake, adored by his son, never quite understood by that same son, leaving a legacy that's impossible to define.
Meanwhile, as the blurb explains, the grown up Magnus has vanished, leaving all sorts of questions behind him - who is he, who was he, who owns him, who trained him, what's he up to? I love this line from it "the reader joins Pym's pursuers to explore the unsettling life and motives of a man who fought wars he inherited with the only weapons he knew, and so became a perfect spy." Shadows and secrets, deceit and deceptions abound, brilliant listening as it quietly, almost hypnotically sucked in this listener to the point where it became absolutely addictive, in a low key, understated, deceptive way.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/perfect-spy-john-le-carre
Meanwhile, as the blurb explains, the grown up Magnus has vanished, leaving all sorts of questions behind him - who is he, who was he, who owns him, who trained him, what's he up to? I love this line from it "the reader joins Pym's pursuers to explore the unsettling life and motives of a man who fought wars he inherited with the only weapons he knew, and so became a perfect spy." Shadows and secrets, deceit and deceptions abound, brilliant listening as it quietly, almost hypnotically sucked in this listener to the point where it became absolutely addictive, in a low key, understated, deceptive way.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/perfect-spy-john-le-carre
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
To those who see this as the author’s masterpiece and those who see it as a masterpiece of 20th century literature, I concur while noting that I have many of his books left to read.
The plot, while important, serves as always with this author as the scaffolding for scathing social and geopolitical commentary. A couple of examples of the latter...
Of authoritarian Cold War Czechoslovakia:
“It’s a rotten system. It’s superimposed on tribalism. It can only survive by the exercise of oppression.”
Of Cold War England:
“...historically inevitable imperialist decay.”
Hmmm. Applicability to the present day?
The writing, again as always, is superb. So many densely stunning paragraphs I reread multiple times to savor. And the ever so sparsely poignant:
“You see, Tom, I am the bridge.”
The plot, while important, serves as always with this author as the scaffolding for scathing social and geopolitical commentary. A couple of examples of the latter...
Of authoritarian Cold War Czechoslovakia:
“It’s a rotten system. It’s superimposed on tribalism. It can only survive by the exercise of oppression.”
Of Cold War England:
“...historically inevitable imperialist decay.”
Hmmm. Applicability to the present day?
The writing, again as always, is superb. So many densely stunning paragraphs I reread multiple times to savor. And the ever so sparsely poignant:
“You see, Tom, I am the bridge.”