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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Good, but the ending was far from satisfactory. Have to see how the next part of the Karla trilogy goes before I'd want to weigh in.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation, War
Fairly confusing to follow, with a pretty oblique plot. The chapters were also overlong for me. But some of this may have been because I hadn't read the previous book.
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
My sense is that Le Carre did a lot of traveling, presumably in Hong Kong and maybe also in Southeast Asia, and he wanted to cram in as much detail as a possible in this sprawling, convoluted novel. Thinking about his famous Karla creation dealing with the Sino-Soviet split is kind of intriguing, but unfortunately characterization suffers with all of the locales and plot turns. Namely, I could not buy Westerby's infatuation with Lizzie Worthington (who is not well developed either) which is a motive for his inexplicable actions.