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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
What makes corporates similar to cockroaches ? I think it's that slow entrance and the gradual overpowering of the original host environment. A sort of metamorphosis that leaves the host unrecognisable. They sniff out the profitable places of the world and slowly move in and before you know it they transform it. Look around you, what is surely the most profitable organisation you can think of ? The one thing that will never go out of popularity ? I'd say it is war. As long as we humans are alive on this planet, war will never go out of fashion. There are then the defence contractors, the presences in the corridors of power, the unholy alliances with the armed services and the political machinery and of the hundreds of millions of currency that flow like water between them. Le Carre with barely concealed angst explores one such alliance in this tale. A world where power and money grind human lives like ants under a boot.
This is the kind of plot that would have dilapidated into high octane chase, gunfights and other such cliches in the hands of another writer. Le Carre's characters try what they can to unspool a hideous conspiracy and what comes of it is what the crux of the tale is. The protagonists are regular people who battle it out against a seemingly omnipotent antagonist. A very similar thing occurred in The Constant Gardener and similar to it, Le Carre leaves the reader to figure out answers to a lot of questions in the end. There is a lot of venom spewed against the current state of affairs(read the time of Gordon Brown) and the US-UK tie up in the war against terror. While this populates the initial parts of the book, the last 50 or so pages move at a break neck speed and brings it all to an end.
A single man or a woman can wage a war against a system but the win might come at great personal cost. It is because of such human beings that the world still retains a semblance of sanity.
This is the kind of plot that would have dilapidated into high octane chase, gunfights and other such cliches in the hands of another writer. Le Carre's characters try what they can to unspool a hideous conspiracy and what comes of it is what the crux of the tale is. The protagonists are regular people who battle it out against a seemingly omnipotent antagonist. A very similar thing occurred in The Constant Gardener and similar to it, Le Carre leaves the reader to figure out answers to a lot of questions in the end. There is a lot of venom spewed against the current state of affairs(read the time of Gordon Brown) and the US-UK tie up in the war against terror. While this populates the initial parts of the book, the last 50 or so pages move at a break neck speed and brings it all to an end.
A single man or a woman can wage a war against a system but the win might come at great personal cost. It is because of such human beings that the world still retains a semblance of sanity.
***I won my copy of this in a Goodreads giveaway***
I'm not a huge thriller reader - as you'll see if you look at my read shelf - I'm more of a detective fiction girl, but I really enjoyed this book - gobbling it up in a day. I don't think I liked it quite as much as the other two books of his that I've read (Tinker, Tailor... and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold) but it was still very, very enjoyable - and I'll be passing it on to the men in my life who like thrillers (that'll be my dad and my boyfriend then!).
Proper review here: http://verityreadsbooks.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/book-review-a-delicate-truth-by-john-le-carre/
I'm not a huge thriller reader - as you'll see if you look at my read shelf - I'm more of a detective fiction girl, but I really enjoyed this book - gobbling it up in a day. I don't think I liked it quite as much as the other two books of his that I've read (Tinker, Tailor... and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold) but it was still very, very enjoyable - and I'll be passing it on to the men in my life who like thrillers (that'll be my dad and my boyfriend then!).
Proper review here: http://verityreadsbooks.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/book-review-a-delicate-truth-by-john-le-carre/
I don't know what to make of this one. It was a captivating read. But! I hated the choice of words, too british by far. I hated the end. It was a non-climactic heap of shit. One you could smell hundreds of pages beforehand.
Maybe it was because I was unconsciously missing John Le Carré's prose, after not reading it for a couple of years, that made this book feel like a coming home of sorts. From page 1 the descriptions are spot on, and the conversations are written with Le Carré's trademark style and flair.
And in these conversations it is that we find the most excitement. Unlike any other author, Le Carré can make third person accounts of exciting things feel almost more exciting than the things themselves. Through these conversations we learn more and more about the mishaps surrounding the Topsecret mission Wildlife, seemingly a great succes, but of course this is to good to be true.
And in these conversations it is that we find the most excitement. Unlike any other author, Le Carré can make third person accounts of exciting things feel almost more exciting than the things themselves. Through these conversations we learn more and more about the mishaps surrounding the Topsecret mission Wildlife, seemingly a great succes, but of course this is to good to be true.
Oh wow. This is a scorching, blazing, return to form. This is le Carré at his finest. I couldn't put this book down. I loved the two protagonists, and guess what? He based them on himself. I loved it. I was absolutely gripped the whole way through. The story is masterfully told in assured swathes as confident in dealing with a tense military operation as when describing the minutiae of a village fete.
So so pleased that I decided to read this, as his other recent books just hadn't grabbed me by the heart in a way that George Smiley and his Circus never failed to.
Recommend!
So so pleased that I decided to read this, as his other recent books just hadn't grabbed me by the heart in a way that George Smiley and his Circus never failed to.
Recommend!
I found this book really hard to get invested in until about half way. It was vague and a little confusing, I didn't have the time to read, even a whole chapter, and as a result I had trouble following what was going on and who any of the characters were. However, it was clearly written well and I persevered, bringing it with me for the christmas holidays when I was sure I'd have a good few hours to sit down with it.
I'm glad I did. Full of suspense and really interesting plot development, you can easily identify with one of the main characters, Toby, who has been left out of the loop about a secret operation while working at the Foreign Office and is trying to piece together what happened. A bit predictable at times, but enjoyable nevertheless. If you've got the time to devote to it and espionage appeals to you, I'd definitely recommend this.
I'm glad I did. Full of suspense and really interesting plot development, you can easily identify with one of the main characters, Toby, who has been left out of the loop about a secret operation while working at the Foreign Office and is trying to piece together what happened. A bit predictable at times, but enjoyable nevertheless. If you've got the time to devote to it and espionage appeals to you, I'd definitely recommend this.
Outrage and intrigue and even more relevant now than when it came out six years ago. Unfortunately the outrage trumps the intrigue. Subtle this isn't; the two good guys have interesting foibles while the bad guys are all bad and the info dumps irritate. Page-turning action, very convincing interaction inside Whitehall, and it reads like truth, except that in our current jaded days I'm not sure the root cause would get much of a reaction even from the good guys.
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2700817.html
I read a lot of John Le Carré as a teenager and in my early twenties; it was quite good preparation for the work I subsequently went on to do, though more in terms of preparing myself to meet the mindset of those who think they are doing their best for their country and find themselves questioning their own motivation. I suspect that his portrayal of inner Cold War circles in London, Bonn and elsewhere rang true for those who were there at the time. It is probably fifteen years since I last read one of his novels (I don't seem to have blogged any of them here).
I'm sorry to say that I felt that A Delicate Truth missed the target. It's a story about loyal upper middle class chaps who find that they are able to blow open a fatally bungled New Labour security mission in Gibraltar, and eventually do so. The upper middle class chaps seemed to me rather too noble in their motivations; the non-middle class characters were there for comic relief or moral lessons; more particularly, the Foreign Office as portrayed here is the powerful intellectual machine of former years, not the hollowed-out, demoralised institution I know today, that has now had the ultimate double humiliation of its most important tasks being given to newly invented ministries and then Boris Johnson being put in charge of the rest. Also, coming from where I do, it's odd not to see any reference to previous controversial Gibraltar events. The author is now well into his 80s, so it's understandable that he may be losing his touch; I should revisit some of the classics of earlier years.
I read a lot of John Le Carré as a teenager and in my early twenties; it was quite good preparation for the work I subsequently went on to do, though more in terms of preparing myself to meet the mindset of those who think they are doing their best for their country and find themselves questioning their own motivation. I suspect that his portrayal of inner Cold War circles in London, Bonn and elsewhere rang true for those who were there at the time. It is probably fifteen years since I last read one of his novels (I don't seem to have blogged any of them here).
I'm sorry to say that I felt that A Delicate Truth missed the target. It's a story about loyal upper middle class chaps who find that they are able to blow open a fatally bungled New Labour security mission in Gibraltar, and eventually do so. The upper middle class chaps seemed to me rather too noble in their motivations; the non-middle class characters were there for comic relief or moral lessons; more particularly, the Foreign Office as portrayed here is the powerful intellectual machine of former years, not the hollowed-out, demoralised institution I know today, that has now had the ultimate double humiliation of its most important tasks being given to newly invented ministries and then Boris Johnson being put in charge of the rest. Also, coming from where I do, it's odd not to see any reference to previous controversial Gibraltar events. The author is now well into his 80s, so it's understandable that he may be losing his touch; I should revisit some of the classics of earlier years.
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This was the first le Carre novel outside the Smiley universe I’ve read and I was surprised on two accounts: (1) How entertaining it was despite the new cast of characters (2) The amount of profanity in the book (which was minimal to non-existent in the earlier le Carre novels I’ve read)
In the end, this was a really engaging story and close to a 5 for me. Dock 1 star for the excessive obscenities.
In the end, this was a really engaging story and close to a 5 for me. Dock 1 star for the excessive obscenities.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
John le Carré's style of writing is unparalleled by any author alive today in my opinion. He writes imaginative, fast-paced, high-drama stories that are thrilling yet entirely realistic and believable.
I loved 'A Delicate Truth' because it grabs you right from the word go and takes you on this whirlwind of modern day espionage. le Carré's writing is so elegant that at times you do have to concentrate hard on what he's saying to get the full meaning of some of the most eloquent parts. But this is all part and parcel of the high-brow nature of the topic involved and so is completely necessary.
The story is full of twists and turns. The characters are believable and the protagonists, likeable.
It ends on quite the cliffhanger which is suggestive but not explicit with regards to what might happen next. I liked this touch as at the end of this great mystery, it left the outcome to the reader's imagination.
Overall I loved this book! It has easily been one of the best books I've ever read and I'll definitely be going back and reading some of John le Carré's other work.
I loved 'A Delicate Truth' because it grabs you right from the word go and takes you on this whirlwind of modern day espionage. le Carré's writing is so elegant that at times you do have to concentrate hard on what he's saying to get the full meaning of some of the most eloquent parts. But this is all part and parcel of the high-brow nature of the topic involved and so is completely necessary.
The story is full of twists and turns. The characters are believable and the protagonists, likeable.
It ends on quite the cliffhanger which is suggestive but not explicit with regards to what might happen next. I liked this touch as at the end of this great mystery, it left the outcome to the reader's imagination.
Overall I loved this book! It has easily been one of the best books I've ever read and I'll definitely be going back and reading some of John le Carré's other work.