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karna's review against another edition
1.0
Parce que c'est un livre de John Le Carré, je me suis forcée à lire ce livre qui est d'un ennui assez remarquable.
Et finalement, j'abandonne après avoir lu plus de la moitié du livre. C'est déjà un exploit d'avoir lu 380 pages en me forçant.
L'histoire est quasi inexistante, les personnages sont déplaisants et il ne se passe pas grand chose.
Je vais plutôt me replonger dans ses livres d'espionnage.
Et finalement, j'abandonne après avoir lu plus de la moitié du livre. C'est déjà un exploit d'avoir lu 380 pages en me forçant.
L'histoire est quasi inexistante, les personnages sont déplaisants et il ne se passe pas grand chose.
Je vais plutôt me replonger dans ses livres d'espionnage.
wilsonthomasjoseph's review
Love le Carré and have been on a le Carré binge, reading through his oeuvre one by one.
But this one, man, was a hard one to read. It's smart writing, and it's funny at parts, but it doesn't propel at all. And I'm not saying le Carré should stick to spy novels; it's just that this one just has unlikable everything in it, including main characters, and it's not crazy or funny enough to work on not having a likeable character. It's political, but the politics are abstract and endemic to the time. Or perhaps I'm just thick to it.
Regardless, not my favorite.
But this one, man, was a hard one to read. It's smart writing, and it's funny at parts, but it doesn't propel at all. And I'm not saying le Carré should stick to spy novels; it's just that this one just has unlikable everything in it, including main characters, and it's not crazy or funny enough to work on not having a likeable character. It's political, but the politics are abstract and endemic to the time. Or perhaps I'm just thick to it.
Regardless, not my favorite.
var's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
dgrachel's review
I got half way through and nothing of consequence has happened. The characters that started off as quirky and interesting are now just tedious and annoying. I'm disappointed in myself for not powering through as I really wanted to read all of le Carre's books, but I'm not going to continue to suffer through it.
2000ace's review against another edition
4.0
The only novel that LeCarre has written outside of the espionage genre, The Naive and Sentimental Lover is an exploration of the nature of love and obsession. The main character, Aldo Cassidy, is a stolidly successful businessman. When he goes to Somerset to look at house he is considering buying, he meets a couple who are squatting there: Shamus and Helen.
Shamus is emerging as a successful novelist, while Helen's main attribute is her beauty. In a complete reversal of his usual obedience to the mores of society, Aldo falls in love with them both. While he is under their spell, he becomes enchanted with a way of life that is very different from his own.
LeCarre wrote this book after the breakup of his first marriage. There is some evidence to indicate that it is at least in part autobiographical. Although it is a departure from his usual backdrop of the world of spies, this novel explores many of the same interior themes, and stands alone as the work of a masterful writer.
Shamus is emerging as a successful novelist, while Helen's main attribute is her beauty. In a complete reversal of his usual obedience to the mores of society, Aldo falls in love with them both. While he is under their spell, he becomes enchanted with a way of life that is very different from his own.
LeCarre wrote this book after the breakup of his first marriage. There is some evidence to indicate that it is at least in part autobiographical. Although it is a departure from his usual backdrop of the world of spies, this novel explores many of the same interior themes, and stands alone as the work of a masterful writer.
smcleish's review against another edition
2.0
Originally published on my blog here in May 2001.
The Naive and Sentimental Lover is unique in le Carré's outpur. It is not a thriller, but a serious novel; its subject is an obsessive relationship. Aldo Cassidy is a self made man, a magnate in the pram accessory business. He goes to Somerset to view a country house he is thinking of purchasing, and there meets a couple, squatting. Aldo falls for them both; Shamus turns out to be a famous novelist, and Helen is extremely beautiful.
Some people think this is one of the best things le Carré has done; other that it is the worst. This is probably decided by their response to the character of Shamus. He is clearly intended to be charming, but to me he comes across as one of the most selfish and obnoxious characters in any novel. (No prizes for guessing what I think of The Naive and Sentimental Lover!) I hate embarrassing behaviour, to the extent of frequently turning off TV comedy, and Shamus is to me the epitome of loud and embarrassing. Le Carré is ambivalent about Shamus himself, and by the end of the novel, Aldo has come to hate him, but my problem is that it is difficult to see why he every thought otherwise.
I have read somewhere that The Naive and Sentimental Lover is to some extent autobiographical, though Shamus is so over the top that this is hard to believe. Some parts of it are clearly not from life; both Helen and Aldo's wife Sandra are typical of le Carré's female characters in that they are ciphers by comparison with the men.
Another way to look at this novel is to see Shamus as the reflection of the unexpressed side of Aldo's personality. This makes the novel between the repressed, successful businessman and the wild artist. This idea makes the novel much more interesting, though it hardly provides much evidence to support this interpretation. The title is one part of it; from Romantic philosophy, where Schiller divided people into the naive, who live the natural life, and the sentimental, who do not but who long to. Shamus, it is explained in the novel, is naive, while Aldo is sentimental. This basically means that Aldo's life, until he meets Helen and Shamus, is ruled by civilised convention, while Shamus is out to shock and outrage, and defy convention at every opportunity. This is not an unreasonable thing to do (and probably seems less outrageous in today's post-punk world than it did when the novel was first published), but defying normal rules for the sake of it makes Shamus extremely tiresome. The title, to return to what I was saying, implies that Aldo is both naive and sentimental, so supporting the idea that Shamus is an aspect of his own personality.
The Naive and Sentimental Lover is unique in le Carré's outpur. It is not a thriller, but a serious novel; its subject is an obsessive relationship. Aldo Cassidy is a self made man, a magnate in the pram accessory business. He goes to Somerset to view a country house he is thinking of purchasing, and there meets a couple, squatting. Aldo falls for them both; Shamus turns out to be a famous novelist, and Helen is extremely beautiful.
Some people think this is one of the best things le Carré has done; other that it is the worst. This is probably decided by their response to the character of Shamus. He is clearly intended to be charming, but to me he comes across as one of the most selfish and obnoxious characters in any novel. (No prizes for guessing what I think of The Naive and Sentimental Lover!) I hate embarrassing behaviour, to the extent of frequently turning off TV comedy, and Shamus is to me the epitome of loud and embarrassing. Le Carré is ambivalent about Shamus himself, and by the end of the novel, Aldo has come to hate him, but my problem is that it is difficult to see why he every thought otherwise.
I have read somewhere that The Naive and Sentimental Lover is to some extent autobiographical, though Shamus is so over the top that this is hard to believe. Some parts of it are clearly not from life; both Helen and Aldo's wife Sandra are typical of le Carré's female characters in that they are ciphers by comparison with the men.
Another way to look at this novel is to see Shamus as the reflection of the unexpressed side of Aldo's personality. This makes the novel between the repressed, successful businessman and the wild artist. This idea makes the novel much more interesting, though it hardly provides much evidence to support this interpretation. The title is one part of it; from Romantic philosophy, where Schiller divided people into the naive, who live the natural life, and the sentimental, who do not but who long to. Shamus, it is explained in the novel, is naive, while Aldo is sentimental. This basically means that Aldo's life, until he meets Helen and Shamus, is ruled by civilised convention, while Shamus is out to shock and outrage, and defy convention at every opportunity. This is not an unreasonable thing to do (and probably seems less outrageous in today's post-punk world than it did when the novel was first published), but defying normal rules for the sake of it makes Shamus extremely tiresome. The title, to return to what I was saying, implies that Aldo is both naive and sentimental, so supporting the idea that Shamus is an aspect of his own personality.
ohsarahrose's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
1.0
This book made me both dislike and pity le Carré, the man, intensely.
(it's semi-autobiographical)
(it's semi-autobiographical)
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