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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
story was pretty good but i’m not sure i buy the ending
Devo confessar que sou zero fã de histórias de espiões e acho que este livro veio confirmar essa minha preferência. No entanto, há algo na escrita do Le Carré que me deixou presa e não consegui largar o livro. Li com deleite como ele descrevia os cenários, as interacções entre as pessoas e, lá está, apesar de não estar a gostar muito do conteúdo, a narrativa está muito bem contada e a escrita é muito boa de se ler.
I think I have to finally accept that Le Carre is just not for me. I haven't been able to read a few pages of any I've tried so far. So I thought listening might get me interested. Wrong again.
Don't get me wrong he's a great writer (with a bit of a tendency to labour a point at times). The story is engaging and Michael Jayston is a great narrator. However I just don't think I'm ever going to be a fan of the spy genre.
The Night Manager was made into a great TV adaptation and they stuck closely to the story so I think I'll get my Le Carre via the medium of film from now on.
Don't get me wrong he's a great writer (with a bit of a tendency to labour a point at times). The story is engaging and Michael Jayston is a great narrator. However I just don't think I'm ever going to be a fan of the spy genre.
The Night Manager was made into a great TV adaptation and they stuck closely to the story so I think I'll get my Le Carre via the medium of film from now on.
It took me a long time to read this boiok.
According to Goodreads I started this book on January 21, 2021. I finished it today! It was a struggle to get through but I was glad I read it.
According to Goodreads I started this book on January 21, 2021. I finished it today! It was a struggle to get through but I was glad I read it.
This was my first John le Carré book and while the writing was really good, it was also very, very slow. It didn't start getting really interesting until about 3/4th of the way through the book.
The characters are well developed and rich, even the secondary characters stand out.
Jonathan Pine is the title character and while he is a likable hero, he is also overly sentimental and suffers greatly from white knight syndrome. This actually seems to do more harm than good and it kind of makes you want to smack some sense into him on several occasions.
The ending is a bit of a let down. It's a weird mixture of 'what just happened' and 'happily ever after' that is difficult to really enjoy. But it also seems more realistic that way.
The characters are well developed and rich, even the secondary characters stand out.
Jonathan Pine is the title character and while he is a likable hero, he is also overly sentimental and suffers greatly from white knight syndrome. This actually seems to do more harm than good and it kind of makes you want to smack some sense into him on several occasions.
The ending is a bit of a let down. It's a weird mixture of 'what just happened' and 'happily ever after' that is difficult to really enjoy. But it also seems more realistic that way.
After being bored a few years ago by finishing "A Delicate Truth" I wanted to give le Carre another chance with this novel. Sadly it was just as (if not more) boring, and after reaching the halfway point, and found myself not caring for anything that went on, I simply gave up not wanting to waste more time with his novels. Not for me, thanks.
adventurous
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Le Carré is the king.. of overwriting novels. There’s clever spy prose and then there’s just leaving the audience in the dark - this moved from “that’s clever but I feel I’m missing something” (which is good spy writing) to straight up “what the hell is going on?!” I have no idea how it got the reviews it did, as at least half the book could and should be chucked out. And the ending was not just a cop out but a viciously disappointing one (but more on that in the spoilers...) As usual things are left vague and unclear as though that elevates le Carré to lofty writing, realistic and complex etc. But in reality it just means I spent loads of hours reading a book which, although strong at points and indubitably well written, felt unsatisfactory. Definitely not the le Carré of choice for me!
[spoilers]
The first scene is good, and sets up the book well - him as night manager at the hotel and meeting Roper and co. And the intelligence sub plot is fascinating but barely gets a look in. Other than that, it’s really quite dry. I’m glad we got a detailed picture of Roper’a crew and operations but we get WAY too much of this, i think what actually happens in the book re Pine getting himself into Ropers gang, collecting evidence, and then out again could have been told in about 30 pages - not nigh on 300. There are a lot of scenes which don’t serve much purpose, and the build up is done too slowly. I think it’s an attempt at sophistication but in reality it’s poor writing: there are way to build up psychological character traits and subtle plot points better than this. The worst part of the book is the Canada sub plot: could have literally been said in 3 pages - nearly left the book at that stage but at least once I got to roper there was continuity. And the pace did turn up in the second half, which I struggled to put down.
I couldn’t care less for Pine as a character - he’s boring and frankly quite poorly written. Apparently all that drives him is an insatiable urge for sex and a desire to be loved by his war hero father? And I think the values portrayed by this book are a bit embarrassing: somehow it seems to glorify men who have sex with everyone they meet and are rather violent. The women are not strong characters and there are very few (other than underlings) in the intelligence side of things. Did I get a detailed understanding of about 30 criminals surrounding Roper? Yes. Did I want or need it? No.
One thing le Carré does expertly is make you want to see Darker & co. alongside Roper and his Ropees brought to justice. What’s so frustrating is not just that this does not happen, but that le Carré, it turns out, never intended to answer this question, even though 450 pages of the plot are driven by it: instead, towards the end we’re asked in vein and expected ignorantly to care about Pine the individual, and Jed - both weak characters. Yes, sometimes gritty realism requires acknowledging that good/bad aren’t so clear and that bad isn’t always brought to justice - but le Carré should have seen that through rather than leaving Burrs sub plot hanging? Apparently, we will never know quite what happened to Burr’s attempts to get things moving in Whitehall via deception and violence. I won’t be returning to le Carré for satisfactory endings (I’ve also read his ‘A Delicate Truth’ which I loved but found to have the same flaw), that’s for sure.
[spoilers]
The first scene is good, and sets up the book well - him as night manager at the hotel and meeting Roper and co. And the intelligence sub plot is fascinating but barely gets a look in. Other than that, it’s really quite dry. I’m glad we got a detailed picture of Roper’a crew and operations but we get WAY too much of this, i think what actually happens in the book re Pine getting himself into Ropers gang, collecting evidence, and then out again could have been told in about 30 pages - not nigh on 300. There are a lot of scenes which don’t serve much purpose, and the build up is done too slowly. I think it’s an attempt at sophistication but in reality it’s poor writing: there are way to build up psychological character traits and subtle plot points better than this. The worst part of the book is the Canada sub plot: could have literally been said in 3 pages - nearly left the book at that stage but at least once I got to roper there was continuity. And the pace did turn up in the second half, which I struggled to put down.
I couldn’t care less for Pine as a character - he’s boring and frankly quite poorly written. Apparently all that drives him is an insatiable urge for sex and a desire to be loved by his war hero father? And I think the values portrayed by this book are a bit embarrassing: somehow it seems to glorify men who have sex with everyone they meet and are rather violent. The women are not strong characters and there are very few (other than underlings) in the intelligence side of things. Did I get a detailed understanding of about 30 criminals surrounding Roper? Yes. Did I want or need it? No.
One thing le Carré does expertly is make you want to see Darker & co. alongside Roper and his Ropees brought to justice. What’s so frustrating is not just that this does not happen, but that le Carré, it turns out, never intended to answer this question, even though 450 pages of the plot are driven by it: instead, towards the end we’re asked in vein and expected ignorantly to care about Pine the individual, and Jed - both weak characters. Yes, sometimes gritty realism requires acknowledging that good/bad aren’t so clear and that bad isn’t always brought to justice - but le Carré should have seen that through rather than leaving Burrs sub plot hanging? Apparently, we will never know quite what happened to Burr’s attempts to get things moving in Whitehall via deception and violence. I won’t be returning to le Carré for satisfactory endings (I’ve also read his ‘A Delicate Truth’ which I loved but found to have the same flaw), that’s for sure.
Admittedly, I only watched the show because of Tom Hiddleston, but I thoroughly enjoyed it so I decided to give the book a go, even though I’ve never read a spy novel before. Overall, I enjoyed the book and my favourite part was the characterisation of Jonathan Pine, who I found very compelling as a main character. He was smart and strong, but also reserved and emotional. I feel the book helped expand his character and backstory in a way that was poignant and helped create a very strong connection between him and the reader.
Despite the fact that I found Pine a very strong protagonist, one of my main problems was with the side characters. Particularly, just how many characters there were, and how many of them were afforded their own chapters and POVs. This causes pacing issues with the book and I feel that characters such as Rex Goodhew and Joe Strelski didn’t need their own POVs as they don’t add much to the story that we don’t already get from Burr’s POV. My biggest problem with this came when we were in really high-tension chapters with Jonathan, we were then switched to someone else’s POV, which just ruined any of the amped-up tension and became quite frustrating at times. These were often the chapters that I read the fastest, not because I was particularly engaged with them, but just because I wanted to go back to Jonathan.
On the subject of characters, the other major thing I had a problem with it the lack of female characters, and the disregard that was shown to the few that there were. Linked to this, I found the portrayal of people of colour to be very stereotypical and almost caricature-like, which didn’t sit well with me.
Though I did enjoy the book, even with my gripes, I do think this is one of the few cases where the adaptation was actually better than the book. I found that the TV series had higher stakes, gave more agency to female characters (and Olivia Coleman was great as Burr), and the modern setting of the show was a very good and important change. Even le Carre himself said he preferred the show, which is probably the highest praise an author can give to an adaptation.
With the end of the Cold War, I despaired that Le Carré would be out of work. I needn't have worried though. The world of international arms dealers was ready and waiting for his attention for this, his first post-Cold War novel. He works his tried-and-true themes of the triumph and tragedies of loyalty and love to great effect here. It is set against his typical backdrop of high-stakes but morally ambiguous geopolitics. The tense narrative is delivered with impeccable style and skill.