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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
I really enjoy Le Carre's deft skill and understanding in his painting Pine's internal emotions and conflicts – even his brief affairs. But he seems to spend way too much time dwelling on Pine's time in Devon, and the sequence between Pine getting caught by Roper and getting released feels rushed.
The women in the book are also portrayed as rather weak, unthinking and frivolous, which is a bit sad to read. Lol.
The plot isn't particularly great, but the best part of the book is easily the complex and realistic portrait of the arms conflict he wove together. Planning to read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy after this.
The women in the book are also portrayed as rather weak, unthinking and frivolous, which is a bit sad to read. Lol.
The plot isn't particularly great, but the best part of the book is easily the complex and realistic portrait of the arms conflict he wove together. Planning to read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy after this.
adventurous
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I picked up this book because I love Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston and wanted to read it before watching the AMC series.
Loosely - the play is about a man who slips into a big time criminal organization, hoping to take out the man at the top. I had really high hopes for it but the writing style really fell flat for me. The style was slow and I was always somewhat confused by what was going on. If you even began to slightly skim the text you could completely miss vital information. There were multiple times I almost gave up. I believe my lack of knowledge when it comes to the government and different positions and offices held by various people hurt me when trying to figure out who did what and who was doing what - the lack of character development for the numerous names mentioned didn't help.
I appreciated the time it took for le Carré to set the scene for Pine to infiltrate Roper's organization but sometimes it dragged on. It was nice to get to know him on a more personal level but I felt as though it could have been cut a little shorter. I found the pining he did (no pun intended) over the woman in this novel over the top and frankly made me sick from time to time. The control these women had over him got old very quickly. Although I felt the murder of Sophie was extremely sad, his professed love for her and I felt like we had no real glimpse of their relationship. The hook never really set for me - especially because her death was supposedly the reason he decided to go undercover anyway.
Once the character of Jed was introduced I knew I would continue to be irritated - beautiful, blonde - Pine immediately wants her. It's a constant tug of war the entire rest of the novel between wanting her and feeling shame for wanting her. Especially because she's Roper's gal. I also found her personality extremely dull - I couldn't understand how they loved one another when I really didn't see much develop between them. Le Carré would just write that they did.
Overall, I would have loved to see more character development. I never felt true feelings for these people and towards the end I didn't really care what happened - I just wanted it to end.
Although I have pretty much spent this entire book saying how much I disliked it, there were certainly moments I really did enjoy it. I'm just not sure the author's writing style is for me.
*update* I finished the show last night and it was 1,000x better than the book which is somewhat of a bummer. In the way that I wish I hadn't read the book and just watched the show. The show was much, much more exciting and really had a better storyline for almost the entire last half. Props to the writers!
2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challege: an Espionage Thriller
Loosely - the play is about a man who slips into a big time criminal organization, hoping to take out the man at the top. I had really high hopes for it but the writing style really fell flat for me. The style was slow and I was always somewhat confused by what was going on. If you even began to slightly skim the text you could completely miss vital information. There were multiple times I almost gave up. I believe my lack of knowledge when it comes to the government and different positions and offices held by various people hurt me when trying to figure out who did what and who was doing what - the lack of character development for the numerous names mentioned didn't help.
I appreciated the time it took for le Carré to set the scene for Pine to infiltrate Roper's organization but sometimes it dragged on. It was nice to get to know him on a more personal level but I felt as though it could have been cut a little shorter. I found the pining he did (no pun intended) over the woman in this novel over the top and frankly made me sick from time to time. The control these women had over him got old very quickly. Although I felt the murder of Sophie was extremely sad, his professed love for her and I felt like we had no real glimpse of their relationship. The hook never really set for me - especially because her death was supposedly the reason he decided to go undercover anyway.
Once the character of Jed was introduced I knew I would continue to be irritated - beautiful, blonde - Pine immediately wants her. It's a constant tug of war the entire rest of the novel between wanting her and feeling shame for wanting her. Especially because she's Roper's gal. I also found her personality extremely dull - I couldn't understand how they loved one another when I really didn't see much develop between them. Le Carré would just write that they did.
Overall, I would have loved to see more character development. I never felt true feelings for these people and towards the end I didn't really care what happened - I just wanted it to end.
Although I have pretty much spent this entire book saying how much I disliked it, there were certainly moments I really did enjoy it. I'm just not sure the author's writing style is for me.
*update* I finished the show last night and it was 1,000x better than the book which is somewhat of a bummer. In the way that I wish I hadn't read the book and just watched the show. The show was much, much more exciting and really had a better storyline for almost the entire last half. Props to the writers!
2017 POPSUGAR Reading Challege: an Espionage Thriller
dark
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:
Complicated
I often try to get into le Carré, but find myself getting bored, so I must admit I am definitely not the target audience for The Night Manager, but as a book club pick, I was obliged to read it.
To start off, I was definitely enticed by the quality of le Carré's writing. The open scenes of hotel politics and funny anecdotes about guests almost won me over. But ultimately, The Night Manager is overwritten, outdated, and just not that interesting. It felt like a historical artefact (which is how I had to approach it some of the time just to deal with the way that le Carré writes his women) - an object of the 90s that even then harked back to a post-Cold War era style that appeals mainly to Boomers and men who view women as nothing more than objects of desire.
The plot took almost 200 pages to get going, and then once it was over, it felt like le Carré got bored and just wrapped everything up as quickly as possible, plot threads be damned. It meant the whole book felt wholly unsatisfying. There were some interesting moments of characterisation (for the men), but it wasn't enough to keep me interested.
The Night Manager gets three stars for the quality of the writing alone, but I definitely didn't have fun with it.
To start off, I was definitely enticed by the quality of le Carré's writing. The open scenes of hotel politics and funny anecdotes about guests almost won me over. But ultimately, The Night Manager is overwritten, outdated, and just not that interesting. It felt like a historical artefact (which is how I had to approach it some of the time just to deal with the way that le Carré writes his women) - an object of the 90s that even then harked back to a post-Cold War era style that appeals mainly to Boomers and men who view women as nothing more than objects of desire.
The plot took almost 200 pages to get going, and then once it was over, it felt like le Carré got bored and just wrapped everything up as quickly as possible, plot threads be damned. It meant the whole book felt wholly unsatisfying. There were some interesting moments of characterisation (for the men), but it wasn't enough to keep me interested.
The Night Manager gets three stars for the quality of the writing alone, but I definitely didn't have fun with it.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I chose to read this after watching the recent TV version, and I wonder what I would have thought of it without that prior knowledge. It's a great book, but I haven't read any of John le Carré's books before so it took me a while to get used to his style, it's not a particularly easy read in parts! I would definitely recommend it however.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Accidentally ended up with an abridged version read by the author himself, but honestly I definitely wouldn’t have been able to handle eighteen hours of this. Le Carré writes beautifully, but the subject matter moves at a monotonous clop despite being seemingly thrilling on the surface.
There is barely any intrigue or emotion, just the mechanics of spycraft painstakingly described. It’s like looking at the inside of a watch or having a new rail line described to you by a train enthusiast.
There is barely any intrigue or emotion, just the mechanics of spycraft painstakingly described. It’s like looking at the inside of a watch or having a new rail line described to you by a train enthusiast.