jklugman 's review for:

The Constant Gardener by John le Carré

3.0

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If you have seen the movie, this is a tough book to read, with its tragic, almost spiritual, ending. For me it felt a bit padded out, as the "hero" is not terribly interesting, although the cast of fatuous and corrupt British civil servants and remorseful corporate stooges kind of makes up for it. This is another one of Le Carre's "travelogue" novels, where he vividly recreates places (and probably also real people) that he encountered on a sprawling reporting jaunt. I find Le Carre at his best deflating the upper crust British bureaucrats in the upper echelons of government and corporations. I was deeply moved by the film adaptation when it came out 20 years ago; now, reading the novel, it feels a bit silly. I suppose it could be read as a critique of the white savior trope, but Le Carre seems really taken with it, although his white saviors do not seem particularly effective.