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bookarella 's review for:
The Night Manager
by John le Carré
3.5
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.
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.