venneh 's review for:

The Night Manager by John le Carré

4.0

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It’s actually really fun to see LeCarre writing in response to his own work and the new political realities. Half of this is navigating the various murky waters of the British and American intelligence agencies and their own alliances within the illegal arms trade, and how a single agent can be put out to sea but for people making sure that they’re protected. The other half is that single agent being drawn back into the fray, part as vengeance for a woman who was put out to sea and ended up dead for it, and partly just wanting to see the bad man taken out. But LeCarre is pretty up front that this isn’t going to be so simple - when one of your side characters says offhandedly “it’s like Casablanca but without the heroes”, the thesis is pretty straightforward. :p Yes, there is the perennial problem of an underdeveloped woman (though she does get parts of a few chapters dedicated to her point of view, which is more than she would’ve gotten in the past). Half the fun is watching our main go deeper and darker into the depths, while watching in horror as things go spectacularly wrong at the highest levels behind him, and seeing how despite everything, he manages to get out of it all. Take it slow, and just enjoy the ride.