Tuesday, January 03, 2006

The Constant Gardener by John Le Carre

I like a book where things happen, and this certainly is one. I also like a happy ending, which this lacks. Not that I can't appreciate the impact of an unhappy ending, but this was a little ambiguous for my taste.

It reminded me why I've abandoned Le Carre in the past: his oblique style can be a little hard to follow, especially if you aren't an aficionado of espionage and the intricacies of the British Foreign Service. But the subject matter of this one interested me more than others of his that I've tried, and I stuck with it. I'm glad I did. It's got the kind of suspense where you tell people you are going to fold laundry, and instead you sneak read it.

More information is available here.

1 comments:

Philippe said...

I tried reading one book a week a few years ago, and kept it up for five or six years before my annual rate sank back to its habitual twenty-five or so.

As to John le Carre, yes, his writing style does tend to be oblique, not to say labyrinthine, but I find the characters he creates very believable and empathetic.

You have an interesting blog, that I will frequent.

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