Rating: 
Summary: Not My Cup of Tea
Review: I have to admit that I had a negative view of this author before I started reading the book, but because of his reputation and the good reviews I thought I would give him another chance. I don't know what it is but I just cannot get into one of his books. I think they move very slow and are just not peppy. Maybe I just have a short attention span, but I need more pep in a book then this author delivers. I did enjoy the movie (I keep giving him chances), but the books put me to sleep. I actually thought the overall story line was an interesting new twist to the cold war era spy story but I just could not keep turning the pages on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: 0
Review: With the conclusion of the Cold War, master spy novelist John le Carre has trained his sights on what he perceives as the new source of global disharmony: the strivings of the Western powers and their multi-national corporations to extend their hegemony across the underdeveloped world, and the reaction that arises to that dubious enterprise. "The Tailor of Panama", like his most recent, "The Constant Gardener", employs this geo-political backdrop to dissect the machinations of the covetous Super powers, and their corrupting influence on the mere mortals who become pawns and puppets in their global games. The "hero" of "The Tailor of Panama", Harry Pendel is a man who has for most of his existence lived a lie, a re-invented, self-aggrandizing, spurious autobiography with which he confronts the vagaries and disparate elements of his life -from his American wife and two children, to the politicos, big-shots, hustlers, and myriad other movers and shakers who patronize his tailor shop in the heart of Panama- a sort of Central American equivalent to "Rick's Cafe" in "Casablanca". Harry, half-Jewish, an emigre from England who obligingly took the fall and did jail-time when his boss decided to torch his business for the insurance windfall, is a kibbutzer par excellence. A man of many personae, he revels in his innate ability to be whatever man the customer or moment requires. That is until the fateful day one Andrew Osnard, a somewhat disreputable British Intelligence operative shows up at Harry's store, and cunningly enlists him as an accomplice in his superiors' plot to create a pretext for Anglo-American intervention in Panama, and thereby preempt the scheduled return of the canal to Panama's sovereignty on New Years Eve, 1999. Besides appealing to Harry's theatrical sense of self-importance, Agent Osnard is able to in effect blackmail Harry's into his complicity by assuming an onerous debt the tailor is shouldering on a failing rice farm, and on which he has secretly squandered his trusting and faithful wife's money. Building on this scenario, le Carre depicts how a deluding, and self-deluded man winds up not only betraying his own wife, family and closest friends -with one tragically fatal consequence- but, more deplorably, his adopted nation's fledgling struggle to gain independence and autonomy from the national Goliaths who vye to control her people and its destiny. As such, "The Tailor of Panama" is an important, poignant and compelling work. However, leCarre seems to have trouble settling on a consistent, unified tone and style to his novel. To be sure, it can be called a tragi-comic tale, but the two elements blend awkwardly, and far from seamlessly. Le Carre also opts for a rococo style of story-telling that gives the novel a disjointed, elliptical feel, and serves to ultimately weaken its power. Nonetheless, leCarre,in this novel, as with "The Constant Gardener", must be lauded for having the courage and integrity to direct his barbs and outrage at targets which other authors, more concerned with playing it politically safe and thus assuring healthy revenues, might cravenly give a wide berth.
Rating: 
Summary: A Classic Spy Spoof
Review: Harry Pendel of Pendel and Braithwaite, formerly of Savile Row now of Panama city is at heart a good guy but not the tailor to royalty he purports to be. Andrew Osnard, a fat lothario and adaptable rogue from a declining upper-crust family, was bounced from Eton and joined "the spys" realizing that his options to make big money respectably were limited.Harry, a Cockney ex-con and illegitimate son of a Jewish con-man and his Irish maid, was sprung from an orphanage by his Uncle Bernie who both used him to torch his garment business and looked after him as a youth. Though the pedigree of his firm is bogus, Harry is the top tailor in Panama with access to everyone who's anyone and is married to Louisa, the statuesque daughter of the respected assistant to the incorruptible head of the Canal Commission. Osnard can't get a banker, businessman or reporter to be his "listening post" in Panama and convinces his boss Scotty Luxmore, the spook who bungled the Falkland Islands War, that Harry's their man. Harry needs the money and signs on. The Brits are looking to uncover a huge Japanese conspiracy to take over Panama, and Harry will tell them anything he thinks they want to hear, most of which he just makes up. A series of misadventures, some funny some tragic, precipitate an American invasion. The Brits all leave in varying degrees of affluence or disfavor, and Harry walks off into the night. I would have preferred a different ending, but loved the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay.
Review: The Tailor of Panama(TOP) in my opinion, is an okay book, but nothing spectacular. I found the plot fairly intruiging, but the best part about it were the characters, some of them were done really well.
It's a pretty dark satire about the post cold war spy world, and basically involves spies and bad guys trying to get as much as they can out of the American handover of the Panama canal on 31/12/99. I found it too dark myself, the way the innocent were punished and the bad guys won, that's bad stuff.
This book is, like most LeCarre books, definitely not easy reading. LeCarre jumps from present to past scene so quickly, and trying to distinguish between Pendel's lies and the truth is difficult. You also need a pretty good general knowledge about the spy world to read this, a lot of spy slang terms are given without explanation, which can get confusing.
I didn't understand the end, I think the person in that scene walked to their death, but I don't know, it's so confusing.
In short, read this is you like LeCarre and a reading challenge, but if you like easy reading, don't touch this book.
Rating:
Summary: Bad Book
Review: This book is very bad. The history is poor.
I,m lost the money and my time
Rating:
Summary: Leave it on the shelf.
Review: "Panama" has the momentum of cold maple syrup. The story's location and Le Carre's name drew me to the book. But after reading it, I wept for my lost time. The main spy, Osnard, lacks depth; his background is revealed way too late in the story. Le Carre fails to legitimize Osnard as a cunning, capable spy. And it seems the reader should care about Panama's plight & the Canal's future. Yet the characters who own the passion & grit to fight for their Panama were obscured in the plot. What's left is a wimpy tailor with a past who's desperate for cash. And when I realized all of this, I still begged for something to happen. It just doesn't. For intrigue, momentum, and competent characters, try Ken Follett's work (favorite is "Triple").
Rating: 
Summary: So-so tailor.
Review: The Tailor of Panama is only so-so. It becomes muddled, confusing, too much attention is placed on the interactions of the various characters, a decent espionage plot is not given the attention it should. This was not one of the better spy books.
Rating:
Summary: A must avoid !!
Review: I don't pretend to have the literary skills nor vocabulary of the author but would have thought that he would have realized that he had created a "stinker" when it was all done. Had this been his first it would surely not have been printed. The book started to unravel literally after about 10 pages with pages separating from the spine and this should have served as an omen to me. I have wasted many hours giving this book a chance and now that it is nearing the end and still not going anywhere.... Much like one turns off a bad TV show or walks out of a poor, boring movie, I will not finish this tattered disappointment but will throw it out as my time is too valuable to waste on such tripe. The language is vague, the conversations unreal, the situations unlikely....it goes on and on. So utterly painful that it is too bad we are unable to give a rating less than 1 star.
Rating:
Summary: Cheeky fun from the Master...
Review: See the movie. It might help you to get into something rather different from one of my favorite authors. If you like the witty and the sly, you will adore this book. It's a true "slice" of life, and you learn a lot about history and Panama as well. Love the characters - and the pace. LeCarre truly is, not only a good storyteller but a comic genius as well. One of his best.
Rating:
Summary: A truely forgettable read.
Review: It would be hard to imagine a worse book. Boring, implausable plot, and endless are only a few of things which this piece of trash bring to mind. Without a doubt the poorest excuse for a book which I've had the misfortune to read in the last few years.
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