Rating: 
Summary: A constant quest...
Review: Where does the creator of George Smiley, expert spy master of the cold war, go find a new theme? Le Carre readers must have asked themselves this question. Fortunately, after a couple of attempts in different directions, Le Carre has found a new cause: Pharmaceutical companies and their dealings, in particular in Africa. He tackles a highly sensitive and complex set of issues. As he says himself in the acknowledgements, in comparison to real life, his revelations are as 'tame as a picture postcard'. We learn about the almost random testing of drugs on innocent Africans who believe that the men in white will cure them. We learn about the multi-national complexities of the pharma industry and the decision makers who are far removed from the African reality. We follow the scientists who, having signed deals with the company, were pressurized to either ignore or falsify the evidence of fatal side effects of the drug under investigation. "The drug is good", says one of the inventors of the drug, " we just did not have enough time to test it out before releasing it." The complete disregard for the lives of human guinea pigs who 'would die anyway' reveals an incredible cynicism of the promoter of the drug in Africa, who repeats 'I love Africa'. The comprehensive network of evidence cover-ups, disappearance of bodies and destruction of records, paints a bleak picture of the goings-on in a country like Kenya. The deals made by the Foreign Service in London as well as Nairobi, bring a touch of familiarity to the intrigue and the plot. It is a novel, let's not forget it, although the reality of Kenya today is pretty realistically drawn with the corruption of the system, the readiness of the governments to strike deals with multinationals as well as the brutal police force, the "Moi boys". Le Carre is true to his reputation as an expert in character development. With fine attention to detail, he creates a set of characters who are as much stereotypes of British Foreign and Secret Service operating in Africa as they are real and complex individuals. The most intriguing character and the one who will attract most compassion from the reader, lives only through the descriptions, dialogues and daydreams of others. She lived life fully until caught up in the drug scandal. We know early on what happened to her, but Le Carre builds the events in a quest of discovery by her husband, the constant gardener. He is changed in the process of the quest and brings the story to a logical conclusion. In the current debate around GMO (genetically modified organism) research, the difficulties some scientists experience when publishing critical research results on pharmaceuticals, the newly rekindled interest in Africa by western politicians, THE CONSTANT GARDENER is a very topical book. It is also captivating, and, despite the gravity of the issues, a good and intriguing story.
Rating:
Summary: The Constant Author
Review: John Le Carre could write the Yellow Pages and make them interesting. From the first Le Carre book I read, when I was in high school, "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold", through "A Small Town in Germany", the "Smiley" books, "Little Drummer Girl" and "The Night Manager", to this one, Le Carre has a way with words and mood. So what if the Cold War, as we baby boomers knew it, is over? Le Carre has no lack of material. The story of woman, murdered in Kenya. who got a little too close to a mega-pharmecutical conspiracy, "Gardener" introduces us to a set of characters all too believeable in this day and age. We follow the dead woman's husband, Justin Quayle (the Constant Gardener of the title), as he searchs across three continents in pursuit of his wife's killers and their motive. Even with a somewhat predictable ending, Le Carre holds us close in Justin's journey in search of justice. There are no James Bond "gimmicks" here and you will have to look elsewhere for the likes of Pussy Galore or SMERSH. But still, Le Carre, ever the consoment professional, can make your grocery list read like things that go bump in the night. And that's high praise indeed.
Rating: 
Summary: Gardener looks like a winner
Review: There is nothing as sure as a good John Le Carré book. Some are great, others not, but they are always at least enjoyable. The man writes with so much assurance and charm that people who like deep and well-written thrillers have to love and thank him for such a great material. 'The Constant Gardener' is a really interesting book. It has an engaging beginning that will be solved throughout the novel. Tessa Quayle is brutally murdered in a distant region in Kenya-- where the couple lives. Before her death, she and her husband --the gardener in the title-- had felt apart. Ever since they moved to Africa, she involved with humanitarian works, while he focused in his office duties. The crime will shad a new light in her life, and Quayle will learn that Tessa is far from being what he thought she was. In a nutshell the novel is Quayle's quest trying to find out who killed his wife and why. The deeper he goes, the more dirty he finds. He learns that her death may be linked to the pharmaceutical industry and its market in the third world. Le Carré has his special gift for drawing believable plots with by characters that are very human. Quayle and Tessa are people that may be anyone's friends. The dynamics of their falling apart is very true to earth. But not only them are believable, but also the supporting characters. The narrative is in a worthwhile slow motion --in other words, it requires patience from the readers. But people who enjoy Le Carré's style will find it fascinating the way he unfolds the story until it ending. At the same time, the writer is able to touch upon serious issues like the capitalism and the pharmaceutical industry that causes at lot of harm to many countries --mostly in the third world. All in all, 'The Constant Gardener' is quite a decent read, but it requires a lot of concentration from the reader. It is different from the fast pace explosive thrillers that are out there, but it is still very good on its own merits.
Rating: 
Summary: Le Carre's Disappointing Polemic
Review: This may be the most disappointing book Le Carre has written. It purports to be a thriller in the style of most of his books since the Berlin Wall came down: there's a whiff of the Intelligence agent, re-employed after Communism collapses, in some other international enterprise. This time it's the multinational gigantic drug companies, out to make megabucks out of people's suffering. A fearless (and tireless)British woman is murdered, and her Black African companion, a doctor, vanishes while trying to amass evidence that an international pharmaceutical company has been using human guinea pigs to test its new anti-TB drug. The drug has appalling side effects. The woman's husband tries to unravel the story and bring to book the people responsible for the murders. What we get is masses of polemic and denunciations of pharmaceutical companies in general, interspersed with reports on disease and famine in East Africa. It is cleverly disguised as "reports" and "letters" that Justin Quayle, the book's protagonist and husband of the murdered Tessa, has to plow through in his search for the "truth". In fact, there really isn't much of a story, and Quayle is simply a rehash of nearly all Le Carre's Good Guys Against the Establishment who have filled Le Carre's books ever since George Smiley went to a well-deserved retirement. It's a measure of the crusading nature of the book that Le Carre has seen fit to put a disclaimer at the end of it, for fear of litigation. Perhaps the time has come for Le Carre to turn to non-fiction, if he feels (perhaps rightly) so strongly about his subject, or perhaps, like his hero, he should turn to gardening. I do not recommend this book for discerning Le Carre fans.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent tale from the spymaster
Review: In Kenya, someone rapes and murders activist Tessa Quayle, wife of a mid level British diplomat while the victim's traveling companion Dr. Arnold Bluhm has vanished. Tessa and Arnold protested the inhumane practices of the global pharmaceutical companies. They bitterly complained about the use of locals to test new products and the selling of expired medicines that would be flushed down the toilet in the West. The police blame the missing Arnold for the crime as evidence surfaced that they were lovers. Tessa's sedate, older spouse Justin wonders if something more sinister led to his wife's death. Even as his superiors want to place a lid on a major scandal, Justin begins to make inquiries starting with the time Tessa spent as a patient in an African hospital where he believes she discovered something top secret. He also believes that someone felt she deserved to die to keep all hidden skeletons buried so the public doesn't know. Many recent novels have anointed the giant drug companies as the replacement to the Soviet Union as the enemy of the common person. With THE CONSTANT GARDENER, espionage thriller guru John Le Carre comes out of the cold and joins the ranks of writers starring a serene David battling against the pharmaceutical-government complex who will kill for profit. The story line is fast-paced and no one does locality scenes better than Mr. Le Carre does as he shows with his vivid tour of Kenya's Lake Turkana region. Fans of his great tales will welcome the author's switch, as this is one of his better entries in recent years and is one of the sub-genre's superior crafted tales. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Gardener looks like a winner
Review: There is nothing as sure as a good John Le Carré book. Some are great, others not, but they are always at least enjoyable. The man writes with so much assurance and charm that people who like deep and well-written thrillers have to love and thank him for such a great material. 'The Constant Gardener' is a really interesting book. It has an engaging beginning that will be solved throughout the novel. Tessa Quayle is brutally murdered in a distant region in Kenya-- where the couple lives. Before her death, she and her husband --the gardener in the title-- had felt apart. Ever since they moved to Africa, she involved with humanitarian works, while he focused in his office duties. The crime will shad a new light in her life, and Quayle will learn that Tessa is far from being what he thought she was. In a nutshell the novel is Quayle's quest trying to find out who killed his wife and why. The deeper he goes, the more dirty he finds. He learns that her death may be linked to the pharmaceutical industry and its market in the third world. Le Carré has his special gift for drawing believable plots with by characters that are very human. Quayle and Tessa are people that may be anyone's friends. The dynamics of their falling apart is very true to earth. But not only them are believable, but also the supporting characters. The narrative is in a worthwhile slow motion --in other words, it requires patience from the readers. But people who enjoy Le Carré's style will find it fascinating the way he unfolds the story until it ending. At the same time, the writer is able to touch upon serious issues like the capitalism and the pharmaceutical industry that causes at lot of harm to many countries --mostly in the third world. All in all, 'The Constant Gardener' is quite a decent read, but it requires a lot of concentration from the reader. It is different from the fast pace explosive thrillers that are out there, but it is still very good on its own merits.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Solid Effort
Review: Four stars really isn't fair. Judged against other fiction, this novel, like much of Le Carre's work, is simply a cut above. It's really not fair to judge it against more mundane fare. So, in an objective sense, it's five stars, but judged against his other work and, I guess, one's expectations when turning to the first page of a Le Carre book, it's three and half or four stars for me. The beauty of the book for me was getting to know its protaganist, a wonderful creation and one of the more sympathetic characters Le Carre has created in a long time. I feel I know Justin; could anticipate things he might do in situations not presented by the book, for example, a wonderful sign that a complex character has been well developed. Some of the secondard characters are equally wonderful, but, unfortunately, I never felt I could understand Tessa, Justin's departed wife. She just didn't make sense to me, and without extended flashbacks or dialogue, I ended the book unable to really understand her. She seemed more two-dimensional than the rest of the characters; not surprising since she's already dead when the book begins. Still, she is a key, and this was a disappointment. Like most Le Carre works, I continued to think about this one after I finished the book, and was engrossed throughout. He pushes all the right buttons, and unfolds a tale like no other. Takes you to a part of the world you probably don't know much about and inside an industry that is the same. The resolution was a little *too* bleak for me, but it is Le Carre after all. I may have just managed to say virtually nothing in about 500 words, so to close I'll just say it's worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: slow-moving, only gradually interesting
Review: Constant Gardener moves pretty slowly, especially for the first 350 pages, but gets interesting in the last third of the book. Would have been a lot better if le Carre had cut to the chase quicker and placed his action in the present rather than grasping at what happened in the past for so long. He can be long-winded and often writes in major league run-ons and uses meaningless dialogue and narration - the book could flow better. But it does end up to be thought-provoking. First le Carre book for me, so I can't compare it to others.
Rating:
Summary: LeCarre Sucks You In
Review: It's amazing how LeCarre quietly sucks you into a story. His books often seem overlong and glacially paced, yet somehow, but the last quarter of a novel, I find I can't put his books down. The Constant Gardener is no different. There are so many things LeCarre does well in this novel. First off, the characters are thouroughly fleshed out individuals. Next is the variety of locales; you feel like you've been to Kenya, London, Italy, and Canada, as the novel swings around the globe. This time around, the plot isn't as strong and driving as in previous novels, but LeCarre makes up for it with strong characterization in the leads. One place the book fails is in the villains. I found they came off a bit hokey and sometimes generic. But it was easy to overlook that and other minor failings because the novel is otherwise expertly written. If you read this novel, I suggest you also try "The Billion Dollar Molecule". TBDM is a great work of non-fiction relating the trials and potential riches of drug developement. This is a nice bookend for "The Constant Gardener"
Rating:
Summary: A slow-moving look at the pharmaceutical industry
Review: Tessa Quayle, lawyer, activist, and wife to a minor diplomat is found murdered in her Jeep, in Nairobi. The blame falls swiftly on Arnold Bluhm, a doctor suspected of being her lover, and perhaps even father to her stillborn child. Tessa's husband, Justin, disagrees and vows to take up the causes his wife was involved in, in order to retrace her steps and find the real killer. The political aspect of the novel was fascinating. I really enjoyed getting an inside look at how cover-ups really work. The descriptions of Africa were also wonderfully done, and it was clear that LeCarre had done a great deal of research. However, the story itself was very, very slow. Even after I finished the book, I was left with the sense that nothing much had happened. The ending wasn't at all the clear-cut finish I was hoping for, and it felt more philosophical than conclusive. Overall, the book does offer a fascinating look at the large drug / pharmaceutical industries, and their testing habits - particularly, using third-world people to test their new drugs. The companies in question use Africans as their human guinea pigs for drug trials, not caring if the results mean death. I would recommend the novel to those who weren't looking for a fast-paced read, but were interested in political cover-ups and the pharmaceutical industry.
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