Rating: 
Summary: Le carre jolts your conscience!
Review: John Le Carre is back with another great book. This time however, there is a change in the subject as well as technique. It is not one more espionage-spy thriller which has been the forte of Le Carre, but rather a subject which has been Robin Cook's domain. Yet, Le Carre has done full justice to the subject in his own inimitable style and has come out with a winner.Le Carre's hallmarks of seamless narration, manipulation of the suspense, exquisite prose, investigative process, immaculate detailing, depth of understanding are all there. What is most appealing and touching is the passion. The plot: British High Commission- Nairobi. The news comes to the chief of the administration Sandy that Tessa Quayle 25, the young and beautiful social activist wife of 40 year old Justin Quayle, the first secretary in the embassy has been murdered in a remote corner of Africa, alongwith her driver. Her companion -cum-Guru, Dr, Bluhm, A Nigerian doctor also an aid worker has gone missing. Tessa was a fiercely independent minded, jolly, daring aid worker affiliated to an UN agency. Tessa had strong opinions and didn't mind calling a spade a spade. Justin Quayle, a mild mannered, simple-minded gentleman is shocked at the sudden death of his beloved wife. Justin had given full freedom and autonomy to Tessa who was half his age and had never bothered to find out what she was up to, and never interfered in her personal or professional life. Justin is disturbed by the happenings around him. His colleagues and seniors, while expressing their deep sympathy and understanding are subtly questioning him to elicit some unknown information. Newspapers and local rags are printing all kinds of nonsensical stories: Tessa was in love with Dr.Bluhm, Tessa had an unhappy marriage, Tessa was cheating on her husband, Tessa was raped, Tessa was on some secret mission etc, etc. Staff is gossiping, the whole atmosphere has become very stifling and suffocating. Suddenly the High Commissioner is re-called to London and has been asked to proceed on leave. Rob and Lesley, two smart cops from London have descended on Nairobi mission and are interrogating all the members of the embassy. Interrogations are making everyone uncomfortable, especially Justin who cannot understand the reason and rationale behind the line of questioning. He is intelligent enough to understand that something is seriously wrong somewhere, and he doesn't know anything of what others think he knows. Never to have pried into the independent life and work of Tessa, now he starts digging and discovers startling information, which further whets his appetite to unravel the truth. The cops are suddenly called off and Justin is transferred to London. When he reports to Foreign Office in London, his boss wants him to take a sabbatical, a rest, which tantamounts to virtual house arrest. Rob and Presley the frustrated investigators who were rudely yanked off the case and were stripped off all the information collected by them have smelt a rat and as a measure of vengeance have decided to help Justin uncover the mystery of Tessa's murder and complete her incomplete mission. Justin manages to skip out quietly slipping the surveillance and starts his own investigation. How he does his investigation and what all he discovers and finally what happens....is the superbly told story. I wouldn't like to spoil the fun of your reading. During the course of this very interesting story, Le Carre raises very relevant and disturbing questions on many topics. The damage the unbridled quest of profits does to the humanity and exposes dark side of unfettered capitalism which could threaten the very existence of the human race. There many such poignant passages which stir the reader's conscience and makes on think.The very title "Constant Gardener" is loaded with philosophical meaning. I welcome readers to explain the title. Le Carre having written such a thought provoking and courageous book, goes out of the way to pen a three page disclaimer to ensure that he doesn't get sued. I have seen such an elaborate disclaimer for first time...what could be the reason? Ludlum never did any such thing!
Rating: 
Summary: This is John Le Carre???
Review: One would not normally pick up a John Le Carre novel to be schooled in third world socio-economics but that's about all you get here. Perhaps in his advancing age Le Carre wants to write the great novel instead of just entertaining us. I perfer entertainment and when its time to learn about Africa I can pick up a tightly focused analysis of the issues.
Rating: 
Summary: Brave Cold World
Review: When I turned the last page of Le Carre's latest novel, it occurred to me that it symbolized the dawn of a new millennium the way that Tom Wolfe's, "The Bonfire of the Vanities"(that journalistic presentation of a fictionalized circus)epitomized the eighties; and to a large extent how Martin Amis', "London Field's", in a more metaphysical tone heralded the future of the nineties and beyond. Sandy, Alison, sir Bernard, Donohue, represent the careerist-minded oxbridge? establishment. The type, who comfortably nurtured, inculcated, and educated; and adequately(if not overly so) clever enough for everyone's good, could begin to sort out some of this planet's most obviously stickier problems. I understand that the cocktail party circuit, to some extent, makes living in Washington D.C. bearable unless you can afford a penthouse in NYC and scoot up for the weekends. It is very easy to imagine any normally decent social climber with influence in the dualistic quandary of deciding between the ethical and the expediant, without making those careful calculations behind their eyelids as how many guest lists they might be written off of. Maybe we should commiserate with the Clintons', who successfully made the leap from Little Rock to the Georgetown/Upper East Side/Westchester County/Martha's Vineyard circles through much flack. Hurray for them. "The Constant Gardener" speaks for itself. As with the two aforementioned novels by Amis and Wolfe, it is suggested necessary reading to understand our current political age. Le Carre delivers a definitive update to the classic cold war spy story.
Rating:
Summary: An Intelligent Page Turner
Review: I have had never read John Le Carre before. But I was drawn to this book, after reading a very positive review for it in the New York Times. The Times was right on the money when it said that besides being a great story, it is a thought provoking look at the Global Economy and the 3rd World. It was in many ways a fiction version of the book Jihad vs. McWorld or the Clash of Civilizations. The book draws you in slowly. It is slow at first but deceptively so. It draws you deeper and deeper into the story. And without even realizing it, you can not put the book down. But unlike many page turners, this one is a highly intelligent and thought provoking book. This book is great for people looking for a good novel or someone looking to see a startling view of the problems in modern Africa. This was a great book
Rating:
Summary: Big pharma in Africa
Review: This is a book that begins with a tragic death, and ends with a tragic death, with a lot of thought provoking action between. The basis of the novel is the deeds of pharmaceutical companies working in Africa. The companies in question use Africans as their human guinea pigs for drug trials, not caring if the results mean death. The wife of a staff member of the British Embassy has come across the dealings with of said companies, and hers is the death at the beginning of the novel. Her husband, oh-so-British Justin, resolves to continue her investigations. His search takes him from Africa to Europe, Canada, and back to Africa. There is a lot in this story. While the narrative is gripping, it is the issues that the story raises I found most interesting. Le Carre brings into question the actions of big pharmaceutical companies, and their ability to influence the actions of researchers, governments and big business. Good reading while bringing an important issue to light - well worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Lokichokio Review
Review: November 8,2001
The Stanley Hotel
Nairobi,Kenya That John Le Carre is a master story-teller goes without saying. His reputation sits solidly upon a strong foundation of popular books based on the John Smiley Character. I am sorry to say that,owing to a preference for non-fiction over fiction, I had not read a single one of his books until now. The Constant Gardener was recommended by a friend who, upon learning of my intention to quit a job flying a new 747 so I could return to Africa to fly an antique, clapped-out Hercules, air-dropping food and supplies to the dispossessed of Southern Sudan, called to say I should read this book since it was set in the area around Lokichoggio, Kenya, the home of the UN's Operation Lifeline Sudan. The central theme of the story is one of contemporary controversy: the role of "Big Pharma" companies in the Third World. In a world of scarce resources, where emerging nations must choose between healthcare and basic education, between hospitals for the dying and schools for those just beginning life, do the creators of modern medicines have a human duty to provide product to developing nations irrespective of cost? In the case of poor countries that cannot pay,is it an ethical quid pro quo to use these destitute populations as unwitting subjects in surreptitious clinical trials? Dypraxa is a miracle cure in waiting. A short-course treatment for the "White Plague," tuberculosis. TB is rampant in AIDS-ravaged Africa. It is on the verge of re-exploding onto the scene in the developed nations of the First World. KVH pharmaceuticals has developed an effecacious new treatment, but it is not yet ready for release in Europe and America. Toxicity levels are still being explored and one still remaining side effect is death in some patients. Tessa Quayle (nee Abbott) is a young lawyer crusading in the cause of Human Rights,particularly Women's Rights, married to an older,low-level diplomat attached to the British High Commission in Nairobi,Kenya. She has painstakingly documented the shortcomings and failures of Dypraxa and, having failed to persuade both the manufacturer and the Marketer of the drug to pull it from the market, has embarked on a mission to bring her findings to the attention of Her Majesty's government and the Public Health Community. Her efforts cost both her and her Black Belgian colleague and putative lover, Dr. Arnold Bluhm, their lives in a most grisly fashion. Tessa's body is discovered on the shore of Lake Turkana some miles east of Lokichoggio where she and the doctor had supposedly gone to attend a conference. Responsibility for protecting the High Commission's interests falls to Sandy Woodrow,ambitious second to High Commissioner Porter Coleridge and unrequited,would-be paramour of the late Tessa. Sandy shoulders the burden of protecting the High Commission by offering sanctuary from the prying media hounds to Tessa'a husband,the ineffectual cuckhold Justin Quayle. Locked away in a basement room, Justin is shielded from prying eyes and a deepening scandal is averted. Two up-and-coming detectives are sent out from Scotland Yard to conduct the investigation. The doggedly pursue each thread, carefully weaving their case in the face of Foreign Office duplicity, personal hidden agendas and corporate stonewalling. The basic premise and structure of the story would make this book an adequate, if formulaic, murder mystery in any event. What transforms this story into a ripping-good yarn is Le Carre's gift for using the reader's complacency and preconceptions as a pivot-point aroound which he moves his story and his characters throough 180 degrees. The initially obvious is wrong. Those whom we at first take to be honorable prove to be selfish and banal. Those whom we first disdain prove to have character of woven steel. My experience with fictional stories of exotic places with which I am familiar is that they inevitably disappoint. The author always seems to get the details wrong. In this instance Le Carre not only gets the details right, but he also captures the subtle undercurrents flowing through the lives of the members of the ex-patriot and relief communities based in Kenya. Anyone who has spent time in East Africa will find his characters familiar,common even, yet not stereotypical. Bright,ambitious Asians of high academic achievement,like Ghita, are ten for a penny around Nairobi. It is to Africa's great cost that their potential contributions are suppressed by the remnants of Raj Colonial attitudes regarding class and "one's place" and thwarted both by corrupt government and native African resentment. Le Carre succeeds in capturing the strange household dynamic between B'wana,Mama and the household staff. Not for nothing is the Swahili word for white man, "M'zungu", also the word for crazy. Loyalty of the type displayed by the servant Mustapha speaks volumes about the character of those whom he serves. There is no place on earth more compelling than Africa and no place has broken more hearts or shattered more dreams. The ex-patriot community runs the full human spectrum from charlatan to saint. To some relief work work is just a job, a way to get money. To many it is a calling to serve a higher and more noble purpose. To those like the character Lohbeer,it represents a final chance for redemption from past sins. For me, Africa is a place of retreat. A place to return to for a reflective change of pace and catech up on neglected reading. I started reading this book on a nine hour layover in Spain. It was such a page-turner that I spent the entirety of the all-night-flight from Madrid to Johannesburg sitting in a solitary pool of light,unwilling to sleep until I had reached the conclusion. For those seeking cosmic justice, the ending will leave them unfulfilled. But the story ends in the only possible way and for that reason, this book is a great read.
Rating:
Summary: A Different Kind of Espionage
Review: One of Le Carre's remarkable talents is to keep going long after the Cold War has ended and remain relevant. By combining his consummate skills in espionage story-telling (in which he is second to none) and the knife-and-dagger world of the pharmaceutical industry, Le Carre has weaved a web of deceit, greed and longing that only he could pull off. It's still not his best work but it definitely surpasses THE TAILOR OF PANAMA and SINGLE & SINGLE.
Rating: 
Summary: He has let the cold war go quite successfully....
Review: The constant gardener in this tale is Justin Quayle, an unproductive mid-aged British diplomat in Kenya whose beautiful, activist, younger wife has been brutally murdered. Justin, whose gardening supposes a general state of denial or complacency, is, for once in his life, decisive in his international search for the answers to her murder. Tessa, his wife, it turns out has been meddling a little too closely to the ethically questionable practices of a pharmaceutical conglomerate (she has been gathering evidence that they are forcing a potentially harmful TB drug on the impoverished). She also, in her activism, has acquired an associate, a native doctor, who dies with her but whose body is mysteriously missing from the site.
Some of the best writing is also in the development of the diplomatic corps characters, like Sandy Woodward, Quayle's superior. While the 'government' should ostensibly assist Quayle in his search for truth, we know it does not, in any way. In fact, it is maddening to the reader that Quayle (who is a career diplomat, after all) should not realize this until late in the novel. The mystery isn't so much in the identification of the murderers as it is the reason for Tessa's death: what prompted it, what she knew, who else knew, etc.. Although it must have been tough to let the old Cold War go, Le Carre has successfully, I believe, maintained his ability to write complicated plots about believable people in believable trouble.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: Having read some of Mr Le Carre's previous work I was expecting more than this. I felt so disappointed and let down. If Mr. Le Carre wanted to go on a personal crusade against the white exploitaiton of black Africa let him do it as a newspaper article and not make me fork out my hard earned cash on an insipid book. The characters are so flat and unappealing and the language is olde worlde to say the least. Please take my advice and do not waste your hard earned cash on this book
Sorry Mr. Le Carre but I cannot tell a lie.
Rating:
Summary: Sadly, not fiction.....
Review: In the epilogue of THE CONSTANT GARDENER, John LeCarre says the story he he has just told is not completely truthful. The truth is worse. He points to the recent death in Kenya of Father John Kaiser, an American priest from Minnesota who had spent many years ministering to the needs of Kenyan Christians and was found dead of a bullet wound to the head fifty miles northwest of Nairobi. I think THE CONSTANT GARDENER can be compared to THE ENGLISH PATIENT. Like the PATIENT, GARDENER is lyrical at times, and it is also composed of two stories: one a tale of true love (doomed from the first pages) and the other a tale of death and destruction brought about by greedy government officials of both the European and African persuasion, large corporations, ambitious politicians, and religious fanatics. Lest one think this is a diatribe against Western capitalism, let me hasten to say LeCarre goes to some pains to point out the existence of BUKO Pharma-Kampagne of Bielefed Germany, which is dedicated to separating the goats from the lambs in the pharmaceutical industry, and revealing the misdeeds of the former in the third world while pointing to the "good" deeds of the latter. Think of BUKO as the OMB of the drug world. . I did not find the love story and it's end as wrenching as that in PATIENT, though the scene at the morgue is terrible enough. The main character, Justin Qualye, has something of George Smiley about him. Although the rest of the world thinks his wife has been unfaithful, he doggedly pursues the truth and ignores what others say. In the end, he finds he really did not know his wife Tessa, but he has been able to reconstruct a picture of her and she is with him in spirit. Whether he is delusional with grief or she is a spirit guide or both the reader must judge. Although the book deals with pressing social issues (that unfortunately I am too familiar with because of my work), many may not be aware of them. If LeCarre succeeds in raising conciousnesses good for him. Unfortunately, many people think the people of Africa are expendable. Sadly, as elsewhere in the world, Muslim extremists are making things worse in Sudan, Nigeria, and other parts of Africa. The role of the United Nations in this tale is sadly accurate. The ray of light seems to be that those who would help Africa have finally realized it's salvation lies in the hands of women.
| 
