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Summary: English Class Review
Review: Justin Quayle is a British diplomat who is married to a younger Tessa. Tessa is a lawyer that believes in justice. Her aid campaigns have given her the nickname: "the Princess Diana of the African poor." Much to the dismay of Justin, Tessa is found dead in the wilderness while she was visiting Lake Turkana in Kenya. A handsome black doctor, Arnold Bluhm, is her companion and thought to be her secret lover has vanished after her death.
Tessa is thought to have been killed because of the relation with drug companies. She was trying to expose the truth behind the Three Bees company production of Dypraxa, a tuberculosis remedy with unfortunately fatal side effects. Justin's bosses destroyed Tessa's report on this drug. Tessa had witnessed the death of Wanza, a native, whose village was used at guinea pigs for this drug.
Justin is trying to investigate Tessa's murder. He follows the last steps that she took. He is in his hotel one night when he has a bad thrown over his head and throne against the floor. He is then threatened to not to search for Tessa's killer. This does not throw him off track, he is determined to find his wife's killer. He had many attempts on his life. One time when he was with one of Tessa's friend they were almost run over by two taxis.
In John Le Carre's, 'The Constant Gardener', he makes the book interesting by keeping up suspense in the case of Tessa's death. The only thing that would have made this a better book was if he would have stayed on her murder and not get off track.
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Summary: After a long and frustrating wrestling, the penny dropped...
Review: A third or so through this book I suddenly realised what it was about John Le Carre's books; yes, the situations he sets out are certainly interesting, but...he simply can't conjure up believeable characters! It must have been that we simply didn't notice in the Cold War novels.The very poor (and at times risible) stuff his protagonists come out with in "The Perfect Gardener" is, in fact, representative of his oeuvre. Too much of what his characters come out with is embarrassingly implausible, and worthy of Ian Fleming at his most imbecilic rather than, say, an on-form Graham Greene (who at other times shares Le Carre's inability to breath real, sustained life into his 'dramatis personae'). In short, this book - long on didactics but woefully short of weight, or prolonged entertainment value - is not even, in my view, worth packing in your holiday suitcase for the undemanding environs of the pool.
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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.
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Summary: A brilliant start...
Review: If i divide this novel into 2 , i would give 5 stars to the first half , and just one star to the second. The book had such an interesting begining and a plot that got me so absorbed in its details,i couldn't wait for it to unfold. Unfortunately the ending was very poor .....
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Summary: Life is too short.
Review: I started this novel when it first came out and found the first 50 pages tedious and with little going on except for the murders. I stopped and decided to read it again when I was in the "proper" mood for it. Well I started again and made it to the 153rd page and still found it slow moving to a point where I did not care who killed who and slept with whom. Life is too short and there are too many good novels to read. ++ Suggest you check this one out of the library.++
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Summary: LeCarre in a hurry to finish?
Review: After not having read a good book in awhile I was impressed with a review I read and began my quest to read LeCarre. I was immediately immersed in LeCarre's characters and caught up in his plot. As I neared the conclusion of the novel,...four chapters to go...I thought to myself there are too many loose ends to tie up here. Then all of a sudden it was if LeCarre got bored with writing the book and rushed to finish writing the book instead of continuing on the path that he had so intricately woven in the first half of the book. A big letdown. Overall though the book was well written but if your not into epics with ho-hum endings I would pass on this one.
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Summary: Le Carre - turning to tripe?
Review: Constant Gardener kicks off to a great start. Spellingbindingly intricate plot with huge possibilities, for about the first half. It seriously looks like being his best work in years, and is probably worth reading for this part alone. In the second half it unravels, becomes predictable formula, and has very little of the suspense or twist that readers of LeCarre so crave. Like others, I was struck by the absence of his editor in the second half - the book has either been half-written, or half-edited. It has enough contradictions and irony to keep you debating for hours over Kenya-bean lattes. The most prominent is the theme - LeCarres outrage against "pharmas" delivering half-finished drugs to 3rd world markets. While Contstant Gardener wont kill you, its only half-finished.
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Summary: garden intruder
Review: Having enjoyed every one of LeCarre's previous novels, I was left unprepared for the disappointment of this novel. In The Constant Gardener, Le Carre at last has found the courage to stand up for a cause. How satisfying for him personally, but how stultifying for his art. Characterization, usually one of LeCarre's strong suits, is particularly weak in this novel. The few characters who are not 2-dimensional paste-ups - the villain Lorbeer for instance - are more muddled than psychologically complex. The language is generally less rich than usual, replaced with a rather conventional attention to the details of a shallow plot. If you're new to LeCarre, bury this weed and make room for his fine perennials.
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Summary: Intriguing but Overwritten
Review: Where were the author's editors?? This intriguing novel, the subject of which will be near and dear to liberal hearts everywhere, is nevertheless overwritten in exacerbatingly prolix style. The sympathetic story suffers from tedious diatribes against the pharmaceutical companies (he is preaching to the converted!)when a more detailed explanation of characterization and motive would have sufficed. Still, it's worth the time, if just for the spot-on, scathing descriptions of the pathetically displaced (in both time and place) British diplomatic personnel.
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Summary: Fast-paced Fun
Review: This was my first Le Carre novel, chosen because his article on its primary theme (the pharmaceutical giants of the modern era) in THE NATION piqued my curiosity. Without question, the book kept me flipping pages, and all the plot strands are satisfactorily resolved by the end. However, compared to Margaret Drabble's THE GATES OF IVORY, another British novel which bounces from country to country, which explores the nature of evil and corruption in the modern world, and which features a multitude of characters, Drabble's book is a Vermeer portrait to Le Carre's political cartoon. Drabble's characters are complex and three-dimensional; Le Carre's are caricatures. Drabble's philosophy and perceptions are thoughtful and deep; Le Carre's are superficial. Plot is only one aspect of Drabble's richness as a writer; plot is primarily Le Carre's modus operandi. TRUST US, WE'RE EXPERTS by Stauber delves more deeply into the gritty realities of the contemporary pharmaceutical world; but if you prefer fiction to non-fiction and are looking for fast-paced beach reading, THE CONSTANT GARDENER is a thriller based on the dark realities of today's drug industry, and it is fun, engaging, and will make a great film.
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