A Perfect Spy

Rating:
Summary: An incredible journey
Review: A Perfect Spy shocks, provokes, weaves a story of Magnus as he plots the ultimate betrayal. When I say the story is woven, I mean it. The structure is similar to The English Patient, where the story skips back an forth in time and amoung characters. I rate this book highly, much as I had done with other Le Carre books. A perfect Spy, however is not another Spy novel, indeed the suspence is not as central to the plot but the character development is truly epic. Magnus Pym becomes a close relation throughout the narrative, all the good, bad, ugly, and even sometimes boring. A Perfect Spy is a gripping portrait of a twisted life, and the injury of the life a spy.

A Perfect Spy is an unreal, yet believable journey in the life of a Spy. I highly recommend this book, if like me, you enjoy a non-linear story.

Rating:
Summary: THE PERFECT SPY BOOK
Review: As a suspense writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I am a great admirer of the works of John Le Carre. He transformed fiction with a focus on the shadowy world of espionage from the James Bond fantasies into a much fuller and realistic form of literature. I believe THE PERFECT SPY is his best book. Magnus Pym, a British agent, has vanished, and the search for the man ranges throughout America and Europe. The most fascinating element of this novel concerns the exploration of Pym's personal past. This book is excellent. It is John Le Carre at his best.

Rating:
Summary: I Was REALLY Disappointed
Review: I read this book because I hear that John Le Carré was the "consumate master of spy novels," and it just so happened that someone had given me a used copy of this book, which had been sitting on my bookshelf for a year or two. I would characterize the book as a gigantic character study, with pages and pages of description. If this is what you enjoy, then this is the book for you. Personally, I found the book extremely difficult to plod through, and after all that plodding, was EXTREMELY disappointed by the ending--for me it was a big let-down, and made me feel like throwing the book across the room after all my effort in reading it!! One reason I found this book so difficult is that I continually had trouble figuring out who was talking, and to whom! He keeps changing viewpoint, switching between characters, with no chapter breaks to help readers. As a famous author once said, for every obsurity you leave in your book, for every time the reader is confused, you just lose that many more readers. Had I not been extremely motivated to read this book, I would not ever have read beyond the first 20 pages. After reading the entire thing, perhaps I am obtuse, but I never was successful entirely in understanding the motivations of the main character, or his feelings motivating his actions. To anyone who tackles this book, good luck! I did, however find a few interesting tidbits in the book. For example, one way the spies used to communicate was to use newspapers, through which various pinpricks in the text were held up to the light to be read.

Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing...not LeCarre's best work
Review: If this is the first John LeCarre book you read, fine. Unfortunately, I read the Karla trilogy first, and this book goes downhill from that great experience. The book is too long, plots, sub-plots and anything else just goes from one thought and page to the next. There are times when I wasn't sure who was speaking: Rick, Magnus or Tom. I gave up on this halfway through, and probably won't finish it. Here is a suggestion to the author: Why not have one dynamic Smiley novel with all of the remaining characters (Guillam, Esterhas, Control) in one grand espionage masterpiece? This was the only LeCarre novel I did not enjoy. Sorry.

Rating:
Summary: The End Before the Beginning
Review: It seems that nary a used book sale is complete without a copy of A Perfect Spy holding court on crowded shelves with works of obscure fiction. Having often come across it during my own browsing, I finally picked up a copy (for free) to see if I had been missing out. I intend no harm with the statement, but the book was worth the price. I now see a measure of reason behind the myriad discarded copies.

One might call this work a genre-bender as it is less a work of fictive espionage than it is a psychological profile of the protagonist, Magnus Pym. It is, at its core, an extended work in character development. At the beginning of the novel, spy Pym takes up residence in a seaside home to write his memoirs, and his disappearance causes a flurry of panic within the American and British intelligence communities. The grand majority of "the action" has already taken place, however, and is cryptically recounted in hindsight as Pym explores the influence of his father's business shenanigans upon his own character, chosen vocation, and penchant for deception. His style is so cryptic at times, and clarification from le Carre so wanting, that the reader can easily be left behind searching for clues as to time and context. It is a task to keep one's bearings as the narrative often shifts from past to present with little warning, while minor characters not seen for chapters surface suddenly with little hint as to where they were last seen. The name Wentworth, for example, surfaces within the first 100 pages then largely disappears for the rest of the novel until assuming a major role at the very end. There are some 150 to 160 major and minor characters in this book, some of which appear in both Pym's reminiscing and in the narrative present. The story is an unusual one as Pym's reminiscing seems to be preparing the reader for a more dynamic present. But by the time the reminiscing and the present intersect, the novel has ended.

John le Carre is a gifted writer and story teller, but it seems this story has proven too difficult even for even him to tell, at least in the way he has chosen to tell it. A Perfect Spy is not a poorly written book, but it can be a bewildering one -- and one which seems to end just as it is getting started.

Rating:
Summary: Not a Perfect Read
Review: Over the course of his career, Carre created a cloak and dagger world and became trapped in it. Each new work increasingly turned inward as we examine angst and guilt and sometimes regrets for doing the things that had to be done. Pym is in a way the "perfect" (pardon the pun) Carre spy. The Cold War is over and he can now reflect on his utterly amoral actions, apparently coming to the conclusion that nothing matters, life is a cosmic joke and the normal emotional state is one of resignation. Poor Mary puts up with him (God knows why) and becomes the unidentified star of the book.

The writing and plot are meandering, lots of reminisces all done in a stream of consciousness mode. Just reading the story is tiriing. The novel epitomizes modern British literature with its countryside scenes, rural empty churches, cigarette-puffing disgruntled everymen and everywomen so devoid of any sign of enjoyment of life. It is not that depressing events and people cannot make for a good tale. But there needs to be something more than blind lemming-like marching to the foreseen conclusion accompanied by the sighs of bored spies.

Rating:
Summary: Boring. Very boring.
Review: Since so many (how many are the author's shills?) love this book, it must be a matter of patience. For those of you who treasure each written word and languish over each sentence, this may be a book you will enjoy. For many of us, reading The Perfect Spy is like watching paint dry.

I nearly gave up reading it, but reasoned that such a highly acclaimed author and book would make it all up for me in the ending. Not to.

Rating:
Summary: A Perfect Spy Novel
Review: This is a terrific spy book. [The reason for the ending is unclear to me, tho.] The protagonist is complicated; I was fascinated with him.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: This is easily one of the best books I have read in a long time, espionage-related or not. Once I started it, I could not put it down.
I am fairly new to Le Carre, having read only a couple of his early spy novels - Spy/Cold, Looking Glass War - so I cannot compare this book to the more-recent titles with which most people are already familiar. But it stands on its own as a great book.
A friend suggested this book to me and I am so glad he did. It is superbly written, with marvelously drawn characters and a moving story. This is, I believe, Le Carre looking deep into his own life and excavating what he can about his own father, who was, I have read, a con man and somewhat distant and mysterious. Yet, Le Carre has framed his story as a gripping tale of espionage, with all the deceit and tradecraft and historical savvy that he is so well known for.
There is a BBC TV production based on this novel, with the same title, and it is superb, too. I highly recommend it. But trust me, read the book. You won't be disappointed.


Rating:
Summary: the incisive mind of le carre
Review: when i read john le carre, i have to put the book down, reflect, go back a few pages sometimes. other times, his observations of human nature hit so close to home that i am absolutely amazed.
the clothes his characters wear, he knows about "persona" and what a pair of well worn boots, polished and cared for stand for.
he is not just a spy writer, he is a keen observer of the human condition.
May Bingham