Rating: 
Summary: fantastic spy novel
Review: There is not much that needs to be said about Le Carre. This is vintage stuff. Right up there with his best work. The plot is deep and full of turns - just like Le Carre. Great book!!
Rating: 
Summary: Just ot the Left of Vintage LeCarre
Review: So let's get the politics out of the way first: LeCarre clearly is in vehement opposition the war in Iraq, supports the notion of American "imperialism", and apparently counts himself among the European neo-socialist elites. Too bad, and surely enough to infuriate me often enough while reading "Absolute Friends". But despite the anti-American rhetoric in LeCarre's latest work, he is still by far the most convincing and accomplished spy-writer of our times and, as "Friends" is proof, still capable of spinning an engrossing and thought-provoking tale."Friends" traces the lives of two aging radicals, very different in their backgrounds but very much the same in their commitment to all causes counter-establishment. Ted Mundy, Pakistan-born ex-pat son of a patriotic but delusional British Army major, is barely making it in modern day Germany as a tour guide. Living with a former Turkish prostitute common law wife and her son, Mundy flirts with Islam while maintaining his British roots but, paradoxically, still showing glimpses of apologetic pride in his British heritage. The "absolute friend", Sasha, is an unrepentant and idealistic German radical for life. LeCarre takes the reader back to late-60's Berlin, where Mundy and Sasha meet as students, forging a friendship based in anti-establishment and anti-war idealism. Fast-forward a decade, where we find Mundy and Sasha drones of the very bureaucracies they once despised. Mundy serves as a British Council official dealing with cultural exchanges to Eastern Europe, while Sasha holds a position in the East German Communist regime. Disillusioned by the differences between the communism of theory and the Communism of the Soviet Bloc, Sasha begins spying on the Eastern Bloc for the west. Naturally, Mundy becomes his contact, passing Sasha's stolen secrets on to British intelligence while spreading western disinformation back to the Soviets through Sasha. Following the end of the Cold War, Mundy and Sasha part ways again, only to be drawn back together by Sasha's contact with the mysterious "Demetri", supposedly a wealthy industrialist hoping to repent for the riches he has earned by re-stoking radical sparks still burning, especially in Sasha. This is an ambitious effort, even for the veteran spymaster LeCarre. "Friends" spans nearly four decades of life inside the activist movement, as well as within LeCarre's familiar territory of Cold War espionage. As always, LeCarre's characters are painstakingly developed and all too real in their shortcomings and foibles - expect no "James Bonds" in LeCarre fiction. Plots are so well constructed that at times almost bog down in the detail, but some tedium is a small price for a well-tuned conclusion. The payoff may frustrate conservatives, while delighting the conspiracy buff or those more liberal-leaning readers. But regardless of your political views, "Absolute Friends" is a well crafted, thought-provoking window into the events of the past forty years. In the final analysis, you shouldn't have to believe in the plausibility of a conspiracy or the political slant of the author to enjoy the journey and appreciate a fine writer's mastery of the topic.
Rating:
Summary: Some vintage LeCarre', but also some borrowed Ludlum
Review: Absolute Friends follows follows two friends, Sasha, a German, and Mundy, a Briton, from their radical student days in West Berlin to the present day when they are asked to participate in a murky, internationalist, pacificist scheme. During the cold war, both have worked heroically as double agents at great personal cost and it is in these sections of the book that we se the traditinal LeCarre' at his best. The plight of the discarded, post cold-war spy is also done well. Mundy has ended up a near-pauper in Germany, leading English- speaking tourists on tours of historic sights, when Sasha recruits him to meet a mysterious, didactic billionaire who wishes to start a anti-capitalist, anti-nationalist university. Mundy agrees to be a front for the effort and finds himself again facing his compatriots from his spying days. To tell more would be to spoil the story. But a warning - it's confusing and not very convincing, given LeCarre's usual skills. Here I think he's too caught up in conspiracy theories that truly test one's disbelief.
Rating:
Summary: It's a Laurel and Hardy world. Brilliant!
Review: Here's a vote for John Le Carre's Absolute Friends, which I liked better than the other reviewers; indeed, I think it might make my best book of the year. His protagonist, Mundy, is both mundane and worldly. He lives with that constant dichotomy between what his nation professes to believe and what it actually practices. He is torn. Torn between worldviews and torn between loyalties, chosing in the final anaylsis personal loyalties and personal values. Le Carre paints a brilliant character study of a man poised on a soapbox, caught in a Laurel and Hardy World, trying to find the truth behind the facade. I loved it. The opening foreshadows the final estimate of the book at hand: "On the day his destiny returned to claim him, Ted Mundy was sporting a bowler hat and balancing on a soapbox in one of Mad King Ludwig's castles in Bavaria. It wasn't a classic bowler, more your Laurel and Hardy than Savile Row. It wasn't an English hat, despite the Union Jack Blazoned in Oriental silk on the handkerchief pocket of his elderly tweed jacket. The maker's grease-stained label on the inside of the crown proclaimed it to be the work. . .of Vienna.' "And since it wasn't his own hat--as he hastened to explain to any luckless stranger, preferably female, who fell victim to his boundless accessibility--neither was it a piece of self-castigation."It's a hat of office, madam," he would insist, garrulously begging her pardon in a set piece he had off perfectly. " A gem of history, briefly entrusted to me by generations of previous incumbents of my post--wanderers, scholars, poets, men of the cloth..." "...doffing the clown's bowler in a self-parody and revealing an anarchic forelock of salt-and-pepper hair that bounces out of its trap like a greyhound the moment it's released. . ." Mundy is a complicated man: there is Mundy the tour guide and jester, Mundy the patriot, Mundy the anarchist, Mundy the absolute friend. He is what the opening shows him to be, a child of the British empire born to play the part in the theater of history, a performer who knows his role as jester and tour guide, knows his history, both worldly and mundane, but who has a streak of anarchy underneath, waiting to spring out like the greyhound in the metaphor above. Mundy is bourgeois, boundlessly accessible, and tends to soapbox his ideals, true to the first sentence of the novel. His education has spun a false version of history, just as his father has given him a false version of his personal history. He knows it for what it is, a fairytale, a set-piece, as he says. The rainy mist and the umbrellas are used throughout the narrative as symbols. "The England that awaits the young Mundy is a rain-swept cemetery for the living dead powered by a forty-watt bulb. A gray stone medieval boarding school reeks of disinfectant and is ruled by boy quislings and adult despots." I first doubted that he meant to call Tony Blair a "forty-watt bulb," but then again I guess that's what his protagonist actually thinks. The ending and last sentence are also apropos, a description by the journalist who tracked down Mundy's gravesite: "The mist, she reported, never quite lifts, but its broken Christian masonry makes it a popular place for children to stage mock battles."
Rating:
Summary: LeCarre's World
Review: is always a pleasure to visit. I've read his novels since Call for the Dead first came out. The man is a great story teller and the characters always seem like people I've met. In this story the world of the late sixties is vividly recreated as a world stage. The friendship lies at the core of this novel and how it starts and then develops occupies a nice portion of this book. Mundy's early life also is a neat story within a story. All aspects of this friendship rang true to me. I have and had friends like Sasha. The anti American plot element is deserved but certainly not vitriolic by any means. If this is the first time reading this author, I would not recommend starting with this one. I'd say start with the Constant Gardener, then the Smiley novels and that will give you a great sense of how this author peoples his world.
Rating: 
Summary: 2/3 of a good book
Review: After the disappointing Constant Gardener, I thought I might not even give this one a look--and sad to say, I should have saved myself the money. I think that after all these years, le Carre just can't keep his politics from interfering in his art. For 2/3 of the book, we have credible characters and an interesting plot; then it all goes away in a polemic with cardboard characters and a plot made up from the fantasies of the radical left. Too bad...he was always such a find writer.
Rating:
Summary: Back to his old form
Review: I have not enjoyed Le Carre's last three novels and I was unsure whether I should buy this one or not. I'm very glad I did. Le Carre's best works have always been about spies and the cold war. When he strays into other areas, he fails in my opinion. In 'Absolute Friends' he embraces his favorite genre and pulls off an outstanding success. The majority of the book is a retrospective of the "hero's" life as he drifts from left-wing activism, to marriage, and on into bachelorhood. It's the kind of character study that Le Carre does extremely well. By the time we're halfway through the book we know Mr. Mundy as well as we knew Mr. Smiley. Whether you think he's a good or bad person will determine whether you like this book. There were several times while reading this book when I wondered where it was all going. Sure, it was interesting, but what was the point? A lesser author would have lost my interest before reaching the meat of the story, but Le Carre writes so well I was compelled to keep reading. For those who like rapidly moving plots with paperthin characters, go read the latest Tom Clancy novel. Those of you with the patience to wait for a good thing will have no problems with this book. The finale of the book is outstanding - probably one the best resolutions of any book I've ever read. Le Carre pulls few punches as he expounds his political and moral views at the end of the novel. He's so powerful, you will either lover or hate this book - but you'll not be bored, I can promise you that. Bear this in mind while you read this book - you live in a country where librarians are required report what you read to the government.
Rating:
Summary: Pokes a Stick America's Eye!
Review: As I read this book I anticipated the outcry from those readers who believe all is well with pax Americana, which would be reflected, no doubt, in scathing reviews of Mr. le Carre's effort. Since I happen to agree with his criticisms of America's foreign policy that so clearly serves what can best be described as economic imperialism, I find no reason to object to this work on those grounds. I'm not offended, therefore, that Mr. le Carre uses his considerable skills as a writer of fiction, to argue a political point of view that seems important for him to make at this time in his illustrious career. I doubt one could call it a summing up because we will likely be treated to more excellent fiction from him in the future. Yet as a man in his early seventies, I can imagine his work focusing more directly on matters of significance to him. Clearly he is concerned about the complicity of his government with America in pursuing policies that create division rather than build consensus. As I read this marvelous book I felt I was revisiting the world of George Smiley where agents moved back and forth across the Berlin Wall to exchange cold war secrets. In the manner of his best work, Mr. le Carre has given us a fully realized character, whose search for affiliation and sense of loyalty create unending hardship for him. Once again, the author explores the relationship between father and son, a father not unlike his own. The son, eternally in the shadow of his more flamboyant and dissolute father, is forever trying to fit in but often without much success. He becomes a dupe easily manipulated by others. But he also is a good hearted person who does his best to make amends. Friendship is at the heart of this book, and despite the fact the main character is flawed, it is easy to care about him. I appreciate that consumers of Bush's jingoism will find little to appreciate in this book. Those not so inclined who appreciate a well crafted story will be well satisfied by Mr. le Carre's efforts in this book. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: A Jumble
Review: I've long been a fan of John Le Carre, but this effort is a dud. I read through all 451 pages just to be sure I was not having a bad day. If it were not for the notes on the book jacket, I might still not know what the story was about. I did learn that Le Carre has mastered the use of the "f word" along with "s" and "a", too bad. Maybe next time.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, please!
Review: A disappointing novel that reads as though a promising beginning was grafted onto its very message-heavy ending. The author has made no secret of his disdain and distrust of the United States, so this paranoid concoction should come as no surprise. In the anti-American atmosphere that prevails in certain circles in Europe, the idea of the U.S. staging a phony terrorist operation to justify its policies and to coerce European countries probably sounds pretty plausible. That someone with Cornewell's (Le Carre) smarts could offer up a story like this indicates just how far relations between the U.S. and its erstwhile allies have deteriorated. Food for serious thought, but not necessarily for the reasons intended.
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