Rating: 
Summary: Post-Cold War spy thriller
Review: This is not Le Carre's best book. If you haven't already read them, I suggest you read the Smiley trilogy which begins with "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" -- one of the great masterpieces of the last century in my humble opinion. "Our Game" by contrast is good -- not great. One of the problems is that the characters aren't very appealing. Tim is an insufferable public-school Englishman about whose fate we care nil plus the square root of zero. Larry is a professor who's committment to the downtrodden of the world seems an ego trip, the female lead is an airheaded artist who doesn't seem to merit the sort of admiration she gets. But the subject matter is interesting. Who ever heard of the Ingush people until Le Carre wrote about them? His portayal of them is superb: the downtrodden ethnic groups of the former Soviet Union asseting themselves brutally, stupidly, unsuccesfully, but with doomed courage and dedication. "Our Game" is kind of thin gruel compared to Le Carre's great cold war novels, but it's worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Post-Cold War spy thriller
Review: This is not Le Carre's best book. If you haven't already read them, I suggest you read the Smiley trilogy which begins with "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" -- one of the great masterpieces of the last century in my humble opinion. "Our Game" by contrast is good -- not great. One of the problems is that the characters aren't very appealing. Tim is an insufferable public-school Englishman about whose fate we care nil plus the square root of zero. Larry is a professor who's committment to the downtrodden of the world seems an ego trip, the female lead is an airheaded artist who doesn't seem to merit the sort of admiration she gets. But the subject matter is interesting. Who ever heard of the Ingush people until Le Carre wrote about them? His portayal of them is superb: the downtrodden ethnic groups of the former Soviet Union asseting themselves brutally, stupidly, unsuccesfully, but with doomed courage and dedication. "Our Game" is kind of thin gruel compared to Le Carre's great cold war novels, but it's worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Le Carre doesn't need the Cold War to be riveting
Review: This post-Cold War novel is told from the slightly warped first-person perspective of a retired British spymaster. How he goes from country gentleman to a wanted criminal on the run, to toting a Kaloshnikov in the Caucasus is the subject of this masterfully written story - a story about the disorienting power of love and loyalty. This dialog in this book is as good as any other Le Carre novel, although those expecting the bad guys to get their big comeuppance at the end will be disappointed. It's not even all that clear who the bad guys are, or even who the sane guys are, if any
Rating: 
Summary: Where is the ending?
Review: This was my first spy novel. I started out, finding the setting very intriguing; real spy stuff from secret lairs, alternate identifications, laying false trails. The book takes you across England, and through Europe, only to get you to the end of the book, and find that there was no end. You arrive to find that the characters that you've been chasing are gone, or dead. No climatic endings. No drama. Just done. If you could have a good book without an ending, this one is it.
Rating: 
Summary: UGH, What was he thinking???
Review: This was one of the worst books that I ever read. (However, I've read other Le Carre novels and liked them).
The story was all over the place and the ending far from
satisfying. When I had finally finished this book all I could ask myself was why had I wasted the time.
Rating:
Summary: My First, but not last, Le Carre book
Review: This was the first time I have picked up a John Le Carre novel. As much as I read, even I am surprised by that record. Don't ask me why I chose this one and not the more famous "The Spy That Came in From the Cold" or "The Russia House." I think when I read the book jacket, something jumped out that interesed me more--perhaps because many of the events in Chechnya are straight from todays' headlines. John Le Carre is a master of language and of character development. Patrick O'Brien comes to mind in the same veign of storytelling elegance. You just know that you are dealing with someone who is the man among boys in the NY Times Bestseller List realm. Le Carre is highly intellegent in his approach and how he makes intricate details centerpieces to plot. I truly enjoyed just being sucked into this novel, which is sometimes hard to say when describing strict genre writers. You can tell Le Carre is writing this because he enjoys his work. I have a hunch this is not his best work. I have heard so much about Le Carre from friends and reviews that I know that his works are worthy and necessary reading. Perhaps this is a book I may have to come back and read again after I have become more acquanted with his artistry. My only criticisms are that Tim Cranmer was hard to penetrate as a main character and the story has several complicated flashbacks. Most assuredly they are necessary (I hope), but I found myself getting confused and distracted. Like I said, maybe I need to read more of his work and come back to this novel at another time in the future. Perhaps I will pick up some technique or formula I was missing that only fans of John Le Carre can pick up on. Good writers of this type of genre are reknown because they know their subjects so well and know the landscape their characters dwell in so intimately that the stories they tell are believable. Le Carre will be an author remembered 100 or 200 years from now, I am sure. He is incredible to read and it is fun to read. That is the true measure of any author--make it enjoyable. I will other reviews of John Le Carre in the future I am most sure of that.
Rating:
Summary: My First, but not last, Le Carre book
Review: This was the first time I have picked up a John Le Carre novel. As much as I read, even I am surprised by that record. Don't ask me why I chose this one and not the more famous "The Spy That Came in From the Cold" or "The Russia House." I think when I read the book jacket, something jumped out that interesed me more--perhaps because many of the events in Chechnya are straight from todays' headlines. John Le Carre is a master of language and of character development. Patrick O'Brien comes to mind in the same veign of storytelling elegance. You just know that you are dealing with someone who is the man among boys in the NY Times Bestseller List realm. Le Carre is highly intellegent in his approach and how he makes intricate details centerpieces to plot. I truly enjoyed just being sucked into this novel, which is sometimes hard to say when describing strict genre writers. You can tell Le Carre is writing this because he enjoys his work. I have a hunch this is not his best work. I have heard so much about Le Carre from friends and reviews that I know that his works are worthy and necessary reading. Perhaps this is a book I may have to come back and read again after I have become more acquanted with his artistry. My only criticisms are that Tim Cranmer was hard to penetrate as a main character and the story has several complicated flashbacks. Most assuredly they are necessary (I hope), but I found myself getting confused and distracted. Like I said, maybe I need to read more of his work and come back to this novel at another time in the future. Perhaps I will pick up some technique or formula I was missing that only fans of John Le Carre can pick up on. Good writers of this type of genre are reknown because they know their subjects so well and know the landscape their characters dwell in so intimately that the stories they tell are believable. Le Carre will be an author remembered 100 or 200 years from now, I am sure. He is incredible to read and it is fun to read. That is the true measure of any author--make it enjoyable. I will other reviews of John Le Carre in the future I am most sure of that.
Rating:
Summary: Old Cold Warrior deals with some newer World Situations.
Review: Tim Cranmer, a retired Cold War spy, had started a quieter new life with Emma Manzini, a fine young hippie less than half his age. Larry Pettifer, the younger double agent he has run since school days at Oxford, is far from retired, and he is still very active. He is quite involved in idealistic causes on the other side of the Iron Curtain, which Tim casually dismisses with his typical Western prejudice. He fails to seriously consider how affected Emma might be by the persuasion of Larry's real convictions. So we have the basis of the old classic menage. Given the complexities of any Le Carre set of characters, and given the guesswork of dealing with running double agents behind enemy lines; classic Le Carre; we have a solid mystery to unravel. However: Why does Le Carre so extravagantly spend 94 pages (Ballentine paperback) to develop these characters, and a relatively simple plot actually, before he really pulls the rug out from under us? (It goes out to 148 pages before we even learn any clue as to the simple meaning of the title!) I love LeCarre spy stories, but this one had too much of those genteel discussions over tea in old Victorian rooms, before any movement or action happens. Sort of like watching those black and white English spy stories on late TV: All those muttering conversations just put me to sleep! Otherwise, I liked the confusion of Tim's mixed feelings toward this old friend who betrays him. I appreciated the ambiguity of his feelings toward Emma, who he cannot decide to give up, no matter how much it hurts. This solid portrayal of failed relationships rings painfully true for me. Other things I appreciated in the book were some entirely new settings, and a cast including new background characters: The Russian mafia, a Russian nightclub, underground gang hideout, money launderers, smugglers, gun runners, mountainous back country, revolutionary armies of inscrutably obscure ethnicity, and even new nationalities. Many of these places and characters were unheard of in fiction, up till now. I'm afraid only those most avid fans of cold war espionage stories will properly appreciate this update.
Rating: 
Summary: Some Game This!!
Review: We all, lovers of John Le Carre's spy thrillers thought that the collapse of the Soviet empire, end of cold-war, and emergence of a unipolar world, will make writers like Lecarre unemployed, and deprive us of any more interesting books. Not so. Great, creative writers like Lecarre, can never be unemployed, can never let down their fans. This is one of most fascinating books that I have ever read. It's not a typical Lecarre, but all the specialties of Lecarre's writing skills; superb detailing, suspense and power of drama, study of treachery and trust, strange phenomenon & bond of relationships that defy any definition, gripping storyline, seamless narration, are all there, in much better form than ever. Tim Cranmer, a spymaster with British secret service, had recruited and trained Larry, a renegade political thinker as a double agent. Tim ran Larry for over 20 years, and developed a very close, personal relationship which was much more than a spy and a master. Tim, now retired, lives in countryside growing vine. A divorcee has befriended Emma, a musician half his age, who often lives with him. Larry too is now out of the "service", and is a teacher at a university. Larry keeps visiting Tim for old time's sake. The friendship continues. One fine day, Larry is missing, and so is Emma. Police investigators have stumbled across many imponderables and inklings of something big and sinister. Tim is interrogated and harassed by the Police. Tim seeks help from his former employers. The "office" not only disowns him totally; rather they too start an investigation of their own. Tim is all alone, on the run, his love life ruined, Emma seems to have dumped him, his close confidante is missing, his old friends and colleagues have not only ditched him, but have also turned against. Tim is in a mess. However, using his own skills and resources, Tim embarks on a mission to unravel the truth. The pursuit takes him to Europe, and all over Russian provinces, right behind the war lines. What does he find? What does he do thereafter? The story and the suspense are too good to be disclosed. Entire story is in in first person, as experienced and narrated by Tim, the lead character. The three main characters, the way they develop, and the way they have been etched and analysed, is superb. The narration is superb. Suddenly it jumps from the present to the past, to a future possibility, and back to the present again...is just like the way, a human mind, especially a disturbed one under stress will function under the circumstances.
In process of the story, Lecarre with his phenomenal research tells us all about the history of various ethnic minorities in the CIS, and exposes us to the views and lives of various ethnic minorities and their problems. The mighty USSR as long as it held up, had never let the world know about any of these. We in India thought that only we have so many ethnic groups and minorities, and a variety of diversity! CIS has as many. I finished the book in one session stretching 6-8 hours. It was so un-put-downable! Hats off to Lecarre, you are one of the finest writers this century has produced.
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