Rating: 
Summary: Good characters, not much story.
Review: I listened to the audio of this book from audible.com. After listening, I was surprised to see so many high marks for this book. If I had bought the text version of this book, I probably would not have made it half way through. I give this book a low score because because it was not what I was looking for. I was looking for a good story, but there's not much of a plot. As previous reviewers have indicated, the focus of this book is the character development. Indeed, the author does a great job of building his characters. The audio version is narrated by the author. His voice characterations are spectacular. Had I been familiar with the author's writing style or knew what I was getting in to, I may have enjoyed it more. I guess I was looking for a good tale -- a bit of "narcotic" literature. If you're looking for a good story, go elsewhere. If you are a fan of the author's work, you would probably enjoy his vocal characterizations.
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: the perfect book to while away a day trapped in Germany...
Review: I've always liked John le Carre novels best, re-reading each as soon as I finish it the first time, and reading it a third time a year or two later. Of all, my favorite has been (neither of the obvious -- neither the spy who came in from the cold nor tinker tailor -- but rather) the uncomfortable novel of chronic betrayal, "A Perfect Spy." The Dickensian vitality of Pym's wayward father and his cronies is the perfect foil to le Carre's astringent sensibility for amorality, Whitehall-style. Pym's life journey carries with it more atmosphere and vibrant detail than all of Len Deighton together. While I've never been to a desert island, a day trapped in Germany (a late flight out of Leipzig, a missed connection at Frankfurt) recently put my love of this book to the test! Ordinarily an official national standard for the Type A Personality, under any other circumstances I'd have fumed, cursed, stomped, shouted, badgered ticket clerks, and harassed impotent middle managers about my plight and their indifference to it. But I had brought Pym along as my companion for the flights, went happily off to an airport hotel, and re-read the book straight through till dawn.
Rating:
Summary: the perfect book to while away a day trapped in Germany...
Review: I've always liked John le Carre novels best, re-reading each as soon as I finish it the first time, and reading it a third time a year or two later. Of all, my favorite has been (neither of the obvious -- neither the spy who came in
from the cold nor tinker tailor -- but rather) the uncomfortable novel of chronic betrayal, "A Perfect Spy." The Dickensian vitality of Pym's wayward father and his cronies is the perfect foil to le Carre's astringent sensibility
for amorality, Whitehall-style. Pym's life journey carries with
it more atmosphere and vibrant detail than all of Len Deighton together. While I've never been to a desert island, a day trapped in Germany (a late flight out of Leipzig, a missed connection at
Frankfurt) recently put my love of this book to the test! Ordinarily an official national standard for the Type A Personality, under any other circumstances I'd have fumed, cursed, stomped,
shouted, badgered ticket clerks, and harassed impotent middle managers about my plight and their indifference to it. But I had brought Pym along as my companion for the flights, went happily off to an airport hotel, and re-read the book straight through till dawn.
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: 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: Poor old soul, Magnus Pym
Review: Magnus Pym could become a synonym for what a person becomes when controlled and manipulated from childhood and taught in a system of rigid structures, high expectations, and with a false sense of one's place in the world. Le Carre is brilliant in setting a scene, and we very early on see Magnus Pym, senior officer at the British Embassy in Vienna, loving husband, good father, charming, witty, friendly - Perfect, on the run, from his job, friends, family all that is familiar. How can this be!. He was after all "a representative of something. His stride was agile, his body forward sloping in the best tradition of the Anglo-Saxon administrative class. In the same attitude ...Englishmen have hoisted flags over distant colonies, discovered the sources of great rivers, stood on the decks on sinking ships". The 'Perfect Englishman'. He is also the 'Perfect Spy' and a perfect mystery to those who thought they knew him best. To understand Pym we have to revisit his childhood, growing up under the influence of a con artist, manipulative and domineering but nevertheless charming and 'oh so fun' father. His molding in the 'best' tradition of middle class English boarding school education and finally how he came to be under the control of his two 'masters'
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: 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.
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