Rating: 
Summary: Far From His Best
Review: I concur with (most ) of the other reviewers that "Absolute Friends" is not up with LeCarre's best work. My impression is that he's been wrting this book (two deeply flawed characters, bound in a relationship of East vs.West) for the last forty years. It's not very interesting now, and I hope he gets back to the level of some of his better books.
Rating: 
Summary: Le Carré as barking moonbat
Review: John Le Carré still writes beautifully, but this former master spywriter's latest book - set partly in the post 9/11, post-Iraq War world - boasts all the political nuance and acumen of a Ted Rail America-hating screed. It's a genuine pity to see that he's become a barking moonbat who's only a half-step back (if that) from the folks who seriously insist that the CIA directed the 9/11 attacks on instructions from Evil Dubya & Co. Once an author whom I eagerly bought in hardbound, he'll get no more of my bookbuying dollars (or pounds sterling or Euros).
Rating: 
Summary: VERY well crafted novel; can't recommend it highly enough
Review: The only reason I can possibly think of that other reviewers did not like this book is that it is too close to non-fiction for comfort and some just can't handle that fact. Having been a former spy himself, no one is better qualified than Le Carre to write about the deceit and treachery involved in the spy game business. And it follows that he would know very well not only how to craft his characters but some fairly authentic ones upon which to base them. The first chapter had me scratching my head wondering what was going on, but by ch 3 I was completely hooked. Forget the somewhat confusing and deceptive jacket cover and read this book for what it is: an insiders' look at the characters, both guilty and innocent, who manipulate (and are manipulated by) others. I read this lengthy book in 2 days - couldn't put it down. I had not read Le Carre before but certainly will again.
Rating:
Summary: sensitive American's enter at your own risk
Review: This book's sole purpose appears to be a venue for Mr LeCarre to vent his anti-American anti-Bush and Blair feelings. In doing so, he creates the dynamic duo of Teddy and Sasha, lovable and sympathetic characters, but in today's real world they would probably be considered "losers". Their ideology is certainly no more noble than that which LeCarre finds so contemptuous in the Bush administration. And the ending was unbelievable - at best. Shame on Mr LeCarre for wasting his great talents and imposing his personal views on loyal fans. This reader would have loved a few hours respite from a subject so well-worn.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Friendless
Review: I keep buying le Carre's work to see if he will get back to writing in his own world i.e. cold war era politics and spycraft. He has been living in distrust of his own government for so long that he has forgotten who he is. John le Carre is (was) a great writer that specialized in character driven novels of thoughtful suspense and ideas that the reader could grasp and consider very close to reality.
In Absolute Friends he has failed in all respects. His characters, besides perhaps Mundy, are one dimensional and exist only to fuel his hatred of Western culture. The book is a slow page-turner (but I expect that from le Carre). You can read almost anything else of his to see that he can write when he wants to but this isn't it. His almost teary view of the demise of the Berlin wall made me ill but so did the rest of the book!
le Carre obviously pictures himself as a great political philosopher and thinker while we, the readers, are mindless sheep following our corrupt and cruel Western leaders without a thought. If we can't buy into the mindset that the great Satan is in reality a few major world corporations and their lackies, Western governments, then we are blind. Forget this book! I give it two stars only out of respect for his former work.
Rating:
Summary: Le Carre Recycled
Review: I won't rehash the plot in this review ... other reviewers have provided all those details. I will simply state that as someone who has read all the other Le Carre novels over the years, this one falls far short of his best work. Le Carre has been recycling his characters for years, and it's worked in the past because the themes have seemed fresh and interesting. Now, in Absolute Friends, those themes are tired and stale. There is the usual cast of characters: a woman who has been deeply hurt in the past and may (or may not) be saved by the hero's action or inaction; the old spymasters who run their "joes" but see clearly that the game they're playing is no longer worth the price; the cast-off spies that once darkened the shadows of the Cold War. And for the first 300 or so pages, you get a painful rebuilding of all these characters, and their histories, in long, slow, dull narrative. It becomes more of a parody of Le Carre than any real parody could be. In the end, what also destroys any interest the novel could have is Le Carre's openly-displayed anti-American and anti-war feelings. Le Carre has been a writer in search of a "bad guy" for years. The Cold War presented him with a fine palette of black and white, with his characters sometimes stumbling along the gray fringes where even the good fight sometimes left the good shaken and diminished. But Le Carre cannot come to grips with a world where evil comes in a variety of shapes and colors; where religion and culture and 1300 years of warfare are still playing their way across the stage. The lengthy diatribes in the mouths of his characters would be at home in some of the world's most repressive regimes - only his books would never be published there. But the best reason of all not to read this book has nothing to do with Le Carre's newfound distate for the West ... it has to do with something far more basic. He's written a boring book with recycled characters that goes on for almost 500 yawn-inducing pages. If you've read Le Carre in the past and enjoyed his work, avoid this one. Or, like me, you might find yourself wondering whether you'll ever bother reading him again.
Rating:
Summary: Selling a name not a story
Review: I was so relieved to see reviews that panned this book. I was concerned that I must have missed something when I read glowing reviews. This book meanders without any really compelling action and I felt at times Le Carre was parading out his knowledge of 60's politics rather than telling a story. The ending almost absolves the book as it is quite tense and has a bitter twist but it was a lot of work for ten good pages.
Rating:
Summary: Your Resume Is Your Fate
Review: In the beginning of Absolute Friends, I found myself wondering why Mr. Le Carre had put together such an unusual resume for his main character, Ted Mundy. Be patient with those details because Mr. Le Carre uses every one of them to develop his most intricate plot ever. This book will continue to surprise you with its plot twists and will reward careful reading. Those who have a very cynical view of the motives behind the invasion of Iraq in 2003 will love this book. Brought up without a mother and with a distant father whose life was on the skids, Ted Mundy found himself looking for emotional connection. With a strong sympathy for the underdog and the oppressed, he finds himself some unusual friends among the radical community of his youth. Made of stern stuff, he willingly engages in helping them and becomes closely involved with antiauthoritarian Sasha in West Berlin. That unexpected connection becomes the central pivot of his life from then on. Try as he might to avoid it, he and Sasha are permanently linked through that youthful friendship. In essence, Ted Mundy's life becomes a resume that others are willing to interpret as supporting their views . . . and he finds himself unexpectedly draw into the espionage battles of the Cold War. Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mundy's past becomes valuable to those who want to create new perceptions today. In the process, Mundy finds his good intentions and friendship unintentionally subverted. The jacket copy for this book is misleading. It suggests that the story is mostly about the mysterious Dimitri, the idealistic billionaire who wants to recruit Ted Mundy. Except for a brief introduction, that section of the book comes only at the end. Most of the book deals with a flashback into Mundy's life before meeting Sasha and his involvement with Cold War spying. A lot of the action occurs behind the Iron Curtain, and pieces of the book will remind you of Mr. Le Carre's marvelous stories about espionage into East Germany. The book has an Achilles heel though in that Mr. Le Carre needs such an unusual combination of characters that the plot builds on what seemed to me to often be dense, unrealistic details. I kept wondering why he was making up such preposterous backgrounds for his characters. In the end, all became clear . . . but the story's eventual ending could have been told without all the background. The book feels like two books, loosely bound together by a limited tether three-quarters of the way through. Without the last section, this could have been a five-star Cold War book. With a simpler development of the last section, this could have been a four-star book about political chicanery. I found the way they were bound together was just too big a stretch for me. I found myself focusing on the author's plotting, rather than just accepting the story. I do, however, admire the mind that could put all these pieces together. If you are like me, the ending will leave you stunned and feeling queasy. Mr. Le Carre has a powerful message for us about the dangers of believing that everything is what we are told. Be skeptical! As I finished the book, I wondered again about the proper balance among our responsibility to ourselves, our loved ones and our loyalties to greater causes. Mr. Le Carre seems to suggest that we shouldn't be so idealistic . . . the price is too high. But isn't our idealism what makes us noble and admirable? Perhaps he means nothing more than that we shouldn't abandon all else for our idealism.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Must Read, Le Carré is Better than Ever
Review: ABSOLUTE FRIENDS opens in present-day Germany where Ted Mundy, a Pakistan-born son of a soldier who has recently lost everything in a failed English school, is working as a tour guide at the Linderhof, one of Mad King Ludwig's castles. He's living with a former Turkish prostitute, her son Mustafa and a dog. Then, like a phantom out of his past, Sasha appears on one of his tours. Sasha, Ted Mundys absolute friend. Then we flash back to Ted's past and learn that he's the son of an alcoholic British captain who stayed on after the independence of Pakistan. His mother died in childbirth and he when he gets older he resents having to go to England to go to school. He drops out of Oxford, travels to Germany wearing a Beatles haircut and winds up with a group of radicals. And it's here that he meets Sasha, who is diminutive in stature, but tall on charisma. Sasha is quick to identify Ted as a good soldier who can be trusted and during a protest that turns violent, Ted saves Sasha from a beating by carrying him over his head and taking the blows himself, which earns him both Sasha's undying friendship and an expulsion from the country, kicked out of Germany, but not out of Sasha's life. When Sasha next appears he is working as an East German spy, seeking his old friend's services as an operative in the West. Sasha wants to be a double agent and he wants to work with Ted. Mundy accepts and his life of spying causes him his marriage and alienates him from his son, but he is an idealist and plods on, until the Wall comes tumbling down and he and Sasha's services are no longer needed. But now after a decade Sasha is back in his life with a grand plan. This time the enemies are the corporations who control our economies, our governments and, increasingly, our minds. Or are they really the enemies Sasha is fighting? Is Ted's old friend still a revolutionary at heart, or has he thrown in with the terrorists? Ted Mundy is a man who has spent his life trying to do the right thing and in the end it cost him his family, his career and his country, everything, save for his principles and one absolute friendship, but maybe that's enough. Ted and Sasha are absolutely astounding characters in this absolutely astounding book, which at times I must admit, seems a vehicle for Mr. Le Carré to put forth his opinion on the current war in Iraq. He's against it, that's no secret, and it shouldn't be a secret that this book will upset some people on both sides of the Atlantic. Still, it's a cracking fine story that I believe everybody should read.
Rating:
Summary: Over the Top
Review: What could have been one of his good novels was overpowered by this anti-American political screed. Those of us who follow Le Carre know his opinion of the US and the UK relative to the war in Iraq. He could have let us know about that in a preface or even a non-fiction work, yet he chose to beat us over the head repeatedly with his views and spoiled what could have been a good work. The "bad guys" are more a product of advanced paranoia than even a remote reality. Still, he's a helluva writer.
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