Rating: 
Summary: the end of the Cold War
Review: "The Russia House" is essentially the same story as "The Honourable Schoolboy" but told at a quicker pace, and with a "happier" (note the comparative degree) ending. The love story should be subordinate to the political story, which shows that the Cold War is/was really just an ideological construction based more on double-talking and bluffing than on actual force or "substance." A penetrating conclusion.
Rating: 
Summary: Splendid
Review: 'Spying is waiting'. So believable. Unlike the breakneck speed of events of popular espionage fiction, John Le Carre takes us into the REAL world of spying where you do your bit and wait for the reactions. Things don't happen at the speed at which we wish them to. His characters don't speak from high moral grounds, so typical to Tom Clancy's characters. Nor they are reluctant heroes of Robert Ludlum. They are real people, afraid, greedy, selfish, people who you can relate with, people who don't have the power to eliminate the evils of the world single-handedly. These are the people who know that the evils are here to stay, and in some sense they are also part of it. Elimination of evil will mean self-destruction. They just play the part in the manner they are told to and wait to get out of the evil-machine of espionage. 'Spying IS waiting'
Rating:
Summary: Bang on target
Review: Although some elements of this book may not seem overly realistic to the more discerning specialists of espionage, the general story line is believable. Being a native of Moscow, I enjoyed the masterful, if oversimplified, descriptions of things Russian. Le Carre diction is particularly pleasing -- his mastery of the English language is superb. The text flows easily; it is hard to put the book down. I highly recommend the book to anybody who wants to get a sence of intelligence operations, the difference between US and British apporach to espionage and what Russia was like in the 1990s. Additionally, readers will enjoy Le Carre's masterful command of English -- "an example to us all," as one of his heroes points out. I love this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Le Carre's best.
Review: At his best John le Carre transcends the genre. His Quest for Karla trilogy (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People) and A Perfect Spy are marvellous novels, with deftly drawn complex characters, and a fine sense of the reasons for betrayal. This, though, is disappointing. It is le Carre's first post glasnost fiction, and in feeling for new subject matter his novels have seemed a little weaker, until finding new form with his most recent novel, Single and Single. The novel focuses on Barley Blair, a drunken book publisher from a small publishing house in London. Having applied for a place in the secret service some years before, Blair becomes a reluctant spy as a book with observations on Soviet military capability is handed over for Blair at an audio book convention. The novel is narrated by a wily lawyer advising the British secret service. There are some weak points in the novel. For this reader le Carre has never convinced when drawing female characters (even the estimable Lady Ann Smiley remains a cipher from le Carre's first novel to Smiley's People). Nor is le Carre convincing when writing about love, and here one of the pivotal characters is Katya, a Muscovite with children. She is better drawn than many of le Carre's female characters (perhaps the first person male narrative strangely helps in this regard), but she remains something of a blank canvas. Her relationship with Blair is never convincing, and sadly this taints the inevitability of the final chapters. There are the usual le Carre virtues. He has a mastery of novel openings (Witness the first chapters of Tinker Tailor and Single and Single for example) and this is no exception. In attendance at an audio book fair in MOscow a Polish emigre is approached and handed the crucial papers for Blair. How this is done, and how he deals with it, are handled wonderfully. Each detail making the situation credible. Le Carre's own style is again wonderful. His prose has a fluidity that is very readable. Le Carre also has astute observations on the relationship between the superpowers at the time of Gorbachev's restructuring, and - from the backdrop of the Smiley novels - the relationship between the United States and United Kingdom secret services. It is ironic that in a novel billed as a love story the most convincing relationships are those between institutions. If you enjoy the novel try to get hold off the BBC audio dramatisation starring Tom Baker as Barley Blair. The other le Carre novels mentioned in this review are more rewarding than the Russia House, but it is still an enjoyable, albeit disappointing, read.
Rating:
Summary: Not Le Carre's best.
Review: At his best John le Carre transcends the genre. His Quest for Karla trilogy (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People) and A Perfect Spy are marvellous novels, with deftly drawn complex characters, and a fine sense of the reasons for betrayal. This, though, is disappointing. It is le Carre's first post glasnost fiction, and in feeling for new subject matter his novels have seemed a little weaker, until finding new form with his most recent novel, Single and Single. The novel focuses on Barley Blair, a drunken book publisher from a small publishing house in London. Having applied for a place in the secret service some years before, Blair becomes a reluctant spy as a book with observations on Soviet military capability is handed over for Blair at an audio book convention. The novel is narrated by a wily lawyer advising the British secret service. There are some weak points in the novel. For this reader le Carre has never convinced when drawing female characters (even the estimable Lady Ann Smiley remains a cipher from le Carre's first novel to Smiley's People). Nor is le Carre convincing when writing about love, and here one of the pivotal characters is Katya, a Muscovite with children. She is better drawn than many of le Carre's female characters (perhaps the first person male narrative strangely helps in this regard), but she remains something of a blank canvas. Her relationship with Blair is never convincing, and sadly this taints the inevitability of the final chapters. There are the usual le Carre virtues. He has a mastery of novel openings (Witness the first chapters of Tinker Tailor and Single and Single for example) and this is no exception. In attendance at an audio book fair in MOscow a Polish emigre is approached and handed the crucial papers for Blair. How this is done, and how he deals with it, are handled wonderfully. Each detail making the situation credible. Le Carre's own style is again wonderful. His prose has a fluidity that is very readable. Le Carre also has astute observations on the relationship between the superpowers at the time of Gorbachev's restructuring, and - from the backdrop of the Smiley novels - the relationship between the United States and United Kingdom secret services. It is ironic that in a novel billed as a love story the most convincing relationships are those between institutions. If you enjoy the novel try to get hold off the BBC audio dramatisation starring Tom Baker as Barley Blair. The other le Carre novels mentioned in this review are more rewarding than the Russia House, but it is still an enjoyable, albeit disappointing, read.
Rating:
Summary: Humanistic thought-provoking tale of the unlikely spy
Review: Firstly, one does not pick up a John Le Carre book to be dazzled with the flash-bang imagery of modern spy thrillers. John Le Carre writes 'spy literature', a look at the inner workings and emotions felt by his well fleshed-out characters in the espionage trade. Like meeting a life-long friend for the first time, you come to know his characters, and if patient enough, actually care about them. His prose often borders on poetry. I offer this warning of style for the sake of saving time for those looking for a quick pulse-quickening read. On to my opinion of "The Russia House". Barley Blair, the inner hypocrite comes clean. The book is an in depth tale of how a lackluster publisher with a penchant for self-destruction and jazz finds himself deeply embroiled in the hopeful defection of a Russian scientist, Goethe. Blair bumps into Goethe at a chance gathering during the hopeful glimmer of glasnost. Goethe overhears Blair's recited philosophical rhetoric for a hopeful future between the West and Communist Russia. The conspiracy begins. Le Carre steers us through how a communique meant for Blair is intercepted, where essentially we begin our journey. We are led through London, Moscow, an island off the coast of New England, and Leningrad in the attempt to confirm Blair in his new job of spy and get the elusive scientist to switch sides. However, Blair wasn't expecting to fall in love with Goethe's emmisary, and a whole new tasteful spin is added to the spy novel. Le Carre's characters here are equally intimate and distant, illuminating yet shrouded in secrecy...so very human. So, not to spoil the intricacies for the eager reader, I shall conclude explaining the plot here. Through all of this, Le Carre gives us a glimpse of life for both the Westerners and Easterners in Communist Russia. The lingering shadows of Stalin and Breshnev are never dismissed lightly, but rather the hope that was glasnost shines on through the murky depths of intrigue. Fans of the George Smiley books may find themselves disappointed with reading "The Russia House", but I think fans of Le Carre as the storyteller and writer will be very satisifed.
Rating:
Summary: Humanistic thought-provoking tale of the unlikely spy
Review: Firstly, one does not pick up a John Le Carre book to be dazzled with the flash-bang imagery of modern spy thrillers. John Le Carre writes 'spy literature', a look at the inner workings and emotions felt by his well fleshed-out characters in the espionage trade. Like meeting a life-long friend for the first time, you come to know his characters, and if patient enough, actually care about them. His prose often borders on poetry. I offer this warning of style for the sake of saving time for those looking for a quick pulse-quickening read. On to my opinion of "The Russia House". Barley Blair, the inner hypocrite comes clean. The book is an in depth tale of how a lackluster publisher with a penchant for self-destruction and jazz finds himself deeply embroiled in the hopeful defection of a Russian scientist, Goethe. Blair bumps into Goethe at a chance gathering during the hopeful glimmer of glasnost. Goethe overhears Blair's recited philosophical rhetoric for a hopeful future between the West and Communist Russia. The conspiracy begins. Le Carre steers us through how a communique meant for Blair is intercepted, where essentially we begin our journey. We are led through London, Moscow, an island off the coast of New England, and Leningrad in the attempt to confirm Blair in his new job of spy and get the elusive scientist to switch sides. However, Blair wasn't expecting to fall in love with Goethe's emmisary, and a whole new tasteful spin is added to the spy novel. Le Carre's characters here are equally intimate and distant, illuminating yet shrouded in secrecy...so very human. So, not to spoil the intricacies for the eager reader, I shall conclude explaining the plot here. Through all of this, Le Carre gives us a glimpse of life for both the Westerners and Easterners in Communist Russia. The lingering shadows of Stalin and Breshnev are never dismissed lightly, but rather the hope that was glasnost shines on through the murky depths of intrigue. Fans of the George Smiley books may find themselves disappointed with reading "The Russia House", but I think fans of Le Carre as the storyteller and writer will be very satisifed.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time
Review: I have an issue with this author so this review my not be representative of many. This is the first book of his that I read and I just did not get excited. I wanted to, I had heard great things about him. I felt that this is a rather uninspired book. I found the story line very familiar due to the fact that I think I have seen it in a number of other books. The cast of characters was not bad and for me is the only real high point of the book. I just wanted more of a story that was not so boring. The one positive was the correctness in the details of the tradecraft used.
Rating:
Summary: Not My Cup of Tea
Review: I have an issue with this author so this review my not be representative of many. This is the first book of his that I read and I just did not get excited. I wanted to, I had heard great things about him. I felt that this is a rather uninspired book. I found the story line very familiar due to the fact that I think I have seen it in a number of other books. The cast of characters was not bad and for me is the only real high point of the book. I just wanted more of a story that was not so boring. The one positive was the correctness in the details of the tradecraft used.
Rating:
Summary: i havent exacctly read the book
Review: i need you to give me the character analysis of Barley Blair. I need it for a very URGENT project.
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