Rating: 
Summary: Dull, repetitive and pointless
Review: Who could find this interesting? In chapter one we witness the tediously drawn out last moments of a British financial market slimeball. Never has murder been so torturously boring. Then we meet Oliver Single, who lumbers akwardly through his moral crises at a sedentary pace appropriate to his gigantic physical stature. There's also Brock, English Righteousness personified, capable of deducing all, predicting all, leaping over tall buidlings, etc. Why bother plowing through each monotonous chapter - the impossibly talented Brock can deal with it. Into the dumper with this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to par
Review: Le Carre has done well in continuing to come up with interesting plots in this post cold-war era, but his storytelling abilities are not displayed in this novel. I disagree with the idea that readers should be required to dig or struggle to enjoy fiction. The criticisms of this work expressed in other reviews are justified. The book is needlessly vague and meandering. Where the author was successful in earlier books at deliberately hiding or limiting information to drive the plot, that is not the case here. Instead, the author hints of pathways to be explored later, which mainly turn out to be dead ends. None of the characters, with the possible exception of Brock, were consistent, and none at all were fully developed, Oliver least of all. One of the joys of reading Le Carre's earlier works was developing a reader's relationship to the characters. He has recaptured that in his latest work, The Constant Gardener. If you're a LeCarre fan, it rates three stars. If you are not, then it only merits two.
Rating: 
Summary: One Of His Best
Review: LeCarre deals more in nuance, innuendo, facial expressions, glimpses of telltale movements, and dawning realizations than he does in other kinds of action. Just like a spy, one might say. This book is loaded with all of that, even with a bit more action than I'm used to seeing in his books. This is not as bleak as some of LeCarre's writing. There is some fun and joy to it. There's a buffoonish magician who plays a surprisingly magical role (theatrical, not occult). There is also a wealth of the father-figures who haunt so many LeCarre stories. There is the kind of weighty ambivalence toward families, loyalties and ideals that many fans have come to know and love. LeCarre's medium of exchange seems to be human spirit, motivation, interaction, doubt, ambivalence, regret. Sometimes we are left to see it only from a distance, just as in real life. At other times, when the story justifies it, those emotions will crawl right into your shirt and chew on you. The writing has a bit of British idiom which seems only to add charm (for an American). None of it interferes with the story. Otherwise the dialogue and setting are simply wonderful, as engaging as any novel I know, and more detailed than most. It may take just a bit of effort or concentration to follow and appreciate the characters. This is not grade-school writing. Nevertheless any such effort will be very richly rewarded.
Rating:
Summary: What a disappointment
Review: If LeCarre really is the author of this one, he has lost his touch. I agree with those reviewers who said such things as "tendentious", "obtuse", "overly confusing". I still have no idea how, where, when and why Oliver became a conjurer, nor do I really have a picture of him in my mind's eye. I was ever hopeful that the old LeCarre magic would show itself; what a disappointment that it never did. When I finished the book I threw it into the trashcan.
Rating: 
Summary: Scattered audiotape
Review: This is a case where it doesn't seem quite fair to have an audiotape rating mixed in with the ratings of the print version. I might have liked the print version of the book assuming it filled it the gaping holes in the abridged tape. As it was, the tape was a frustrating experience in trying to keep track of a very large cast of characters; unexpected flashbacks; and sudden changes of scene. LeCarre's narration didn't help as he often spoke too softly. I'm not even sure if I can wrote coherently about the plot. Truely the tape was so scattered that I only have a mild sense of the complexities motivating Oliver. The rest of the characters, including some with terrific potential such as his father, are barely two-dimensional as abridged. I did manage to grasp that Oliver is torn between loyalties to his father and to the British government. Bottom-line: Maybe the print version is worth reading but avoid the tape.
Rating: 
Summary: The author should not have done the "Book on Tape"
Review: This very entertaining book on tape would have been much more enjoyable had the author choosen to hire a professional to do the reading. His attempt to immitate the various characters voices and the various inflections he uses make this a difficult listen. When he lowers his voice to create the illusion of secreacy, it is almost impossible to understand what is being said. Next time I'll read his work!
Rating:
Summary: Single & Single = Doubly predictable
Review: Early in the novel we find Alfie Winser, lawyer and agent for British investment firm 'Single and Single' - alone, on a hillside in Turkey, realizing, with mounting horror and panic, "a mess of sweat and piss and mud" that he is about to be killed gangland style by Russian/Georgian hoods. We quickly move to a small town near Devon, England where Oliver Hawthorne lives quietly carrying on his trade as a children's magician. Things get complicated quickly. UK authorities want to know how five million Pounds suddenly appears in Oliver's daughter's trust fund. Oliver has no anawer - the depositor is an anonymous, mysterious stranger. Oliver's father disappears. With this fast start you may be forgiven for anticipating another typical convoluted and complicated Le Carre plot. That 'Single & Single' is unable to maintain momentum and fades into a rather predictable plot, with a silly Hollywood-script-like action conclusion is disappointing. Along the way though Le Carre employs his more familiar style - using flashbacks and multiple story lines to flesh out the characters and their history and to weave his story plot. Flashback some years earlier and we meet selfsame Oliver, but his surname is Single and he is working for his father in the British investment firm they own. The firm, and domineering, greedy and arrogant father - Tiger Single - deal with 'specialized' finance - assisting Moscow power broker Yevgeny Orlov launder money from his illegal arms trade. Oliver and Tiger are very reminiscent of Magnus and Rick Pym's father-son, love-hate, relationship from 'A Perfect Spy' but with a twist. Oliver and Zoya Orlov fall in love, get married and with Zoya's urging, Oliver turns informant and blows Tiger's and the firms cover, to Nat Brock from the UK task force investigating black market crime. We are back with Hawthorne now, Oliver angry, guilty, alone tries to start his life over as a new man in a small quiet town. We are also back to where we began - with events unfolding, Oliver with the assistance of Brock begins the search for Tiger. All paths lead to Alix Hoban, Orlov's main man. It's in the straightening out of these paths and in following along to the journey's end, where the predictability and disappointment come in.
Rating:
Summary: Corruption in new Russia
Review: With the exception of Le Carre's latest book, The Constant Gardener, I read all of his work. It is not the interesting stories Mr. LeCarre can tell you in his books, but also his excellent writing style that I personally find enjoyable. This book, however is a new kind of mystery novel. There are no spys, and it seems that every character in this book is more of a "bad guy/gal" than a good one. They are all looking to redeem themselves one way or another, but with no success. I enjoyed this book completely and recommend it to anyone as a good and interesting read. Go for it!
Rating:
Summary: I heard rumours he was a good writer.....
Review: I read a lot of Mysteries and Thrillers by Connolly, Lehane, Burke, Hiassen, Sandford, etc., etc., and I have always heard very good things about LeCarre. While reading this book, I thought perhaps he was too "sophisticated" for my tastes, and that I didn't get it. Wrong. It was just tedious. LeCarre decides to change directions in the story, and does an exceptionally poor job of setting it up. Hey, lets just hop over to Russia from Turkey, and nobody will ever know we are there. Gimme a break. I was hoping in the end that everyone would get shot. I'd hate to think this book may reproduce a sequal. I'll stick to stories about good ole U.S. gumshoes and Florida freaks. Sophistication is not all it is hyped up to be.
Rating:
Summary: I wasted my money on this one
Review: I was in an airport buying a novel to read on my vacation. This one was prominently displayed, I read the back cover, it seemed OK so I bought it. It stinks. Period. It can be read about a minute a page, it's like a short story, and it's bad. BAD. Dumb silly pap for the mass market. Instead of bringing it back home with me, I threw it in the garbage, where it belongs. I can't believe Le Carre wrote this garbage. He used to be good. This is junk.
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