Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Absolute Friends by John le Carre ISBN: 0-316-00064-7 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 12 January, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.36 (74 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: One of Le Carre's best books
Comment: Le Carre's latest masterpiece spans three historical periods. The hero, Ted Mundy was born in Pakistan when the British Empire was crumbling, got a public school education in a changing England, went to Oxford and then on to Berlin where he met his fellow radical Shasha, forming an "absolute friendship". He and Shasha eventually formed a highly successfull spy pair during the Cold War, a period of ideological clarity as to what was right or wrong. After the fall of the Berlin war Ted finds himself a partner in a language school and, after this fails miserably, he works as a tour guide in one of Mad Ludwig's castles in Bavaria. Shasha reappears and they find themselves involved again, this time in a war-in-Iraq related operation. Only now things are not clear as to what is right or wrong. To quote Shasha "..the coalition has broken half the rules in the international law books, and intends by its continued occupation of Iraq to break the other half". Le Carre is [rightly so] highly critical of what the coalition is doing in Iraq, his thoughts full of the wisdom of a man whose life spans the same periods with the book's hero. This is not only a superb story of friendship, a historical novel, a well written spy thriller but also a cry of anguish of an educated citizen of the world caused by the post 9/11 state of world affairs.
Rating: 5
Summary: Le Carré at his Absolute Best
Comment: Ted Mundy seems a failure, owner of a defunct English language school in Heidelberg, on the run from his creditors. A bit of a comedian, kind of a loser who does English language tours of Linderhof Palace, one of the castles built by Mad King Ludwig in Bavaria, where he makes up history for the tourists and plies for tips with his Bowler hat.
It's not what he does now that makes Mundy different from those around him, but his past. Born in Pakistan with his mother dying in childbirth, baby Ted was left to be raised by his father, a man who sought debt relief in a bottle. By the time Mundy entered his teens, his father had washed out of the service and Mundy goes to school in England where he falls in love with the German language.
He moves to Berlin in the late '60s, lives in an illegal squat with a bunch of leftists and meets Sasha, short of height but a charismatic individual with the gift of gab. They become friends and his relationship with Sasha becomes the most important in his life. More important than that he'll have with his future wife and his son, more important than those he'll develop later when he works for British intelligence and more important than even that he develops later when he's back in Germany with his Turkish girlfriend Zara and her son Mustafa, whom he seemingly adores.
Mundy, the loser, is one the run, living in Germany with Zara and Mustafa, when Sasha joins one of his castle tours. He presses a note into Mundy hand and thus it starts. Mundy believes Sasha is giving him a chance to redeem his life with a new and important undertaking. He goes to work for the wealthy and shadowy billionaire known as Dimitri who believes Bush and Blair went to war for reasons that have nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction and he sends Sasha and Mundy on a different and murky kind of mission. This time, the enemies are the corporations who control not only our economies, but our governments and, increasingly, our minds and in the end Mundy's belief in his absolute friend is going to be tested. Is his Sasha still a well-intentioned revolutionary, or has he sold out to the terrorists.
ABSOLUTE FRIENDS is a spy novel, a heck of a story and a thriller. It's full of passion too and that will turn some readers away. Le Carré makes no bones about how he feels about the recent Iraqi invasion. He's a man not afraid to take chances. He has a point of view and he gets it out here and that takes away from the story a bit, but still, if you're a lover of spies and their trade craft. If you've enjoyed Le Carré through the years, you'll like this book.
Jeremiah McCain
Rating: 3
Summary: The end disappoints
Comment: For the most part this book is classic Le Carre, he has created characters with depth, a plot that moves well, unexpected twists and an appreciation for locale and history. The book should have been a crowning achievement for him having decades of writing experience. Unfortunately the last two chapters disappoint. He falls prey to an 'inverse deus ex machina' and throws his otherwise well crafted story away. Unlike his vintage self - he gives in to an antagonist who is stereotypical and two dimensional. Could the master of intrigue be so gullible to fall for the popular Euro intellectual arrogance which claims that Americans - in particular religious Christians - are shallow and being hoodwinked by an evil administration? One would expect that Le Carre would offer unique insight into the Iraq conflict, not the magnified rants of the loud. You used to get the impression that he was giving you the real story behind the story. Instead we get the same old tired accusations which can't stand up to analysis. He of all people should know that the process of demonization begins with describing people in a dehumanizing way and making them seem to have no depth or perspective.
In any case, this book is worth the read for fans of Le Carre since the bulk of the book is well written and infused with his style.
For a better analysis look at the writings of Dr. Raymond Tanter who sees the Iraq War as a major strategic victory in the regional landscape and to some degree globally, and that the war was inevitable (regardless of politics). He sees state sponsored terrorism as the driver of much of the world's recent history with the solution being constraints on executive power as typically adopted by western nations.
 |
Title: Mr. Paradise : A Novel by Elmore Leonard ISBN: 0060083956 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 13 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: The Last Juror by John Grisham ISBN: 0385510438 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 03 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
 |
Title: The Murder Room by P.D. JAMES ISBN: 1400041414 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 18 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: Avenger by Frederick Forsyth ISBN: 0312319517 Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
 |
Title: The Narrows: A Novel by Michael Connelly ISBN: 0316155306 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 03 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
