A Most Wanted Man

Author - John le Carre ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Hardcover Book item from Scribner was reviewed on 11-Oct-2008.

Search ISBN:1416594884 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. A Most Wanted Man Reference Book. Classifications : Contemporary Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue Thrillers Mystery & Thrillers Subjects Books Suspense Thrillers Mystery & Thrillers Subjects Books General Thrillers My . Click the following link to view the cover of A Most Wanted Man.

Related topics: Contemporary. Subjects. Books. Thrillers. Mystery & Thrillers. Subjects. Books. Suspense. Thrillers. Mystery & Thrillers.

1) Hardcover Book A Most Wanted Man by Scribner. To cite but one example, the central character Issa (who has spent a number of years incarcerated in Russian and Turkish jails being savagely tortured and brutally interrogated) is wearing a gold charm bracelet with a tiny gold Koran on it that he received from his mother. How did he manage to hang onto it after having spent years in Russian and Turkish jails?!

I know, it is a small thing. But the bracelet is referred to countless times and it becomes rather irksome after a while.

¤

2) Hardcover Book A Most Wanted Man by Scribner. Don´t buy this book if you have any respect for good literature or the good standing of the United States of America in the world. Mr. Cornwell could have scribbled a letter-to-the editor and made the same point. The character who becomes essential to the story and its ending never gets a full paragraph of character development throughout the overwrought, directionless plot. There´s no need for character development because we all know that as an American she is evil, treacherous, and dishonorable. Let the Eurotrash pay money to enjoy the deus-ex-machinations of the last page. I´m going to sell my First Edition ...In From The Cold now, as more of this from the declining Cornwell will certaily reduce its value.¤

3) Hardcover Book A Most Wanted Man by Scribner. Very good, though not one of his best. As usual, very rich characters and a great story. He stays exclusively in one location, which is unusual, but it works. It seems like the book could be adapted to a stage play.¤

4) Hardcover Book A Most Wanted Man by Scribner. It is a tangled web Mr. LeCarre weaves in his most recent work of spy fiction. A young Russian lands in modern day Hamburg and is is need of immediate assistance. Those who dare to help, including his young attractive lawyer and a 60 year old banker, are caught in an ever tightening web of intrigue. Mr. LeCarre story telling powers are superb and his prose is beautiful. I raced thru the final 50 pages. The story dragged in couple of spots but all in all it was a pretty compelling read.¤

5) Hardcover Book A Most Wanted Man by Scribner. John Le Carre is a good writer, no questions about that. He has beter than average skills at developing sympathetic characters wgo moan and groan about protecting their nation´s interests, but do it anyway. Of course, Le Carre´s concept of honorable nationhood does not extend to the United States of America.

Anyone who has read Le Carre´s books, his op-ed pieces and interviews knows that Le Carre considers the United States to be evil and eminently hateable. Le Carre criticized Salman Rushdie for publishing his "Satanic Verses" and, according to Le Carre, putting people associated with him in danger.

With the Cold War ending, Le Carre hasn´t seemed to be able to adapt to a changed world, though he has lost none of his skills as a writer.

"A Most Wanted Man" introduces us to Issa, who may or may or not be an Islamic terrorist with ties to Chechnya. Issa may or may not also be the sole beneficiary to a considerable fortune salted away in a now German bank run by the Britisher Tommy Brue. He is an illegal immigrant to Germany. A human rights agency has assigned Annabel Richter as his lawyer and she becomes the contact to Brue in order to secure Issa´s fortune.

Complicating matters is the fact that Issa may or may not have been in Russian and Turkish prisons from which he may or may not have escaped. His exit route from Turkey in the hands of smugglers was circuitous and has resulted in his becoming as person of interest, if not wanted, by Swedish, Danish and German law enforcement.

Le Carre´s handling of the preliminaries is typical Le Carre, Issa appears to be mentally unbalanced. Annabel Richter, his lawyer, is idealistic and convinced she is better than her lawyer parents. Brue is an aging man with younger trophy wife and an estranged adult daughter from his first marriag. He is also haunted by the fact that his family bank is failing and that his father engaged in some shenanigans decades ago for the benefit of scoundrels from the Soviet Union, one of whom may have been Issa´s father.

Enter Gunther Bachmann, German intelligence operative. For reasons that never become crystal clear, Bachmann wants to entrap Issa and he uses Annabel and Brue to do it. As this plot line emerges, so does the vintage Le Carre.

The intelligence units fight with each other over turf, individuals maneuver for their own personal advantage, the moral issues are reduced to grays, rather than black and white.

Ultimately British intelligence becomes involved and then the US, whom Le Carre clearly despises.

All of this is tolerable if you appreciate Le Carre´s writing and plotting skills as I do.

Unfortunately, the story is not all that compelling and ultimately Le Carre has to bring it to an end.

And it is at that point that Le Carre turns to his anti-Americanism for a thoroughly unsatisfying conclusion. Unsatisfying, that is, if you find doctrinaire left-wing anti-Americanism tiresome.

So, "A Most Wanted Man" is typical Le Carre. Good writing. Good character development, with the usual bone-weary civil servants. A story that runs out of steam about half-way through and conludes with gratuitous anti-Americanism. Ultimately unsatisfying to me, but Le Carre undeniably writes well.

Jerry





¤

6) Hardcover Book A Most Wanted Man by Scribner. New spies with new loyalties, old spies with old ones; terror as the new mantra; decent people wanting to do good but caught in the moral maze; all the sound, rational reasons for doing the inhuman thing; the recognition that we cannot safely love or pity and remain good "patriots" -- this is the fabric of John le Carré´s fiercely compelling and current novel A Most Wanted Man.

A half-starved young Russian man in a long black overcoat is smuggled into Hamburg at dead of night. He has an improbable amount of cash secreted in a purse around his neck. He is a devout Muslim. Or is he? He says his name is Issa.

Annabel, an idealistic young German civil rights lawyer, determines to save Issa from deportation. Soon her client´s survival becomes more important to her than her own career -- or safety. In pursuit of Issa´s mysterious past, she confronts the incongruous Tommy Brue, the sixty-year-old scion of Brue Frères, a failing British bank based in Hamburg.

Annabel, Issa and Brue form an unlikely alliance -- and a triangle of impossible loves is born. Meanwhile, scenting a sure kill in the "War on Terror," the rival spies of Germany, England and America converge upon the innocents.

Thrilling, compassionate, peopled with characters the reader never wants to let go, A Most Wanted Man is a work of deep humanity and uncommon relevance to our times.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 8-Nov-2008, 14165948849781416594888, 520-770-940-150-261-841-8

A Most Wanted Man, Book, Image © Scribner

Search: Scribner, Book Posters, Book Art