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Title: Our Game by John Le Carre ISBN: 0-345-40000-3 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 31 January, 1996 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.55 (29 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Post-Cold War spy thriller
Comment: This is not Le Carre's best book. If you haven't already read them, I suggest you read the Smiley trilogy which begins with "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" -- one of the great masterpieces of the last century in my humble opinion. "Our Game" by contrast is good -- not great.
One of the problems is that the characters aren't very appealing. Tim is an insufferable public-school Englishman about whose fate we care nil plus the square root of zero. Larry is a professor who's committment to the downtrodden of the world seems an ego trip, the female lead is an airheaded artist who doesn't seem to merit the sort of admiration she gets.
But the subject matter is interesting. Who ever heard of the Ingush people until Le Carre wrote about them? His portayal of them is superb: the downtrodden ethnic groups of the former Soviet Union asseting themselves brutally, stupidly, unsuccesfully, but with doomed courage and dedication. "Our Game" is kind of thin gruel compared to Le Carre's great cold war novels, but it's worth a read.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold: Post-USSR Version
Comment: I've read all of Le Carre's books and OUR GAME, while not the best of the bunch, ranks near the top.
Being the same age as Tim Cramner and having been "early retired" myself was a real attention grabber for me. It was extremely interesting to see how another "cold warrior" was handling his own post-cold war existence.
I was about a third into the book when I thought to check this site for comments - BAD IDEA! The BOOKLIST review TELLS THE ENTIRE STORY - Shame on it, AND Amazon.com for putting it on the site. Luckily, I caught myself before seeing too much. Hope other readers do too.
Le Carre's attention to detail is what MAKES his stories (for me at least) so gripping. So my only gripe abt OUR GAME is that he DOESN'T develop the EMMA character nearly enough to make me see why Cranmer is in love with her. Le Carre doesn't succeed much better with Larry. He too, remained relatively one-dimensional for me. Sure, spys are supposed to be "shadowy", but I still had a tough time trying to see what it was about him that so intrigued Emma. (I know, she's fm Venus and us Martians won't ever understand.)
But as I said at the top, Tim C is the character I was MOST interested in, and Le Carre's "first person" narrative kept me reading way past my bedtime. I found myself specifically scheduling the final chapter for a time when I could read it line by line, covering what was coming with paper.
For someone new to Le Carre, however, I'd recommend "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" first. It is STILL the best spy book ever written; and the movie with Richard Burton is also still the best of its genre.
Rating: 3
Summary: He has done much better...
Comment: I must have been out of sorts when I read this because I usually adore a Le Carre read and this time, I didn't. I just didn't give a darn about the main character, who was so completely unsympathetic that I kept wishing that something really dire would happen to him so we could get to someone more interesting. And I really didn't like the whining about the lost girlfriend who left with the braver, more charismatic friend. I just didn't care... For Le Carre at his recent best, better try "The Constant Gardener".
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Title: Night Manager by John Le Carre ISBN: 0345385764 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Absolute Friends by John le Carre ISBN: 0316000647 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 12 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Secret Pilgrim by John Le Carre ISBN: 0345374762 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 13 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Tailor of Panama by John Le Carre ISBN: 0345420438 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 30 July, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Constant Gardener by John le Carre ISBN: 0743422910 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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