Saturday is the beginning of the weekend, and what with the world being simply way to much for us to sort out at the end of five days in a financial House of Horrors, this is just the time to cuddle up with a good book.
And I’ve got a doozie: John Le Carre’s A Most Wanted Man
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I’m not much of a fan of the spy novel; but Le Carre’s newest gives us very specific characters, with dilemmas they create themselves as we hurtle through the story. There’s weird romance, hot war/cold war issues, trust, betrayal, a grown son left in a muddle by his father, who made a deal with a double-dealing Russian spy decades ago. Now the spy’s crazy, son-of-a-tribal mother, lurches into Hamburg (a breeding ground, you’ll remember, for suicidal terrorists).
I happen to be reading this one as an audio book, on my iPod… and I can’t wait to get back to it. It’s dark out now, and past the dog’s bed time, but I think I can seduce her into another walk – so I can hear another chapter in Le Carre’s warped world.
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I haven’t read nearly enough John Le Carre. This new one’s especially intriguing, because I think of LeCarre as a Cold War era writer. I’m particularly interested to see how he’s dealing with contemporary, updated political tensions.
Though my bedside table looks like the Leaning Tower of Good Intentions, I just may have to take my husband’s copy of A Most Wanted Man and put it on the very top of the pile. What a tantalizing taste of this book from Elizabeth!