Saturday, December 1, 2012

A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carré


I guess the library restocked this, and put it on the “new books” shelf because there is a movie adaptation being filmed as I type.  I am happy all this occurred.  The book came out in 2008 and I was wrapped up that time almost exclusively with the radio station, KGGV. 

Le Carré is one of my favorites; my taste for him taken to an extreme when I found myself working in England for close to a decade.  Now it is nostalgia for me, those OxBridge men with their funny quirks who populate the management of British corporations and other positions of power. 

For a lover of Carré, this is an exquisite book, a spell-binding read that will make a great movie.  The author is aging, as I am.  The author pulls into the story lots of characters, and scenes that have been his trademark stable of ideas over half a century of writing.  There are bits of stories retold, like the Russia House escape from the inescapable grasp of the spook community; the interview methodology of George Smiley along with his deeply thought out strategies to entrap his enemies.  As always the spies are conflicted: conflicting with other spies, some home team, some visitors. 

Le Carré is a masterful story-teller.  The best.  This tale is riveting.  It’s freshly updated with Chechens, Turks, and Arabs, but with generational back-looks to Russians, Germans, and Brits.  Interestingly, the Americans are still a powerful force, but only introduced at the last minute, despised by all, and really not that relevant to the entire story other than as an ultimate bad guy to take on a lot of the blame for a situation gone wrong.

The characterizations are compelling.  I’m sorry that the BBC didn’t get the rights to do this film.  “Tinker Tailor” and “Smiley’s People” each were 6-hour adaptations of Le Carré’s works and show-cased the author’s ability at personality characterization.  That will be missing in the American movie.  Culture and ethnicity are such important factors in these sorts of novel’s dramatizations.  American film-makers tend to blend all foreigners into the “all Asians look alike to me” mindset.  In the smallish world of the EuroZone, French, Italian, Greek, and German national and cultural traits are extremely important and subtly recognized by other members of the European community. 

Because of the thoughtful interweaving of old plotlines with new, older generation characters with younger ones, I think this story will survive as one of Le Carré’s best.  It captures the hint of what our elders told us was the evil, bad old days of the cold war, with the reality of today’s jihad.

A captivating read – 10 out of 10 for this, still interesting author.