John Le Carre wrote a book for us. And he is mad as hell.

[MissMarple]

At 72 John Le Carre is a master of the literary thriller and he's mad as hell....at George and his corporate cowboys. Time magazine has a lovely book review of "Absolute Friends".



http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040112-570215,00.html

[starroute]

1. It will be real interesting to see how the book does in the US

Time's reviewer was obviously torn between being impressed by the book and being afraid of pissing off the American readership they feel obliged to assume will be offended by it. I'll be interested to see what the actual reaction in this country turns out to be.

[ewagner]

2. Hoooraaaayyyy!

LeCarre' has always been one of my favorites. I've always sort of modeled myself on John Smiley, one of my favorite characters in all literature.

His book, the Little Drummer Girl remains the definitive (albeit depressing) novel between Israel and Palestine. From my chair at the computer, I can see on my bookshelf, Our Game, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Perfect Spy, The Tailor of Panama, Smiley's People, and A Call for the Dead. This man understands global politics as well or better than any author I can think of. Thank God he has chosen to speak out through his artful literature.

Strangely enough, I was just thinking about the closing scene in the book, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold . As the hero lies dying, he sees an image of two school busses rushing toward each other on a collision course, and the children inside are waving and cheering. It was an appropriate image for the cold war and it's just as appropriate today. The Muslim and Christian worlds are on a collision course, and we, the children are cheering on the collision.

[truth2power]

6. One of his recent novels,

"The Constant Gardener" is a must-read. It's about the dark side of the pharmaceutical industry.

[ewagner]

7. Thanks

Somehow I think I missed that one..............

[reprehensor]

3. The United States Has Gone Mad

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0115-01.htm

His brilliant article from Jan, 2003.

[CJCRANE]

9. Excellent article, sums up the Iraq War eom

.

[burythehatchet]

10. that a fantastic piece of work

I missed it...thanks

[MoonAndSun]

4. If he is afraid of losing some of his fan base here in the US because of

this book, I don't think he needs to worry. The "bush*-haters" will more then make up for it. I for one have never purchased a le Carre book, but I will now because of this article in Time. And I'm sure I will not be the only first time reader of his to do this.


edited to correct spelling of le Carre, see... I didn't even know how to spell his name!! LOL

[ewagner]

5. You'll enjoy it, I'm sure

His characters are very deep and terribly human.

[GCP]

8. You may need to wet your toes gradually

by reading one of his earlier works, such as "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy".

I love his writing, but it's elliptical, he goes backward and forward in time, (especially in his later stuff), and it can be confusing if you're not used to it.

But he's a great writer, and he should be more honored. I'll be reading this new one when it comes out in paperback.