| A Most Wanted Man | 
 enlarge | Author: John Le Carre
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  109 reviews
Sales Rank: 159
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 1416594884
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781416594888
ASIN: 1416594884
Publication Date: October 7, 2008
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Product Description
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 Carre'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 Freres, 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 104 more reviews...
Taut and concise characters and story December 1, 2008
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I woke up and dug right into John Le Carre's latest: A Most Wanted Man. Wonderful, taunt, without "Bourne Conspiracy" chases, but with plenty of tension. I was forced to stop at page 272 of a 322-page book in order to prepare for my return from vacation. The forced stop allowed me time to realize that Le Carre's prose is never overblown but is always precisely descriptive. Some writers, as they age, go on and on, making the books fatter and fatter. This book has embraced a difficult and layered situation and emerged as a novel that is under 400 pages.
Yes, like some of Le Carre's recent books, the Americans come off as the bad guys. I would be disturbed if it were not for the fact that we have been the new Imperialists lately--and not very good imperialists at that. In Le Carre's novels, the old world is immoral and conflicted, but the new world is immoral and frightening sure of themselves. I would still recommend the book. Perhaps we can convince James Sallis or another American writer to give us a nuanced view of the American spy world. As it is, this book describes people forced to choose between several bad choices. They are human; they are us.
Death Will Have Your Eyes: A Novel About Spies
 A word about the ending (with spoilers) . . . December 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
At its very end A Most Wanted Man may not be written carefully enough to remain convincing, once it has arrived at the inner world and motivations of 'Newt,' the devil-bearded C.I.A. operative who is on the scene outside the bank to explain to Bachmann the decision to seize (and 'render,' and torture) Dr. Abdullah and Issa Karpov. What makes the problem worse is that absolutely everything leading up to Newt's monologue is fantastic--right down to having the kidnapping van crash into Bachmann's 'taxi' in the middle of a paragraph, instead of at the start of one. You can hear and see the collision, and the lights. (Just as you could hear and see the lights and gunfire on the wall at the end of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.)
I find the 'anti-Americanism' that other reviewers here complain of to be a false scent. Le Carre is anti-everything, pretty nearly, insofar as it involves a national identity, and he's certainly against any large, self-serving and secretive organization. That's in no way a problem for the novel, but a source of its strength. Barely contained outrage is Le Carre's plotting engine, in everything that he writes (even in The Tailor of Panama, which I think at its heart badly wanted to become something as close to pure comedy as Le Carre has ever written).
I find most of the human relationships in the book, including the ones that don't come off, completely convincing. No one working this terrain has ever described the besotted but well-meaning male brain, moment by moment, unbidden thought by thought, smile by sudden, flooding smile, so well as Le Carre does with Brue (his alter ego, and this novel's version of Barley Blair from The Russia House).
No--the only unworkable thing is the dialogue and set of thoughts that are given to the C.I.A. man at the end, when all is revealed. These revelations come off as tin-eared, and suggest that Le Carre might have done well simply to take a few weeks to listen to American voices, both for tone and content, as they talk about such things, before signing off on this last section. It may have been written in a rush.
For 'Newt' is made to say a lot, and a lot of what he says tends to spoil the reader's suspension of disbelief. There are problems at the technical level. In quick succession 'Newt' says, for example, both "Eye for a f--ing eye, Guenther," and a strangely British "Eh?" Profanity is a substitute for thought in most living conversation, and Le Carre puts it into the mouths of characters like Newt as an easy substitute, I think, for his own, novelist's thought--the difficult, sometimes morally disorienting work of inhabiting and giving voice to each of his characters' worlds.
In his best novels, Le Carre can show clearly how hard it is to have faith in any 'side.' Yet here it's impossible to be confused, for so much as a chapter, about where one's sympathies are to lie. Every word makes it clear that we should identify wholly with the radiant heroine, and with the feelings she inspires in everyone around her.
But these are quibbles. I would agree with the '95 percent good' assessment above: A Most Wanted Man is a terrific book, with an almost unbearably tense and suspenseful conclusion. Its understory is lovely: the improbable hope of somehow turning pure after a lifetime of impurity, like a Lipizzaner lightening as it ages. And I can't wait to see where the vein of subject matter that he has tapped here is going to lead its author.
 Hardly his best November 30, 2008
Well-written in most places, but...
The characters (especially the Americans) are cardboard cutouts, the plot plods along toward an all-too-predictable ending which you can see coming from miles away, and it has been done before - by le Carre himself in The Honourable Schoolboy. Sad to see a master stylist in decline.
Le Carre Misses The Cold War November 29, 2008
Unfortunately, John Le Carre has as many problems with modern asymmetrical warfare as do European and American intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Thankfully, his problems are limited to the literary world. There is much missing from Le Carre's classic Cold War novels. He is also up against a very formidable spy novel standard; his own, established in his previous novels.
A young abused Chechen immigrant named Issa Karpov arrives illegally in Hamburg. He has traveled to Hamburg from a Turkish prison through Sweden with the objective of obtaining an inheritance which he wishes to donate to Muslim charitable causes. He is at first housed by Melik and Leyla Otay, legal Turkish expatriates living in Hamburg. Issa eventually is represented by Annabelle Richter, an idealistic lawyer working for a German organization dedicated to helping illegals.
Issa's inheritance is located at Tommy Brue's private bank in a special account. Annabelle represents Issa in his approach to Brue. Issa's illegal entry into Hamburg, however, has not gone unnoticed by German authorities. Issa is suspected of being a terrorist or a tool of them. One of Germany's best intelligence operatives, Gunther Bachman, has plans to use Issa to gather intelligence about unnamed Muslim terrorist fronts masquerading as Muslim charitable organizations in Germany. This involves Issa's decision to use a local, well-respected Muslim imam to disperse the funds to appropriate charities.
Tommy Brue and Annabelle Richter are happy to help Issa claim his inheritance for different reasons. This sets the scene for the inevitable clash between spy and law enforcement agencies after they learn of Issa's charitable intentions. Should arrests be made immediately or should certain people be run as agents in order to gain information on higher-ups?
Two of Le Carre's strengths that set him apart from other spy novelists are missing here. First, there is not enough description of the city of Hamburg, the ambience of the private bank which Tommy Brue owns, the headquarters of the intelligence services or anything else. In past Le Carre novel's description is all-important in setting the mood and tone. The lack of it in this novel detracts from the story.
The second element missing is the depth of characterization that would provide the reader an insight or clue to their eventual actions. This failure also deprives the reader of the ability to empathize with any of them. This may be due to the unnecessary plethora of characters introduced in this story unlike Le Carre's other novels which focus on a few people, in depth. Read "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" in comparison.
The most obvious example of weak characterization is the American spies. In past Le Carre novels CIA agents were portrayed as overstaffed and overly obsessed with gadgetry in any intelligence operation. This was a credible criticism of the CIA's overreliance on technology at the expense of running live agents. However, in "A Most Wanted Man" the Americans are incredibly conceived caricatures; evil, foaming-at-the-mouth amateurs and thugs as fanatically ideological as any terrorist.
Le Carre's lack of knowledge of Muslim countries and culture are marked when compared with his knowledge of the old Soviet Union. Like the Americans the Muslim imam is portrayed without much depth and the treatment of Islam and the tenets of Muslim charity are superficial at best. Melik and Leyla Otay go to Turkey for a wedding and never reappear even though a number of chapters are used to develop their relationship with Issa. It is curious why Le Carre even introduced Melik and Leyla.
The secret bank account which Tommy Brue inherited from his father at their private bank is a good vehicle to bring the various characters and agents to the same place at the same time in order to end the story. The ending, however, is neither remarkable nor exciting.
I want to like this book but November 27, 2008
John Le Carre was the true master of the Cold War spy novel. Beginning with The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, and contining thorough the Smiley novels, Le Carre has been synonymous with the inner spy, the brooding, betrayed spook who is both entrepreneurial and bureaucratic as the dangerous game is played out.
For years I have wondered, who is the new Le Carre? Sadly, it is not Le Carre.It is not for want of talent or imagination, because this book displays his prodigious talent. It is just not very interesting. I do not think modern day terrorists and their chasers are within Le Carre's world. It is something editors and publishers want, and to some extent the author himself may want, but it does not work on the level we expect.
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