Tinker Tailoring with Le Carre's usual style?

Advantages: Good, solid crime fiction
Disadvantages: Not along the lines of Le Carre's spy thrillers - may disappoint some

...Introduction If you're expecting something along the lines of a spy thriller such as 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' or 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold', then this book may not be for you. This book, although still involving George Smiley, is much more of a murder mystery. I've seen other reviews likening it to Agatha Christie - unfair, I think, because Le Carre's own style is unmistakeable - but it is certainly of that genre. If you like well-written crime fiction, however, you will like this. I was certainly pleasantly surprised. The author John Le Carre, real name David John Moore Cornwell, was educated in Berne and Oxford, before teaching at Eton. He then worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Europe before embarking on his literary career. He is most famous for his spy thrillers. In all, he has written 19 books...

sunmeilan 24.08.2005 · Read review
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Review of A Murder of Quality - John Le Carre

Carre on writing, John

Advantages: Great plot, Lead character you can empathise with, Well written
Disadvantages: Boring title!

...Spy books and spy films are generally very different things. Of course, you probably already knew that, but for some reason I didn't and I began to plough my way through another le Carre novel (The Russia House) and realised that the "gritty realism" in a spy book is often a lot less interesting than the "thrilling fantacism" of some of the films. So why I chose to read another le Carre novel I'll never know. However, I'm glad I did, as Single & Single, despite its rather dull title (hey, you wouldn't be reading this op if you didn't forgive that dreadful pun I made up for its title) is damn good. It has all the bearings of a le Carre novel in its spy mixed with subtle romance way, and of course the great writing style of the author, but it has something which sets it apart from his other work. The plot (without the spoilage) is...

Pleb 04.09.2001 · Read review
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Review of Single & Single - John Le Carre

Recommended? Absolutely

Advantages: Great characterisation and writing
Disadvantages: Style may not be to everyone's taste

..."Absolutely," says Ted Mundy, often, using that typically middle-class phrase of the mid 20th century. But only a part of his background - he was educated at an English public school - conforms to this stereotype. The rest of him has been formed by a wide variety of environments and influences which combine to make him a perfect spy. Readers of John Le Carré will recognise that last phrase, the title of one of his previous novels. When the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War was declared over, many book reviewers lamented that this also spelled the end of the spy story. Not so. It is alive, well and thriving in the master's hands; partly because Le Carré has always written novels which happen to be about spies, rather than spy stories, and partly because, well, there are always new enemies against whom the dark arts of espionage can be...

Chouchinciao 02.10.2007 · Read review
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Review of Absolute Friends - John le Carre

German Ghosts

Advantages: good story, well researched, atmospheric
Disadvantages: present tense, strange ending

...I've known the famous author of spy-thrillers John le Carré (né David John Moore) for many years, in the 1960s I saw the film The Spy Who Came in From the Cold made after the book with the same title, I read A Small Town in Germany in the 1970s and Russia House in the early 1990s; I found the film and the books thrilling, why didn't I read more of his 24 books? I've realised that I'm too simple-minded for the genre, I often have to read an ending more than once until I get the pivotal twist and that can be frustrating. When I read a review about Absolute Friends (2003), I thought I could give it a go, what intrigued me was that the story is set in Germany, for me it's an extra pleasure to find out how an author describes a country I know well, what they find worth mentioning, if they've done their homework and have got everything...

MALU 01.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Absolute Friends - John le Carre

Le Samourai

Advantages: Great Film
Disadvantages: Viewing Aspect ratio is Low

...Le Samourai There is a small bird in a cage in a dull looking apartment room, a man wearing a trench coat and a felt hat, and he goes out of the room and adjusts his hat. Jeff Costello (Alain Delone) then jumps into a car, with a set of master keys. He starts the car, and smokes a cigarette. Eventually he finds the right key by good luck and drives off. He then meets a criminal mechanic. The mechanic gives Jeff some cash, later goes to his pocket and gives him a gun. Here during this scene not a word is spoken. This film is low on dialogue though maintains a great sense of direction, pace and focus throughout. The suspense of each scene and the plot is amazing to watch. He then goes to a flat and meets a young woman who is named Jane (Anthoine Delone). She is a woman who is there to provide an alibi for Jeff. It does not...

costas1234 20.06.2008 (29.05.2009) · Read review
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Review of Le Samourai DVD

A Perfect Murder Story

Advantages: Witty, atmospheric and great plot.
Disadvantages: Set in public school.

...and worthy history, Smiley is at first disinclined to believe Stella Rode's claim. But by the time he calls Mr Fielding, a schoolmaster who happens to be the brother of a friend of his from his army days, she is already dead. From the start of teh investigation, it emerges that she was not popular with the other masters wives, despite being a faithful Chapel goer with a reputation for doing 'good works' in the town. This was only the second of Le Carre's novels, and the immediate precedessor to his best known work, 'The Spy Who Came In From the Cold'. It establishes Smiley as a rounded person, exploring his life in retirement, outside the intelligence world. His detection, he claims, is merely 'a little diversion in his retirement'. Now divorced from Anne, he is forced to confront his past nonetheless, when he returns to Carne, which...

aspebbles 06.09.2008 (07.09.2008) · Read review
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Review of A Murder of Quality - John Le Carre

Alan Carr, what a star ***

Advantages: Great front cover, hysterically funny
Disadvantages: Some parts seemed a little too rushed

...''Alan is the spiritual son of Frankie Howerd''. (Quote from City Life) I think that says it all?. With big thanks to my boyfriends sister I am now the very proud owner of Alan Carr's 'Look who it is' book. It is immediately going to be added to my vast collection of autobiographies and I shall make certain that it gets the hot spot where the morning sun can warm its fringe, it deserves a shrine! I am not exaggerating when I say it is the most hysterically funny autobiography I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Initially I thought Peter Kay's was amusing but this beats it by a mile. The front cover is an instant attraction. Alan has portrayed himself to be at a seaside resort and he has been photographed with his face on a little man with huge muscles lifting weights. Is he trying to convince us that he has little muscles...

christinat 10.01.2009 · Read review
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Review of Look Who it Is!: My Story - Alan Carr

...But is there honey still for tea?

Advantages: masterful story-telling, an important education
Disadvantages: (only quibbling ones)

...the call. Tessa Quayle, "embassy wife" of the kind that doesn't understand the meaning of the phrase, has been killed. It is quickly established that she and a friend - an African doctor - had played hooky from the conference they were allegedly attending and driven out into the wilds, equally allegedly to visit 'the Leakey site' and had been waylaid en route. Tessa and the driver are brutally dead. The doctor is missing. Thus is the scene set for a combination of the traditional Anglo-African adventure story with the equally traditional English murder mystery. A combination that Le Carré judges to perfection. The plot twists and turns and takes our cosseted civil servants from their cosy privileged (post?)colonial world into the darker alleys of Europe and beyond. Beyond the combination. This is not just an adventure story...

hiker 13.10.2006 · Read review
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Review of The Constant Gardener - John Le Carre

Alan Carr At His Best!

Advantages: Exactly what you'd expect from this comedien
Disadvantages: Wanted to hear more about Friday Night Project...but I'm sure that'll be in the sequel!

...Alan Carr is certainly one of those celebrities that you really do either love or hate. With such a strong sense of 'campness' and individuality, he either makes people cringe and turn the channel or roll off their chair laughing. Me, I am hooked. If Alan Carr is on the telly, I'm watching. His campness and ability to 'take the mick' out of himself is real, honest and, in my opinion, hysterical. In his autobiography, "Look Who It Is!", Carr catches the attention of his fans from the book cover. In memory of his childhood holidays at the beach, the comedian opts for a book sleeve that's guaranteed to entertain- a cartoon drawing of a weight lifter with his own cheesy grin peeping through insert-head-here hole. It's eye-catching to say the least! As with every autobiography, Alan Carr begins by talking of his childhood, one that was not...

chellbian 20.04.2009 · Read review
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Review of Look Who it Is!: My Story - Alan Carr

le cercle rouge

Advantages: Read Opp
Disadvantages: Read Opp

...le cercle rouge Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, this film is similar to his previous film Le Samourai, in that there are good guys and bad, and there are the cops and robbers. The translation of the title meaning the Red Circle was based upon a Buddhist motto about those people who are destined to meet, eventually will. In this film the types of scenes included are an escaping prisoner, murder scene, police man-hunt, mob battles and an armed robbery to steal diamonds. The film starts off showing a German named train running through I would guess Paris. Though scene by scene the actors performances and directions really smartly executed and cool to watch. Corey, who has just been released from prison on good behaviour notice from the police, is given a job to do by a Prison Guard. Inspector Bourvil is escorting...

costas1234 28.06.2008 (31.05.2009) · Read review
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Review of Le Cercle Rouge (DVD)