nnewbykew's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
mayoroffailure's review against another edition
5.0
The advent of 24-hour cable news networks after 9/11 marked themselves as a major step forward in the news gathering world. These networks were primarily invented for events like 9/11, so that the American people would be able to get the breaking news for major events almost instantly. These networks also created a new society where the demand for information and instant gratification increased to an all time high.
Gone were the days where the military could take its time with operations, gone were the days where the government could carefully plan to release a piece of information, and gone was the old world we had before 9/11. Back in World War II and the Cold War government intelligence operations had time with which to develop resources, they had time to make headway in operations and they had time to get solid intelligence they could use in their fight against the Nazi's, the Japanese, and the Russians.
But not only did the society change but the war did as well, in a post 9/11 world you could no longer measure your victory by inches of territory taken, you could no longer figure out how many tanks, troops, ammunition, and weapons your enemy had. At the beginning of Vietnam and forward war effectively became a counting contest. How many have we killed? How many have they killed? How many have we arrested? How many have spilled information after interrogation? And all those questions rolled across the ticker tape on those 24-hour news networks.
We no longer have time to develop resources and make lengthy operations, in a world with a society locked to Fox and CNN they want answers now, they want results now, and they want to know how we are doing now. So our intelligence communities resorted to making arrests, find the bad guy and lock him away; You may not get any major intelligence out of him and it may have made more sense to make him defect and use him to feed you information from the inside but at least the people at home are happy.
In a world that demands instant results that's what you get, a whole lot takedowns and arrests that barely move us forward. That is exactly what A Most Wanted Man is about, that concept of old school intelligence vs. new world order intelligence. When a half starved escaped Chechen turns up in Hamburg it's up to Gunther Bachmann and his team of spies to figure out why he's there and what he plans to do. Gunther wants to use the Chechen to rope in bigger targets and use the bigger targets to rope in even larger ones.
It takes a minnow to catch a barracuda and a barracuda to catch a shark
But his superiors and the American and British intelligence services don't want a long game, they want the results of a short game and this book depicts a struggle like that in a miraculous way. I've now read three of Mr. Le Carre's novels and all three of them have a different and unique voice, an accolade that doesn't belong to many authors. The writing in this one is an improvement over Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, in that novel the writing would go on for too long, often ruining the middle of a conversation. In A Most Wanted Man there is just the right contrast of writing and dialogue to form a perfect medium, and very quickly I found it extremely difficult to put the novel down.
All of the characters are really well put together and all have the backstory and dialogue necessary to make them feel real. In particular the character of Gunther Bachmann is great, I cant really put my finger on it up his character is so well done that above all else I loved his chapters the most. My love for that character also leads to the one and only complaint that I have about the novel, there isn't enough Gunther Bachmann for the first two thirds of the novel. I definitely understand why Mr. Le Carre wrote the way he did, the novel was more about the Chechen and the people surrounding him but I always found myself looking forward to Bachmann's chapters more than I did the others. I would have ended up giving the novel four stars but by the last two thirds Gunther was much more present which retained my enjoyment to give it five.
A Most Wanted Man isn't just about the story told, its about the clash between old world ideas and new world ideas, its a clash of the old and the new as it relates to the US's interaction with other countries. It provides a critique on how the US and England interact with other countries and how we do assert ourselves in ways that we probably shouldn't. It's a fantastic critique on that very idea and it brings forth a conversation that needs to happen before it's too late. There is more that this book says about post 9/11 ideals in it's end than I can ever say in a review, and if you do read this book for any reason, it's ending is an incredible one.
Gone were the days where the military could take its time with operations, gone were the days where the government could carefully plan to release a piece of information, and gone was the old world we had before 9/11. Back in World War II and the Cold War government intelligence operations had time with which to develop resources, they had time to make headway in operations and they had time to get solid intelligence they could use in their fight against the Nazi's, the Japanese, and the Russians.
But not only did the society change but the war did as well, in a post 9/11 world you could no longer measure your victory by inches of territory taken, you could no longer figure out how many tanks, troops, ammunition, and weapons your enemy had. At the beginning of Vietnam and forward war effectively became a counting contest. How many have we killed? How many have they killed? How many have we arrested? How many have spilled information after interrogation? And all those questions rolled across the ticker tape on those 24-hour news networks.
We no longer have time to develop resources and make lengthy operations, in a world with a society locked to Fox and CNN they want answers now, they want results now, and they want to know how we are doing now. So our intelligence communities resorted to making arrests, find the bad guy and lock him away; You may not get any major intelligence out of him and it may have made more sense to make him defect and use him to feed you information from the inside but at least the people at home are happy.
In a world that demands instant results that's what you get, a whole lot takedowns and arrests that barely move us forward. That is exactly what A Most Wanted Man is about, that concept of old school intelligence vs. new world order intelligence. When a half starved escaped Chechen turns up in Hamburg it's up to Gunther Bachmann and his team of spies to figure out why he's there and what he plans to do. Gunther wants to use the Chechen to rope in bigger targets and use the bigger targets to rope in even larger ones.
It takes a minnow to catch a barracuda and a barracuda to catch a shark
But his superiors and the American and British intelligence services don't want a long game, they want the results of a short game and this book depicts a struggle like that in a miraculous way. I've now read three of Mr. Le Carre's novels and all three of them have a different and unique voice, an accolade that doesn't belong to many authors. The writing in this one is an improvement over Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, in that novel the writing would go on for too long, often ruining the middle of a conversation. In A Most Wanted Man there is just the right contrast of writing and dialogue to form a perfect medium, and very quickly I found it extremely difficult to put the novel down.
All of the characters are really well put together and all have the backstory and dialogue necessary to make them feel real. In particular the character of Gunther Bachmann is great, I cant really put my finger on it up his character is so well done that above all else I loved his chapters the most. My love for that character also leads to the one and only complaint that I have about the novel, there isn't enough Gunther Bachmann for the first two thirds of the novel. I definitely understand why Mr. Le Carre wrote the way he did, the novel was more about the Chechen and the people surrounding him but I always found myself looking forward to Bachmann's chapters more than I did the others. I would have ended up giving the novel four stars but by the last two thirds Gunther was much more present which retained my enjoyment to give it five.
A Most Wanted Man isn't just about the story told, its about the clash between old world ideas and new world ideas, its a clash of the old and the new as it relates to the US's interaction with other countries. It provides a critique on how the US and England interact with other countries and how we do assert ourselves in ways that we probably shouldn't. It's a fantastic critique on that very idea and it brings forth a conversation that needs to happen before it's too late. There is more that this book says about post 9/11 ideals in it's end than I can ever say in a review, and if you do read this book for any reason, it's ending is an incredible one.
charleslambert's review against another edition
2.0
This was a disappointment. Le Carré's anger with certain aspects of the world - an anger I share - seems to have made his work predictable and didactic. This was evident in [b:The Mission Song|18988|The Mission Song A Novel|John le Carré|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167175744s/18988.jpg|3310], and it's all too evident in this one as well.
srreid's review against another edition
1.0
Actually abandoned rather than finished. One of the few times I give up on a book by the 100 page mark. Nothing holding my interest by then so not subjecting myself to any more. One of the most dreary books I've ever attempted.
alexkerner's review against another edition
3.0
So the ending was great, with the pace of the concluding chapters really creating a riveting conclusion. Also made me hate the intelligence community more than before (although that wasn't really that difficult to do). My criticism of this novel though, is that the narrative structure is way to messy at points. Le Carre's style makes us spend significant effort figuring out what is going on, unnecessarily so. I enjoy complex plots but there should be a point to when an author decides to construct the story in such a way and here it seemed to be for the sake of doing so rather than for mudding the waters of a surprise ending.
ronald_schoedel's review against another edition
3.0
Not a bad story, but the ending was so predictable as to make me think “wait, that can’t REALLY be it!” It was. (I will submit that the ending was probably quite realistic, though.)
phinas's review against another edition
1.0
I really can't give a fair review of this book, simply because I don't care for the author. This is the second book by this author I have attempted and the first one I have finished. A friend helped me to realize that I don't care for the author's character development. However, that must only apply to me considering he is a bestselling author whose books have been made into movies.
rjtifft's review
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
alexkerner's review against another edition
3.0
So the ending was great, with the pace of the concluding chapters really creating a riveting conclusion. Also made me hate the intelligence community more than before (although that wasn't really that difficult to do). My criticism of this novel though, is that the narrative structure is way to messy at points. Le Carre's style makes us spend significant effort figuring out what is going on, unnecessarily so. I enjoy complex plots but there should be a point to when an author decides to construct the story in such a way and here it seemed to be for the sake of doing so rather than for mudding the waters of a surprise ending.