Scan barcode
A review by etinney
The Constant Gardener by John le Carré
3.0
2.5 out of 5 stars
This took me a very long time to read mostly because of school. However, the pacing of this novel did not help.
I picked up this book because we had watched the movie in a cinema studies course. While the premise was interesting, and political thrillers are a subject that I enjoy, this novel just did not interest me. I felt it was entirely too long with seemingly pointless dialogue that dragged the story. There were too many characters, and I was not interested in most of them. There were only a few likable characters, so I was only really interesting when reading from Justin or Ghita's POV. I really enjoyed reading about Justin's investigation into the pharmaceutical company, but all of the diplomacy plots, especially those staring Sandy, were infuriatingly boring. Gloria was a very weak female character, so her point of view was frustrating as well.
Overall, Le Carre did a great job exploring the issue of the abuse of poor nations for research, but the story was bogged down by its length.
This took me a very long time to read mostly because of school. However, the pacing of this novel did not help.
I picked up this book because we had watched the movie in a cinema studies course. While the premise was interesting, and political thrillers are a subject that I enjoy, this novel just did not interest me. I felt it was entirely too long with seemingly pointless dialogue that dragged the story. There were too many characters, and I was not interested in most of them. There were only a few likable characters, so I was only really interesting when reading from Justin or Ghita's POV. I really enjoyed reading about Justin's investigation into the pharmaceutical company, but all of the diplomacy plots, especially those staring Sandy, were infuriatingly boring. Gloria was a very weak female character, so her point of view was frustrating as well.
Overall, Le Carre did a great job exploring the issue of the abuse of poor nations for research, but the story was bogged down by its length.