false 19000 61 British diplomat Justin Quayle, complacent raiser of freesias and doting husband of the stunning, much younger Tessa, has tended his own garden in Nairobi too long. Tessa is Justin's opposite, a fiery reformer, "that rarest thing, a lawyer who believes in justice," whose campaigns have earned her a nickname: "the Princess Diana of the African poor." But now Tessa has turned up naked, raped, and dead on a mysterious visit to remote Lake Turkana in Kenya. Her traveling companion (and lover?), the handsome Congolese-Belgian doctor Arnold Bluhm, has vanished. So has Quayle's complacency. <p> Tessa had been compiling data against a multinational drug company that uses helpless Africans as guinea pigs to test a tuberculosis remedy with unfortunately fatal side effects. Her report was destroyed by her husband's superiors; was she? It's all somehow connected to the sinister British firm House of ThreeBees, whose ad boasts that it's "buzzy for the health of Africa!" John le Carré symbolically associates ThreeBees with an ominous buzz in the Nairobi morgue: "Over [the corpses], in a swaying, muddy mist, hung the flies, snoring on a single note."<p> The home office tries to take Quayle in out of the cold. He cleverly eludes their clammy embrace, turns spy, and takes off on a global chase to avenge Tessa and solve her murder. Le Carré has lost none of his gift for setting vivid scenes in far-flung places expertly described: London, Germany, Saskatchewan, Kenya. His sprinting thriller prose remains in great shape. And thanks to his 16 years in the British Foreign Office, his merciless send-up of its cutthroat intrigues and petty self-delusions is unbelievably good--or rather, believably so. This is global do-gooder satire on a literary par with Doris Lessing's <I>The Summer Before the Dark</I>.<p> But you want to know if <I>The Constant Gardener</I> is as good as <I>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy</I>. Very nearly. Africa's nightmare is more complex than the cold war chess match, and the world pharmaceutical circus is tougher to dramatize than the old spy-versus-spy-versus-spymaster game. Still, le Carré can write a smart, melancholy page-turner, and his moral outrage (the real subject of his books) burns as brightly as ever. <I>--Tim Appelo</I> 1442776 book 2000 The Constant Gardener total:2015|5:421|4:806|3:559|2:163|1:66| 2015 7398 2760 260 2 1 false false Wed Jan 14 01:24:23 -0800 2009 Sun Dec 21 08:46:24 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 14 01:24:23 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Mar 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Feb 10 15:44:26 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 11 19:51:36 -0700 2009
I think Le Carre has made the transition from Cold War spy novels to contemporary issue thrillers quite handsomely. In this book, he really goes after the pharmaceutical companies, accus...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jan 25 04:10:44 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 04:26:15 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jul 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 12 21:15:05 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 16 22:44:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri Feb 08 18:48:37 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 23 19:07:59 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue May 22 23:24:20 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 17 21:33:26 -0700 2007
For the most part, the book had a lot of suspense and ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Jan 15 15:14:35 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 15 15:14:54 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jul 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 07:58:21 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 09:04:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Sep 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 09:43:57 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 18:23:24 -0700 2009 The Constant Gardener got off to a slow start, it turned out to be a well-written mystery/spy story. It would make a good book club book. If it were a movie, I would give it a PG-13 rating since there is some strong language and sexuality.

The main story revolves around the Bri...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 30 05:26:43 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 14 06:25:32 -0700 2009 http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4579...

This novel was somewhat spoilt for me by the fact that I already seen the film. A mistake as I much prefer not to have any preconceived ideas about the plot, characters and settings, letting my imagination have free rein.
This is probably ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed May 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 06:41:58 -0700 2009 Sun May 31 09:28:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Apr 16 08:55:59 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 09:14:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Dec 04 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 17 06:57:13 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 04 07:49:01 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 08 13:49:44 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 13:58:37 -0800 2009
"The Constant Gardener" is a fast-moving, intriguing look at the problems of Big Pharma, government corruption and collusion, and personal gre...more...]]> 1 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 16 11:03:59 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 16 11:06:49 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 04 23:07:15 -0700 2009 Mon May 04 23:14:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 20:40:33 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 20:43:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2001 Sun Jul 26 19:07:16 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 19:08:57 -0700 2009
Having enjoyed every one of LeCarre's previous novels, I was left unprepared for the disappointment of this one. In The Constant Gardener, Le Carre at last has found the courage to stand up for a cause. How satisfying for him personally, but how stultifying for his art. Ch...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Mar 22 21:36:45 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 21:42:19 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Aug 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 07:56:31 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 14:24:15 -0700 2009 more...]]>