A Look into our Future
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Absolute Friends by John le Carré
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another complex and typically ironic tale from John Le Carre. It's clearly a spy story with Ted Mundy and Sasha as two double agents working as a team from the time of the divided Berlin up until the second Iraq war but it's also subtly autobiographical. Le Carre resembles Ted in many ways - tall and gangly, fluent in German, worked in Germany, had a reprobate for a father, despised American imperialism, hated British colonialism, divorced Another complex and typically ironic tale from John Le Carre. It's clearly a spy story with Ted Mundy and Sasha as two double agents working as a team from the time of the divided Berlin up until the second Iraq war but it's also subtly autobiographical. Le Carre resembles Ted in many ways - tall and gangly, fluent in German, worked in Germany, had a reprobate for a father, despised American imperialism, hated British colonialism, divorced his wife and worked for British Intelligence.
Overarching the whole book however is Le Carre's utter contempt for the USA/UK's coalition of the willing to invade Iraq in 2003. He lambasts the lies and the fabrication of the truth, the publication of misleading documents and the creation of ultra secret fake files by the Ministry "wool-spinners" in the British Government. Mundy (Le Carre) in 2003 gives us a glimpse of our future where the increasing power and influence of American corporations and their thirst for social control and limitless expansion leads to uniform thought, learning and constant conflict - very 1984! It's a world where the word 'liberal' is a term of abuse and where conflicts are waged by contractors.
A word of warning though - it's a long book and one could argue too long but I love Le Carre's wordy prose with its often ironic declamations at the end.
Shawn Callon, author of The Simon Montfort Spy Series, wrote this review.
Absolute Friends
Absolute Friends by John le CarréMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another complex and typically ironic tale from John Le Carre. It's clearly a spy story with Ted Mundy and Sasha as two double agents working as a team from the time of the divided Berlin up until the second Iraq war but it's also subtly autobiographical. Le Carre resembles Ted in many ways - tall and gangly, fluent in German, worked in Germany, had a reprobate for a father, despised American imperialism, hated British colonialism, divorced Another complex and typically ironic tale from John Le Carre. It's clearly a spy story with Ted Mundy and Sasha as two double agents working as a team from the time of the divided Berlin up until the second Iraq war but it's also subtly autobiographical. Le Carre resembles Ted in many ways - tall and gangly, fluent in German, worked in Germany, had a reprobate for a father, despised American imperialism, hated British colonialism, divorced his wife and worked for British Intelligence.
Overarching the whole book however is Le Carre's utter contempt for the USA/UK's coalition of the willing to invade Iraq in 2003. He lambasts the lies and the fabrication of the truth, the publication of misleading documents and the creation of ultra secret fake files by the Ministry "wool-spinners" in the British Government. Mundy (Le Carre) in 2003 gives us a glimpse of our future where the increasing power and influence of American corporations and their thirst for social control and limitless expansion leads to uniform thought, learning and constant conflict - very 1984! It's a world where the word 'liberal' is a term of abuse and where conflicts are waged by contractors.
A word of warning though - it's a long book and one could argue too long but I love Le Carre's wordy prose with its often ironic declamations at the end.
Shawn Callon, author of The Simon Montfort Spy Series, wrote this review.
Absolute Friends
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