Am I happy that the ever reculsive British author John Le Carre has put out another novel? Certainly. Am I ecstatic that it is in defiance of the bloodbath our country is currently engaged in (the Iraq War)? Definitely. My political views really aren't the point though. The point is that Carre has written another of his spy novels about another schlubby spy being forced into a world of the unseen ("unobserved life"). Mundy is the spy, a Pakistani-born British double agent working with his former anarchist colleague Sasha to bring down Russia in the Cold War days. When they've finished that job they're shipped off to wherever it is that retired former spies go. Mundy goes to the Middle East, Sasha goes to the "wilderness".
Flash forward to the present: Mundy has a muslim wife: Zara, and a muslim son: Mustafa, Zara's kid. Suddenly Sasha turns up spouting new philosophy from a new philosopher and how together, like in the good ol' days, Sasha and Mundy will change the world. The problem? The benefactor of Sasha's is much too mysterious for Mundy's liking and he sets out to find if some gifts really are too much.
Once again gifted with a razor pen, Carre writes a fiery novel in open protest of what he considers a moronic war. It is nice to see a once restrained thriller writer going at it with such passion; you can practically feel the heat off the pages. Plus his characters are as intriguing as ever: Sasha, an idealist well aware of his status in the world, and Mundy, the tired and cynical spy who is far too aware of the "big picture". Shocking that a Carre novel has characters broken by tragedy and depression? Not one bit. Mix that with the fact that this is his most accesible (read: well paced), smart and heartbreaking work to date and you have another classic to add to his collection.
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