Thursday, January 11, 2007

I Spy a Mediocre Novel

I read John le Carre’s The Mission Song a couple of week’s ago, but for some reason (laziness?), I didn’t get to writing it about it.

It’s. . .it’s weird. Or it isn’t. I don’t know.

Here’s the thing with this book: I’m not really sure what the point was. The idea is kind of cool. There’s a guy (there always is in novels, you know?), who was born in the Congo, and apparently has a gift for language. He moves to England, and gets recruited as a contract interpreter for the British Intelligence service on odd jobs. The main point of the novel is that he gets hired again, for a super-secret interpreter job, and pretty much gets entangled in a very, um, tangled web.

And that’s part of the problem. The plot goes in and out, both from time and actions. The main character, the improbably named Bruno, happens to be involved in an affair with a woman who is loosely connected to the new job he has. And yet, she isn’t. Everything is a plot device, but the plot is not solid. It’s, as I said, weird.

Part of what doesn’t do it for me is that this book is not your typical spy-action novel. If you know anything about le Carre, apparently that’s par for the course. I’m guessing this is a lot like how real intelligence jobs happen: some cloak-and-dagger stuff, but mostly mundane actions mixed with some lies and a lot of money. In the end, though, the shocks are not so much shocking, as they are slightly off-putting. The intrigue is not that intriguing, and there isn’t a lot of resolution.

Despite what it sounds like, though, it’s not a bad book. le Carre has a unique narrative style, and amazingly, I couldn’t put the book down. Perhaps that is because I was expecting something to happen, but it was also because it was coming from such an interesting perspective: a spy who has no idea how to be a good spy.

Can I recommend this book? I don’t know. I’d say read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy or The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, le Carre’s two most famous novels (my friend informs me the latter is fantastic). Just don’t read him expecting James Bond. This is nuts and bolts espionage, and if you want to read a more realistic account of the intelligence world, read him. Otherwise, I’d say don’t bother.

If you choose to bother: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=0316016748&z=y

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