Absolute Friends by John Le Carre - Book Review

Ted Mundy is born on the Indian sub-continent just as the country is tearing itself apart at independence. The young Ted is happy in the shiny new state of Pakistan, with his cricket, ideal climate, and young female admirer, but his army father is cashiered and they return to a cold and grey Britain where food is still rationed, where Ted is never truly accepted at school, despite his exceptional ability at fast bowling.Sasha is the son of a Lutheran pastor and the two first meet as bright-eyed idealistic young men in Berlin during the revolutionary sixties. Their relationship is destined to be long and complicated, their friendship sure to be tested to the limit.So opens Absolute Friends, John Le Carre's nineteenth novel.The book spans more than fifty years, through university, marriage, children, divorce, affairs, money worries, and that's just the simple things in life.Workwise is something entirely different. Shadowy characters, weird assignments, invisible boundaries tha
t occasionally both the characters and reader notices, and other times not. You know how it is with a John Le Carre book!I liked Absolute Friends, despite the somewhat clunky messages hidden within. It just depends on whether you approved of the Gulf War, or not. Clearly Mister LC was four square again it, it's a free country after all, but somehow this heavy point of view detracted from the book. Was I reading fiction, or a sermon? Sometimes it was hard to tell.Leaving that aside, I enjoyed the book. It seemed to me something of a throwback to his earlier works, generally regarded as some of his best. Is Ted working for us or the other side? And who are the other side, anyway. And what about Sasha? Could he be a triple agent? Perhaps they both are. It isn't easy to tell. You decide.The book builds to an interesting ending that can live in the memory, but I suspect it might reveal yet more of its secrets from a second reading, something I plan to do in the future. In the mea
ntime if you like the works of John Le Carre you will probably like this one too. Superbly written as always, and whatever you say about it, it isn't dull.The Writing Pad

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