I hope you will appreciate that I am giving up digging into my muffin for this one!
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Our Game - John Le Carre
I can be brief about this one. I did not like it.
It feels like it is all over the place, the main character is boring and annoying and the story at times does not know what it wants to be; a spy tale, a story of lost love and longing or a tale of the development of a man's political awareness.
My main gripe with this one is the main character Tim Cranmer. I found him annoying beyond belief. He keeps going on about this girl he loved so much, he pines for her, would do anything for her. To be honest, I don't care. He is supposed to be this handler for double agents surely he is capable of getting over a lost love? Fine, she left him for the double agent he handled but still. Mr Cranmer does not sound like a man I would want to spend 10 minutes with. He seems arrogant and utterly insensitive to others. Everything seems to be done onto him to make his life miserable and more difficult. Well boo hoo hoo!!
To be fair, Cranmer's trainee pet, Larry is not much better. He is an oaf who thinks he is a combination of a philosopher and a political revolutionary. Apparently he cannot balance a cheque book but he has managed to squirrel away millions of pounds to stage some kind of revolution in some small republic in Russia... really?! In the process of doing that he has also taken Cranmer's girlfriend away from him and made an enemy of the entire British Intelligence service. Then we have Cranmer's ex. She seems to be a cross between some clever musical savant and a stupid infatuated, easily influenced young girl with a talent for falling for the wrong guy. One of those types who "suffers for their art", wandering in and out of rooms either naked or in floaty dresses.
In the end it all just feels very confusing - both the people and the storyline. Cranmer seems to start out on a crusade to find Larry, probably because he thinks his ex girlfriend might be with him. He does find the ex... but their conversation and meeting kind of comes to nothing and is a great let down. Cranmer does not find Larry but for some reason gets involved with his cause. To be honest, the last thing I would want to do after being held by them for several days/weeks but it seems to make sense to Cranmer. For a man who seemed to care mainly about himself and his precious ex it seems a wildly out of character move to now want to start a revolution. Why does he all of a sudden decide to stop sitting on that fence? Cranmer never made uttered a single opinion all the time he was dealing with Larry and living with the girlfriend but now he picks a side? It did not make much sense to me but I have to say that by that time I just wanted the book to end.
In short... will not be picking up a Le Carre one again any time soon.
Title: Our Game
Author: John Le Carre
414 pages
Coronet Books
ISBN #0-340-64027-8
Books to be read: 151
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