Single & Single

Rating:
Summary: Typical Le Carre - and that means a good spy novel
Review: Although the Cold War has long since faded into the history books, John Le Carre is still turning out good, well-written spy stories. You cannot use the term "potboiler" with a Le Carre book, although some of his more recent endeavors have come dangerously close to that level. Thankfully, "Single & Single" is not one of them.

Since the KGB doesn't exist anymore, Le Carre must look elsewhere for the kind of story he writes like nobody else. And he's found it in the story of Oliver Single, the son and junior partner of a banking house whose owner and senior partner is a greedy, corrupt, and probably amoral (business)man who has gotten in way over his head by getting involved in the drug trade with some - shall we say, less than reputable - gentlemen from the former Soviet Union.

As with most Le Carre novels, the story moves back, forth, and sideways between various parts of and characters within the same story. You have to flip back a few times to keep track of who's who and what's what, but that was part of the charm of the George Smiley/Karla series, and it's the same here.

Unfortunately this book does suffer from the one flaw that exists in most of Le Carre's books - and that's an uncanny ability to turn its so-called action sequences into the dullest parts of the story. I actually enjoyed the back-and-forth between the characters more than I enjoyed what they did. But if this "flaw" were corrected, I think I'd actually like Le Carre less than I do. Weird, isn't it?

Rating:
Summary: Slow & Unsteady
Review: Calling this book a "thriller" is a bit like calling English cooking "cuisine" (or that "not a cheap shot"). Countless digressions and flashbacks prevent the story from building up much tension. The opening chapter serves as a good case in point: When threatened with execution, Alfie Winser's life literally passes in front of his eyes. This seems witty at first, until it begins (and continues) to happen to people whose lives are not in similar jeopardy. In the final 75 pages or so the pot finally begins to boil, but we're left with such a waterlogged mess that the climax lacks any real punch.

The story revolves around Oliver Single, one half of the book's title and junior partner of the story's eponymous capital investment firm. After experiencing ethical business qualms he leaves the firm, revealing its secrets to and British Intelligence and allowing them to set him up with a new identity. Of course, that never goes to plan, and coincident with his cover getting blown, Winser is killed and his father disappears. There's nothing left to do but for Oliver to become a junior G-man, find his dad, thwart the villains, and save the day. Sure, that's a pretty simplistic overview; on the way he has to fool around with three or four women, too.

If you enjoy psychoanalyzing things, you'll get a kick out of this book. Everybody has issues. Everybody's in denial. From the obligatory psychopathy and transgenerational child abandonment to exhibitionism and German-engineered phallic symbols, this book has it all. If, on the other hand, you like a tale of espionage, cat and mouse, cross and double-cross ... well, there's always the Smiley books.

In the end, Single & Single is a love story between a son and his father, so perhaps it's only natural that there be an Oedipal angle to the whole thing. If you go into it aware of what you're getting yourself into, perhaps you'll enjoy it more than I did. At any rate, the scene where Yevgeny Orlov asks Oliver to hop on his motorcycle ("Ride it, Post Boy! Ride it!" (p. 179)) takes on a whole new meaning when looked at from a Freudian point of view.

Rating:
Summary: Could not be more disappointed
Review: I am a big fan of thrillers (Graham Greene, Robert Ludlum, Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth)--doubly so if they are well-done literary thrillers, so you can imagine my excitement when people recommended Le Carre to me as one of the great masters. So it was with great disappointment that I read Single & Single. The novel never rises above the conventional thriller: the predictable killings, the now mundane concept of the strained relationship between the protagonist and his father. Worse, and I admit that it might be just me, I found a lot of it ludicrous. Single detests his father and that lifestyle so much that he leaves it to become a clown and make animal balloons? Too bad that this was my first Le Carre novel (even my friends who are Le Carre fans told me that they didn't like this particular one). My friends tell me that I need to give one of his better novels, like Tinker, Sailor, Soldier, Spy a chance instead.

Rating:
Summary: Le Carre still has it!
Review: In the battle between those who can't seem to comprehend the elliptical style perfected by Le Carre (who give it one star in their reviews) and those who claim that Single & Single is a masterpiece (five stars), I come out on the positive side, but with a few reservations. Yes, the first 125 pages are slow. Yes, the writing can be maddeningly obtuse at times. And yes, none of the characters are complete models of moral integrity. But, if you expected something else from Le Carre, you've clearly not read his prior work. His books always take a while to draw you in. His lack of clarity in individual scenes are like brushstokes--eventually leading to a picture that (even though impressionistic) stands beautifully by itself. And Le Carre remains the superstar portrayer of moral ambiguity. In my view, Single & Single is completely consistent with Le Carre's other work. It's a very good addition to his body of work and delivers in the end. On the other hand, it's not among his very best (the Karla trilogy, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold), but it's certainly better than The Tailor of Panama (a book that had me believing that Le Carre may have lost his way). Welcome back, John, and please write a few more. It's so nice to see a thoughtful, literate, and entertaining book on the best seller list (even if it's only for a few weeks).

Rating:
Summary: He's back!
Review: Mr. David Cornwell(better known as John LeCarrè esquire) has come up with another very good book. Afetr the "disappointment" of "TheTailor of Panama", it seems he has returned back from farce and satire to what he knows best: characterisations, mysteries, moral messages and relationships. His great, philosophic, entertaining, complex writings have propelled him into the realms of Literature. And deservedly so indeed. He is not just a simple spy novelist, but a social philosopher and thinker and a great social historian, definetely one of the greatest of our life and times.

A lawyer has his skull shot open on a Turkish hillside; A quiet, lonely magician in the town of Abbot's Quay is called in the middle of the night by his bank to explain the unsolicited arrival of 5,000,030 (the 30 has a very clever and symbolic sinificance) pounds into his baby daughter's very modest Bank account; An illegal freighter gets boarded by Russian coastguards with the brothher of an influential Georgian tradesman gets killed; The great merchant venturer Tiger Single disappears into thin air. What connection can these 4 events possibly have? This is what Mr.LeCarrè sets out to establish throughout the book. He also tells another tale, the relationship between a Father and his Son. The Son:The Traitor. The Father:The Betrayed. The roles get somewhat changed. The Son:The Redeemer and The Forgiven. The Father:The Saved and The Redeemed. LeCarrè being the great thinker that he is gives us a very realistic story based on his own relationship between himself and his father. Oliver Single, the Traitor(and also the children's magician) gets asked by a Customs officer to help him track down his father:The celebrated Tiger Single. We know exactly what will happen and how the book is going to end but the journey to the ending is masterful. Oliver's characerisation and his flashbacks connects all the events together and we see them all converging and leading to the final picture like a jigsaw puzzle.

LeCarrè has not lost his talent and ability to create characetrs and to create gripping mysteries ouw of nothing and leave us all satisfied yet hungry for his next.

For those who have not met LeCarrè before, this is not the place to start, I recommend his earlier ones like "The Spy who came in from the Cold" or the Karla trilogy.

Rating:
Summary: le Carre still has the magic touch
Review: Tiger Single runs the London based investment firm, SINGLE AND SINGLE. His company handles millions made from the international sales of drugs and arms. Especially lucrative to the firm is the former Soviet states, whose criminal elements have an ally in the British company.

Tiger wants the business to be a family affair. He pressures his son Oliver to begin to learn the business and ultimately take it over when Tiger retires. However, Oliver loathes the illicit dealings of his father and begins talking to the customs blokes. However the situation abruptly changes when his father's former allies in Russia try to wrestle the business from Tiger, using any means possible. Oliver knows he must decide between his family by rescuing his father or justice, by turning him over to the law.

Of all the Cold War espionage novelists, John Le Carre has switched to the post Soviet Union environment without missing a beat. His latest story, SINGLE & SINGLE, is an intriguing look into the so-called legitimate banking of the West and its ties to the criminal elements of the East. The story line is crisp and filled with action. The sub-plot portraying the father-son conflict is well designed, but fails to live up to Mr. Le Carre's previous novel (THE TAILOR OF PANAMA) because Oliver never quite emerges as a complete person. This novel is a well-done tale, but not quite at the level of some of the author's previous masterpieces.

Harriet Klausner