Just finished reading John Le Carre's "Absolute friends". Wow. A reviewer in the Guardian said that if Le Carre was angry in "The constant gardener" in "Absolute friends" he's incandescent with rage, and that sums it up well. I've not read a lot of LeCarre, I find the cross-double cross-triple cross a bit confusing, but one of his novels, A perfect spy, remains on my Best Books of All Time list. "Absolute friends" has echoes of that earlier book in the central relationship of Mundy and Sasha, similar to that of Magnus Pym and his counterpart "Alex" in "A perfect spy". The central questions of this book are reiterations of the earlier novel - Who are we really? Is there a Real Me? Is there a Real You? Can we really know another person? Why do people believe what they do, and what prompts them to act on their beliefs? What might cause someone to change their beliefs? How do we try to justify our behaviour to ourselves and others? How do we all "practice to decieve"?
"Absolute friends" is like "The constant gardener" in that it's more of a political novel than a spy novel, and also has echoes of Graham Greene's "The Quiet American" in the character of Rourke. But to say more would spoil things. If you want a really adult, intelligent read that pulls no punches, will make you think and has an ending that leaves you gasping and nodding your head, read it.
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