itibaren Malian, Punjab 143302, Hindistan
A quandry here: the first two thirds of this is dull set-up and exposition stuff that doesn't manage to get the narrative flowing. A vaguely interesting counter-terrorism network is documented and arrayed against a not-very interesting suspect and his associates. What keeps you in the book is that this isn't someone's early, earnest attempt at a suspense novel; this is a late work, from master John le Carré, who certainly knows his way around the chessboard. So there must be something to it all, right ? Well, yes and no. If the same skill & care that concocted the endgame here-- the riveting last third of the book-- could have been brought to bear on the exposition, this would be the best le Carré in a long time, a small masterpiece. As it stands, the first two-thirds are spent pushing anonymous pieces around the board, adjusting the grounds for the endgame; I'd love to be saying here that it was like watching clockwork to see the pawns being guided into place, that it was a very sophisticated process to witness, interlocking parts gliding into place for the final set-piece..... but it wasn't. All in all, the introductory parts are (purposefully ?) tossed out in a shambles, perhaps in an attempt to make the end more compelling. For me, this needed to be pared down to novella-length to show only the endgame, or expanded to five, six hundred pages to faithfully render characters & exposition in more than shorthand form. (Something to note is that the beleaguered hardback industry, which requires not more or less than 300 pgs as the standard for suspense, espionage, mystery fiction, --have a look at recent ones--- always prevails these days... Established author or novice, three-hundred pages. Sorry to say that novels don't come out later in director's cut versions.) But le Carré knows his endgame like nobody else, and how to conduct his characters in the final act. The tone here is controlled, acerbic, and taut. If your patience holds through the intro chapters, the finale is beautifully structured, timed and rendered in short, devastating order.
This was a really interesting book, surprisingly strange and funny. It's hard to express what it is about. It was written and is set in Stalinist Moscow, but also heavily involves the Devil and Pontius Pilate. Rather than trying to explain what is good about it, I'll just tell you to have a look at it. If it starts a little slow for you, don't despair. It took about 1/3 of the way through before I was really captured.