|
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
01-14-2019, 09:40 AM | #1 | |
o saeclum infacetum
Posts: 20,367
Karma: 223034386
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
|
February 2019 Discussion • A Delicate Truth by John le Carré
A Delicate Truth by John le Carré is the February selection for the New Leaf Book Club.
Quote:
Last edited by issybird; 02-15-2019 at 06:35 AM. |
|
02-15-2019, 06:36 AM | #2 |
o saeclum infacetum
Posts: 20,367
Karma: 223034386
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
|
It's time to discuss A Delicate Truth. What did we think of it?
|
Advert | |
|
02-15-2019, 06:45 AM | #3 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,265
Karma: 10203040
Join Date: Dec 2011
Device: a variety (mostly kindles and kobos)
|
I think... that I'm still on hold at the library! Oh well, might be able to join in before the end of the month.
|
02-15-2019, 06:52 AM | #4 |
Nameless Being
|
It was my first Le Carré, and almost certainly my last. I read fiction to escape reality, not to be reminded of it, and so the matter-of-fact reality of the story was very depressing for me. I found the story well told, and the characters well-drawn, but by the time I'd reached the inevitable end, the feeling that what I'd read barely qualified as fiction at all left me feeling flat and in urgent need of some frothy escapism. I salute his skill as a writer, and strongly sympathise with his obvious anger at the system he writes about, but for me the entertainment value of the book was only non-zero by a statistically insignificant amount.
|
02-15-2019, 07:08 AM | #5 |
Professor of Law
Posts: 3,659
Karma: 66000000
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Device: Kobo Elipsa, Kobo Libra H20, Kobo Aura One, KoboMini
|
I was not particularly impressed or unimpressed either way. Years ago, I listened to the audiobook of The Spy Who Came in From The Cold. I remember little about it save for how it ended. I rated it two stars on Goodreads in 2011.
As I was reading A Delicate Truth, about half way through I started wondering if this wasn't going to end the same way. And it did. You could see the ending coming from a mile away. A good man, trying to do the right thing by a newly met woman that he was vaguely attracted to gets them both black-bagged in the end. I am not sure what it says about the current state of affairs or the political climate that was wholly unsurprised. I felt like the portrait of the rich, stupid Americans was a bit overcooked and not worthy of Le Carre's usual sophistication. But I felt that way of the entire novel - it was written via machete rather than scalpel. |
Advert | |
|
02-15-2019, 09:14 AM | #6 |
cacoethes scribendi
Posts: 5,809
Karma: 137770742
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Australia
Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650
|
It's quite a few years since I last attempted a John le Carré novel. It had always seemed to me that he came up with some excellent stories and great characters ... but then sucked the life out of them with his presentation*. I thought (hoped) maybe he might have improved since I last tried.
Sadly, A Delicate Truth demonstrated only his ability to suck the life out of a story, and in this case I don't think there was a great story, or characters, in here to start with. The story seemed clumsily told and the character of "Paul Anderson" (Kit) was inconsistent and not really credible in any of his roles. The character of Toby was a little better, but not a lot. Both Toby and Emily seem quite indistinct, not fully real/there in the story. The abrupt end, while not inappropriate, was predictable and left me feeling as if the work getting to the end was a waste of effort. I normally like to find something positive to say, but at the moment I'm struggling. I gave it a 2/5 and feel like I might have been generous. * To explain my comment on the what-are-you-reading thread, I tend to think of le Carré as best served in adaptation (film), where someone else as done the hard work of digging out the story and characters. |
02-15-2019, 10:14 AM | #7 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 7,346
Karma: 52398889
Join Date: Oct 2010
Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip
|
I hate it. I'm struggling through it, but it is painful.
|
02-15-2019, 11:56 AM | #8 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,640
Karma: 73864785
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: PDXish
Device: Kindle Voyage, various Android devices
|
Well, that was unpleasant.
One of the reasons I generally choose the books I do is that I like to see things that turn out better than expected and that have some sort of hope, or at least where the bad guys get some form of come-uppance. This was just depressing. Watching Kit, Emily, and Toby all end up in worse situations and hopeless ones at that is not fun to read. Maybe it is more realistic than 99.44/100ths of other thriller books but that's not why I read books. I can read the news for depressing stories. Maybe he is just trying to subvert the trope of the hero winning at the end due to some luck and daring do. (Some tropes are there for a reason!) That said, I do enjoy Le Carre's writing. It is different enough from other "thriller" writers to be engaging, if only as a change of pace. I don't think I could read more than one of his books in a row without getting depressed though, even if the ending was more satifying. Other than the abrupt change of viewpoint, time, and setting between chapters 2 and 3, I was completely lost about who this Kit guy was and how this tied into the main story for almost all of chapter 3, I did enjoy actually reading this. It obviously didn't go where I hoped it would go but it was interesting enough to keep me engaged after I understood chapter 3. I haven't read any other books where they are trying to expose a cover-up like this. |
02-15-2019, 02:19 PM | #9 | ||||
o saeclum infacetum
Posts: 20,367
Karma: 223034386
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: New England
Device: H2O, Aura One, PW5
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Ultimately, though, here's where it fell flat for me, and maybe I'm just too jaded ten years after the book was published and given what's going on in the world; I didn't think the collateral death of an illegal migrant and her baby would have been sufficient as the first cause of all this, especially not for a career soldier and foreign office wonks who've signed on to the Official Secrets Act. It needed to be more. |
||||
02-15-2019, 03:16 PM | #10 | |
Wizard
Posts: 2,640
Karma: 73864785
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: PDXish
Device: Kindle Voyage, various Android devices
|
Quote:
|
|
02-15-2019, 03:30 PM | #11 | |
Nameless Being
|
Quote:
I wonder if it was inspired by a real event. Le Carré's anger at the commercialisation of politics and the military is so palpable in the book, that perhaps it's a veiled vent at something that actually happened. The tone of it reminded me of some of Pratchett's later works, when his disgust for the politics he was satirising wore the sheen off his usual detached humour. |
|
02-15-2019, 04:18 PM | #12 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,013
Karma: 19767610
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Nova Scotia Canada
Device: ipad, Kindle PW, Kobo Clara; iphone 7
|
Definitely worth my time
Well Gee, I really enjoyed the book, ....probably enjoy isn’t quite the right word. I was motivated to keep reading, and found it a rewarding read.
This is my first by Le Carre. I’ve avoided him thinking he writes ‘thrillers”. I don’t enjoy the physical feeling of suspence and usually feel emotionally manipulated if I have to keep looking over my shoulder - which then annoys me, and pulls me out of the story. So I was impressed by how Le Carre approached his work. He had a story to tell and he told it without cheap stunts and superfluous drama. I feel badly that I had pigeonholed him that way. It was a bit of a busman’s holiday for me, and that probably clouds my take on the book - that’s the part I found facinating. I spent some time in government before I retired. I thought his portrayal of Quinn and Oakley were dead on. I’ve observed that horrid bullying of Kit when he met with the FS mouthpiece and their attack lawyer. And I’ve met folks like Kit and Toby as well. I’m familiar with the cultural tactics used by gov to keep everyone in their preferred slots. The other point I’d make is that I probably won’t read more of Le Carre. However I’m very pleased that participating in New Leaf forced me to branch out and try a different genre than I wouldn’t have otherwise. I would never have picked up that book. Thanks! Last edited by Victoria; 02-15-2019 at 05:03 PM. |
02-15-2019, 05:01 PM | #13 | |
Wizard
Posts: 1,013
Karma: 19767610
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Nova Scotia Canada
Device: ipad, Kindle PW, Kobo Clara; iphone 7
|
Quote:
Whenever you are dealing with life and death situations (police, mental health, emergency medicine, firefighters etc) there are mandatory protocols and procedures that are part of a formal risk management system. Rigorous training on them are a critical component of professional training. Practioners are licensed, and regulated, and held accountable in terms of following those procedures. For example, we understand that tradegy happens, and people will be lost in the emergency room. (Or war, etc.). But it’s unacceptable if someone is lost because the doctor was too drunk to perform the correct procedure. If the incompetence is system wide, because the hospital administrator knowlingly hires completely unqualified medical staff so he can get a cut on the side, it should be an outrage. That’s what Quinn and a faction within Whitehall were doing. An exchange that really struck me was between Toby and a Horst in Berlin, when Horst told him Quinn was trying to get Horst’s boss to informally invest in the private corp. “Information collected and disseminated in the private sphere only. Unadulterated. Untouched by government hands.” I read that as being outside the formal risk management system, and completely outside any public accoutability. Sorry for the long diatribe. I worked within a completely different sphere, but which has similar risk management protocols and procedures. So this book just happened to grab me I guess. I won’t make a habit of ranting |
|
02-15-2019, 05:14 PM | #14 |
Wizard
Posts: 1,013
Karma: 19767610
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Nova Scotia Canada
Device: ipad, Kindle PW, Kobo Clara; iphone 7
|
I agree. I stopped thinking of it as a novel - more like an autobiography that’s partially fictionalized in order to stay within the law. I thought he was watching a carefully constructed, century old, international system between Western allies being pulled to the ground, and was trying to blow a careful whistle.
|
02-15-2019, 05:18 PM | #15 | ||
(he/him/his)
Posts: 12,171
Karma: 79742714
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Sunshine Coast, BC
Device: Oasis (Gen3),Paperwhite (Gen10), Voyage, Paperwhite(orig), Fire HD 8
|
Yes, wasn't it?!
Quote:
Quote:
IAC, a stretch to 2 stars for me, and I'm really disappointed, since I was quite looking forward to it. |
||
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
The 2019 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread | pdurrant | Reading Recommendations | 161 | 01-01-2020 05:20 PM |
New Leaf January 2019 Discussion • The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin | issybird | Book Clubs | 109 | 02-13-2019 08:13 PM |
New Leaf Nominations for February 2019 • Let's Make a Deal: Trade Secrets | issybird | Book Clubs | 47 | 01-07-2019 07:11 AM |
Free (nook/Kindle/Kobo UK] A Murder of Quality by John le Carré [Vintage Spy Mystery] | ATDrake | Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) | 2 | 07-04-2015 12:41 PM |
(UK/ROI) Free John le Carré audio books | avantman42 | Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links) | 23 | 09-23-2011 09:09 PM |