Absolute Friends [Paperback]

John le Carre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 2004

An absolutely triumphant bestseller-everywhere hailed as the masterpiece toward which John le Carre has been building since the fall of communism. This thrilling tale of Joyaity, betrayal and international espionage spans the lives of two friends from the not-torn West Berlin of the 1960s to the grimy looking-glass of Cold War Europe to the present day of terrorism and uncertain new alliances-alliances that aren't always what they seem to be.

Product Details

• Paperback: 456 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (November 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316159395
• ISBN-13: 978-0316159395
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.3 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,223,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Le Carre enraged, March 24, 2005

By 

Bill Godfrey (Mt Stuart, TAS Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Absolute Friends (Paperback)

As the other reviews to date indicate, you will love this book or hate it according to your particular political and religious prejudices. Broadly, committed Republicans and fundamentalist Christians will hate it and seek to dismiss it as rubbish, Democrats and liberals will see it as an attempt to alert the world to what is happening before our eyes. The five stars show where I stand. There is too much evidence of the 'war of lies' and the people behind it for the plot to be anything but dangerously credible. The denouement of the book hits like a sledgehammer.

Standing back from the politics, the plot and the narrative are as gripping as his best previous work and his command of the detailed build-up of atmosphere remains quite stunning.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The quintessential dupe, January 10, 2006

By 

Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Absolute Friends (Paperback)

ABSOLUTE FRIENDS is perhaps John le Carré's most elegant construct in some time. By its conclusion, it also reflects the author's anger against America's and Britain's overt justification for their current involvement in Iraq, i.e. as the front line in the war against Muslim terrorism. I doubt if it will be preferred bedtime reading for George Dubya or Tony Blair, just as CONSTANT GARDENER wouldn't find favor with pharmaceutical company CEOs.

The hero of the story, and its ultimate patsy, is Edward "Ted" Mundy, born in Lahore of a British officer in the Indian Army and a native nursemaid to an aristocratic English family on the very night that the Raj formally splintered into India and Pakistan. Ted's mother dies during childbirth. His father, the "Major", subsequently joins the new Pakistani Army, but is eventually sent back to England in disgrace after striking a brother officer. Over the decades, the younger Mundy plays cricket, drops out of Oxford, becomes a Berlin anarchist, is expelled from West Germany, and becomes a minor functionary in the British government and an MI-6/Stasi double agent. Then, after German reunification, Ted fails as an English language teacher in Heidelberg, becomes a tour guide at one of Mad King Ludwig's castles in Bavaria, and meets his final destiny as an apparent Muslim sympathizer who's fallen in love with a Turkish ex-prostitute. Mundy's largely directionless life is characterized by a lack of entrenched commitment to anything political, and, like a leaf, is blown from cause to cause by girlfriends, wife, mistress, intelligence handler, circumstance, and, above all, his "absolute friend" Sasha, a stateless, radical visionary/philosopher/anarchist, whom Ted originally meets during his youthful anti-establishment period in West Berlin.

As with any le Carré offering, all of which compulsively stress character and plot development, the reader seeking action and thrills need not open the cover. To my mind, the author's greatest triumphs were the two George Smiley novels, TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE, both of which were made into superb television miniseries by the BBC and starring Alec Guinness in the title role. Here, Mundy, in his own way, is as engaging a protagonist as Smiley. However, I must ultimately knock-off a star because I, while no uncritical supporter of George Dubya and his Iraqi venture, somewhat resent being presented with an entertainment opportunity that becomes, in the end, simply a vehicle for the author to grind an ax, albeit cleverly done. John must be getting cranky in his old age.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In the pursuit of principle: Yesterday and Today., November 17, 2004

By 

Betsie's Literary Page (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Absolute Friends (Paperback)

<P>
The U.S.-Iraq war has ended and dissatisfied with the British Government, Ted Mundy is betrayed by his English Language School partner, Egon. Egon has fled with the last of their assets, leaving him broke. Out of a job and business Mundy wanders the streets aimlessly. While at a café Mundy meets Zara, a young Turkish prostitute. Instead of taking her up on her offer, Mundy plays the Good Samaritan and offers her a meal.

Drawn to this neglected and abused woman, Mundy escorts her home, against her will. It doesn't take long for Mundy to establish himself as a father figure to Zara's eleven year old son, Mustafa, and soon enough within Zara's bed.

Although things change while Mundy is entertaining a multicultural group of English speaking tourists at Linderhof, a Bavarian Palace, where he works as a tour guide. Like a shadow from the past, Sasha shows up requesting a meet. Sasha is the son of a East German Lutheran Pastor and a middle aged double agent. Mundy agrees and follows Sasha to a secluded flat. Here Mundy's memories take over after the two men greet.

Recollections reveal who Ted Mundy really is, where he comes from, as well as his feelings. A boy born in Pakistan, an adolescent with an alcoholic father who refuses to clarify his mother's identity, and for most of life has associated himself with any cause encountered. From communism and socialism to his first meeting with Sasha in Berlin, when they were university students and at the height of the cold war.

Mundy himself is a flawed individual that has practically failed at everything: college, reporter, novelist, businessman, and radio interviewer. But has managed to succeed at one thing: a secret double agent.

John le Carré's book could be seen as "anti-American" if one chose to read into things and very easily find reason with phrases such as: Journalists, however, were blandly reminded that the United States reserved to itself the right to "hunt down its enemies at any time in any place with or without the cooperation of its friends and allies." Or "The easiest and cheapest trick for any leader is to take his country to war on false pretenses. Anyone who does that should be hounded out of office for all time."

But how far is America willing to go? How much are we, the people, willing to tolerate?

The war in Iraq, government deception and corporate misdeeds on an unsuspecting public are just some of what readers can expect. Absolute Friends is filled with engaging characters that guarantee to generate reader sympathy. The underlying layers and messages are sure to evoke much thought no matter how one feels of the ongoing war, 9/11, political views or President Bush.

Absolute Friends is an exceptionally powerful and spellbinding novel. Not only in its implications of democracy but also in how the threat of terrorism is being used, in our world of today. If you liked Fahrenheit 9/11, you'll like this book. This is one book you'll want to read or give as a gift to your favorite activist!

Reviewed by Betsie