Customer Reviews

Absolute Friends

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

So let's get the politics out of the way first: LeCarre clearly is in vehement opposition the war in Iraq, supports the notion of American "imperialism", and apparently counts himself among the European neo-socialist elites. Too bad, and surely enough to infuriate me often enough while reading "Absolute Friends". But despite the anti-American rhetoric in LeCarre's latest work, he is still by far the most convincing and accomplished spy-writer of our times and, as "Friends" is proof, still capable of spinning an engrossing and thought-provoking tale.

"Friends" traces the lives of two aging radicals, very different in their backgrounds but very much the same in their commitment to all causes counter-establishment. Ted Mundy, Pakistan-born ex-pat son of a patriotic but delusional British Army major, is barely making it in modern day Germany as a tour guide. Living with a former Turkish prostitute common law wife and her son, Mundy flirts with Islam while maintaining his British roots but, paradoxically, still showing glimpses of apologetic pride in his British heritage. The "absolute friend", Sasha, is an unrepentant and idealistic German radical for life. LeCarre takes the reader back to late-60's Berlin, where Mundy and Sasha meet as students, forging a friendship based in anti-establishment and anti-war idealism. Fast-forward a decade, where we find Mundy and Sasha drones of the very bureaucracies they once despised. Mundy serves as a British Council official dealing with cultural exchanges to Eastern Europe, while Sasha holds a position in the East German Communist regime. Disillusioned by the differences between the communism of theory and the Communism of the Soviet Bloc, Sasha begins spying on the Eastern Bloc for the west. Naturally, Mundy becomes his contact, passing Sasha's stolen secrets on to British intelligence while spreading western disinformation back to the Soviets through Sasha. Following the end of the Cold War, Mundy and Sasha part ways again, only to be drawn back together by Sasha's contact with the mysterious "Demetri", supposedly a wealthy industrialist hoping to repent for the riches he has earned by re-stoking radical sparks still burning, especially in Sasha.

This is an ambitious effort, even for the veteran spymaster LeCarre. "Friends" spans nearly four decades of life inside the activist movement, as well as within LeCarre's familiar territory of Cold War espionage. As always, LeCarre's characters are painstakingly developed and all too real in their shortcomings and foibles - expect no "James Bonds" in LeCarre fiction. Plots are so well constructed that at times almost bog down in the detail, but some tedium is a small price for a well-tuned conclusion. The payoff may frustrate conservatives, while delighting the conspiracy buff or those more liberal-leaning readers. But regardless of your political views, "Absolute Friends" is a well crafted, thought-provoking window into the events of the past forty years. In the final analysis, you shouldn't have to believe in the plausibility of a conspiracy or the political slant of the author to enjoy the journey and appreciate a fine writer's mastery of the topic.

This is indeed not your typical Le Carre story. It is more literary than commercial - hence some of the negative reviews here complaining of boredom. Don't read it if you want something fast-paced and suspense-full. The suspense in this one builds very slowly. What this story lives from is the study of two characters whose lives remain intertwined through the second half of the cold war until today, and in which they play some role in the big game of espionage. It is also a mini-study of political Germany of the same period. The achievement of this book is something I have never seen from an English-language writer before: true grasp of Germany's political culture, its language and people (I am German myself). It wasn't always like this: in earlier novels Le Carre, too, has misspelt words and names, and altogether given too shallow an interpretation of what was happening. This book however is a quantum leap in that sense. Le Carre's understanding of German radical leftist thinking, language and actual history is uncanny. This is perhaps the only chance you get to hear the voices of the far left speak in its original tone - but in English.
The greatest failing of this story is that it builds so slowly and then comes to a sudden, abrupt and not very convincing end. The American operation that leads to the protagonists' death in Heidelberg is absurd and could never happen in this shape. The Americans wouldn't try it, and German authorities would never allow it. Le Carre has tried to make a point of course, but I didn't feel he made it very well. The American intervention is just a little too blatantly evil to be believable.
I would, however, like to make one comment on the accusation that this book is somehow "anti-American". This is only true if any book that is critical of a specific German/French/Russian government's actions is "anti-German/French/Russian". In other words, it is not.

I actually think this book is as good as "lord jim" by joseph conrad. I loved le carre when he was conservative. I love him now when he seems to have moved left. I love him because he knows how to make you care for a character a lot, and then, without compunction, destroys that character.

The people who hate this book seem to hate it because they disagree with its politics. That's like me saying the bible is a stupid book because I don't believe in Jesus. this is brilliantly written, and yes, the ending is VERY believable. the exact same thing happened in Germany to convince the Germans they were under threat. IF you don't study history you're bound to repeat it, as they say. I was blown away by this fantastic coup. Keep up the good work, mr. Le Carre.

Le Carre's latest masterpiece spans three historical periods. The hero, Ted Mundy was born in Pakistan when the British Empire was crumbling, got a public school education in a changing England, went to Oxford and then on to Berlin where he met his fellow radical Shasha, forming an "absolute friendship". He and Shasha eventually formed a highly successfull spy pair during the Cold War, a period of ideological clarity as to what was right or wrong. After the fall of the Berlin war Ted finds himself a partner in a language school and, after this fails miserably, he works as a tour guide in one of Mad Ludwig's castles in Bavaria. Shasha reappears and they find themselves involved again, this time in a war-in-Iraq related operation. Only now things are not clear as to what is right or wrong. To quote Shasha "..the coalition has broken half the rules in the international law books, and intends by its continued occupation of Iraq to break the other half". Le Carre is [rightly so] highly critical of what the coalition is doing in Iraq, his thoughts full of the wisdom of a man whose life spans the same periods with the book's hero. This is not only a superb story of friendship, a historical novel, a well written spy thriller but also a cry of anguish of an educated citizen of the world caused by the post 9/11 state of world affairs.

The underlying theme of "Absolute Friends" is a profound fear and distrust of "fundamentalism" in all its guises; whether found in Islamic terrorist movements or in the "In God We Trust" born again "true believers" who le Carre sees as having hijacked power in America. The protagonists, as always w/ le Carre, are carefully and lovingly drawn. Le Carre yearns, in a sense, for the moral ambiguity that underpinned his cold war spy novels. He finds the "fundamentalism" the fuels actions based on simplistic conviction far scarier than the ideological complexity and confusion that drove much of post WWII history before the last decade. Islamic fundamentalism and its equally evil twin, and twined foe, Christian "evangelical" fundamentalism (which he sees in power in the US today), are ...well just made for each other and the destruction of "decency" that uncertainty can engender.

"Absolute Friends," a 2003 publication by renowned British spy author John LeCarre, is considered by many reviewers to be one of his greatest works. It surely is passionate, powerful, and well-written. It concerns the hapless Ted Mundy, whom we meet working as a tourist guide in southern Germany. He has been a spy for the U.K. during the great glory days of the Cold War; when the notorious cinder-block wall divided East from West Berlin, and the city was thick with spooks. He has honors and awards; but then the wall came down, East and West Germany reunited, somewhat unexpectedly, and he and friends were out of jobs. The Pakistan-born son of an unreliable, irresponsible, heavy-drinking British Army officer and an Irish nanny has, since then, tried to write, without success. He's also tried his hand at business, without success. Ditto, marriage. So we now find him grubbing a bare living, trying to support a beautiful, former prostitute common-law Turkish wife and son. We are, apparently, to believe that he's the sort who loves not wisely, but too well; though readers may fail to see anything in his background that would make him such a person.

At any rate, Mundy has knocked around, Asia, Europe, even America. He has been caught up in the great student unrest of the 1960s, particularly in Germany, where he had gone to study. He has made a lifelong friend of Sasha, a crippled East German leftwing activist: for many years, they've had an enjoyable, exciting, profitable game playing spy and counterspy for their respective governments. But the glory days are long gone when Sasha reenters Mundy's life, bringing the mysterious, billionaire philanthropist Dimitri with him. Will the friends make a killing or get themselves killed? The sources of Dimitri's money are entirely too obscure, as are his aims, and associates.

The first thing to say is, for better or worse, "Absolute Friends" certainly resembles the rest of its author's work. It has a reasonably complex, well-thought out, suspenseful plot. It's witty. Dialogue crackles. Narrative and descriptive writing are sharp, and the spy craft can't be beat. It opens with one of his marvelous set pieces, and closes with one that's even better. In almost every book, he mentions his rich upper class twits talking with Belgravia,(expensive neighborhood) or Roedean, (expensive school) versions of lower-class Cockney accents; this book mentions an American girl talking Vassar overlaid with a broad German accent. Like most of his later books, it's rather long, and slow in getting started. The book largely takes place in the author's German-speaking comfort zone. We have met irresponsible fathers several times before in his work (see A Perfect Spy,filmed by the BBC under the same title: John Le Carre's A Perfect Spy which in fact, it strongly resembles.) We've also met the crippled left wing East German spy, with whom he plays at spy/counterspy before: he was "Axel" in "A Perfect Spy." Heaven knows, we've seen the beautiful younger woman before. And, as is common in his later books, while the villains are obscure, the politics are quite overt.

But to me, the book most noticeably shows the influence of his early mentor Graham Greene. Greene famously believed that it was better to betray your country than your friend. So, apparently, does LeCarre, at least in this book. The odd thing is, in his earlier life as David Cornwell, actual spy, while in place behind the Iron Curtain, LeCarre was betrayed to the Russians by Greene's great and good friend, the most famous of British double agents, Kim Philby. It did not have fatal consequences in LeCarre's case, as it did for others, and might have for him. But it essentially ended his field career. And LeCarre's earlier, celebrated "Karla" trilogy, about chasing a double agent through the Circus, his name for the spy bureau, makes clear that he wasn't too pleased about any of it at the time.

I can't recall the last time I read a spy novel, but I read an interview with the author that piqued my interest. I was rewarded with a beautifully written character study, plot twists worthy of Dickens and an ending so plausible as to be a grim foreshadow of life in the near future. The emergence of a broken identity into the world of spies is artfully rendered and gripping to follow. What more could a reader ask?

One reviewer here did note a plot element offered by a shadowy character who arrives late in the story. I agree that the secretive plan bordered on the silly, but unlike the other reader I found it so obviously transparent that I raced through the remaining pages to discover the truth. Although a bit long in isolated spots, the end is a blistering indictment of the madness of our age.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a terrific spy novel and to anyone else who feels as if our world has turned upside down.

Since someone asked who Le Carre is, here is the information.

John le Carré is the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born October 19, 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England). He studied at the University of Berne, developing a fascination in foreign languages, and Lincoln College, Oxford. He then taught at Eton College for 2 years. Subsequently, he joined the British Foreign Service (ultimately MI6), where he served mostly in West Germany. Kim Philby, notorious British double agent, gave le Carré's name up to the Russians.

MI6 (originally Military Intelligence Section 6 - now known as the Secret Intelligence Service or SIS), is the United Kingdom external security agency. SIS is responsible for the United Kingdom's espionage activities overseas.

I would suggest that some of the other reviewers here take the time to educate themselves before ranting against the likes of Le Carre. I do not agree with all of Le Carre's politics, but that does not negate his prowess as a writer.

I urge the trogolodytes to learn how to spell. And to go back to reading the "Left Behind" series.

In the beginning of Absolute Friends, I found myself wondering why Mr. Le Carre had put together such an unusual resume for his main character, Ted Mundy. Be patient with those details because Mr. Le Carre uses every one of them to develop his most intricate plot ever. This book will continue to surprise you with its plot twists and will reward careful reading. Those who have a very cynical view of the motives behind the invasion of Iraq in 2003 will love this book.

Brought up without a mother and with a distant father whose life was on the skids, Ted Mundy found himself looking for emotional connection. With a strong sympathy for the underdog and the oppressed, he finds himself some unusual friends among the radical community of his youth. Made of stern stuff, he willingly engages in helping them and becomes closely involved with antiauthoritarian Sasha in West Berlin. That unexpected connection becomes the central pivot of his life from then on. Try as he might to avoid it, he and Sasha are permanently linked through that youthful friendship. In essence, Ted Mundy's life becomes a resume that others are willing to interpret as supporting their views . . . and he finds himself unexpectedly draw into the espionage battles of the Cold War. Even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mundy's past becomes valuable to those who want to create new perceptions today. In the process, Mundy finds his good intentions and friendship unintentionally subverted.

The jacket copy for this book is misleading. It suggests that the story is mostly about the mysterious Dimitri, the idealistic billionaire who wants to recruit Ted Mundy. Except for a brief introduction, that section of the book comes only at the end. Most of the book deals with a flashback into Mundy's life before meeting Sasha and his involvement with Cold War spying. A lot of the action occurs behind the Iron Curtain, and pieces of the book will remind you of Mr. Le Carre's marvelous stories about espionage into East Germany.

The book has an Achilles heel though in that Mr. Le Carre needs such an unusual combination of characters that the plot builds on what seemed to me to often be dense, unrealistic details. I kept wondering why he was making up such preposterous backgrounds for his characters. In the end, all became clear . . . but the story's eventual ending could have been told without all the background. The book feels like two books, loosely bound together by a limited tether three-quarters of the way through. Without the last section, this could have been a five-star Cold War book. With a simpler development of the last section, this could have been a four-star book about political chicanery. I found the way they were bound together was just too big a stretch for me. I found myself focusing on the author's plotting, rather than just accepting the story. I do, however, admire the mind that could put all these pieces together.

If you are like me, the ending will leave you stunned and feeling queasy. Mr. Le Carre has a powerful message for us about the dangers of believing that everything is what we are told. Be skeptical!

As I finished the book, I wondered again about the proper balance among our responsibility to ourselves, our loved ones and our loyalties to greater causes. Mr. Le Carre seems to suggest that we shouldn't be so idealistic . . . the price is too high. But isn't our idealism what makes us noble and admirable? Perhaps he means nothing more than that we shouldn't abandon all else for our idealism.

This was my first foray into the world of John le Carre. I thought the book was rather enjoyable. There were some ineresting themes, other than the rather overt anger expressed over the current state of affairs with America and Great Britain's current Middle East policies.

Clearly le Carre is a novelist of great ability, and the book was very readable. I would caution anyone looking for the sheer excitement of a Ludlum spy novel, or even a Vince Flynn novel, to temper their expectations. The suspense in this book is not based on a great deal of "shoot em up" action. This is a quieter novel of introspection, focusing on two spies at the end of their careers. This book was about friendship, loyalty, and ideals.

A fine Read that lies in the 3.5 to 4.0 stars realm.