The Cold War is over, but John LeCarre continues to write about the place of individuals facing the chaos created by larger than life organizations. Now it is huge corporations, and he takes them on successfully.
The centuries old exploitation of the native peoples in Africa is well documented. As Tessa. the murdered wife in "The Constant Gardener" points out "it is their land, not the white man's. It was hoped that the end of overt colonialism would have returned control of "their land" to the Black Africans. However, the white man has brought these lands just far enough into modern times to open the average African to the exploitation of their own leaders. I am reminded of "Out of Africa" which tells of Kenya in the time, around World War I which prepared the Bantu and Dinka for the kind of exploitation which is described in this book. Someone once said that the ancient Scottish people were in more danger from the barons and clan chieftans than they were from the English who bribed Scottish leaders with land and gold. The same is true of today's African leaders. Many of them are the best money can buy.
This book tells a story which the "first world" needs to hear. Tessa Quayle, a young British lawyer and advocate for poor Africans, is found brutally murdered along with her friend and fellow activist, a black doctor. For months, Tessa has been a thorn in the side of the British High Commission in Kenya as she worked for the African Women's Equality Movement and against a mysterious drug company named Three Bees. Her work has also endangered her husband's position with the High Commission. He is looked upon as a light weight who will never move very high in diplomatic circles and can't even control his own wife.
However, they have misjudged Justin, and his deep love for his murdered wife motivates him to search, across the world, for the answers to whom she really was, and what she was really doing. As he moves from person to person gathering clues, the drug company security people follow him killing off each person as he speaks to them and trying to "persuade" Justin to give it up. However, Justin has lost everything valuable to him, and ending up dead might be a blessing in his now empty life. He goes about his search in the face of the PR of the British Diplomatic Corp in Kenya and London who are portraying Tessa as a bit unbalanced and a tramp who cuckolded Justin with the Black Doctor. As noted, subsequent facts prove how stupid these allegations are. Justin finally finds the answer back in Africa, and the book has an incredible ending which pulls the rug out from under the reader.
I have just read that there are hundreds of drugs, on file with the U.S. FDA, which have not been tested to this countries standards. Some of these drug formulations are 50 years old but can't be used because the drug companies which developed them haven't done the requisite tests. One of the reasons is that it is difficult to get U.S. citizens to agree to be guinea pigs for new drugs especially when they don't know if they are getting the real drug or a placebo. They would rather opt for tested drugs to fight their Cancers, Heart Disease, TB, etc. For this reason, the type of tests which are done on the Africans in this book may become even more wide spread than they are now.
I am encouraging my friends to read "The Constant Gardener". I would encourage all of you to do so also. The film, by the way, although very good, is no way as good as the book. I would prefer to think that time constraints (the book is 450 pages long) caused the need to cut major parts from the story. As good as the film is, the book is better.
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