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A Delicate Truth
- A Novel
- Narrated by: John le Carré
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
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Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating "historical over-reaching" by the British Secret Service “to investigate historical over-reaching.” Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so. But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn.
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Just about perfect
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"If Robert Littell didn't invent the American spy novel," says Tom Clancy, "he should have." In this spectacular Cold-War-as-Alice-in-Wonderland epic, Littell, "the American le Carre," takes us down the rabbit hole and into the labyrinthine world of espionage that has been the CIA for the last half-century. "Ostensibly a single novel, The Company can also be listened to as an anthology of cracking good spy stories," says ( Publishers Weekly).
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My Review of the Reviews
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By: Robert Littell
Publisher's summary
From the New York Times best-selling author of A Legacy of Spies. John le Carré’s new novel: Agent Running in the Field.
A counter-terrorist operation, code-named Wildlife, is being mounted on the British crown colony of Gibraltar. Its purpose: To capture and abduct a high-value jihadist arms buyer. Its authors: An ambitious Foreign Office Minister, a private defense contractor who is also his bosom friend, and a shady American CIA operative of the evangelical far-right. So delicate is the operation that even the Minister’s personal private secretary, Toby Bell, is not cleared for it. Three years later, a disgraced Special Forces Soldier delivers a message from the dead. Was Operation Wildlife the success it was cracked up to be - or a human tragedy that was ruthlessly covered up? Summoned by Sir Christopher “Kit” Probyn, retired British diplomat, to his decaying Cornish manor house, and closely observed by Kit’s daughter, Emily, Toby must choose between his conscience and duty to his service. If the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, how can he keep silent?
Critic reviews
"A novel that beckons us beyond any and all expectations." (Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post)
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Veteran con artist Roy spots an obvious easy mark when he meets Betty, a wealthy widow, online. In no time at all, he's moved into Betty's lovely cottage and is preparing to accompany her on a romantic trip to Europe. Betty's grandson disapproves of their blossoming relationship, but Roy is sure this scheme will be a success. He knows what he's doing. As this remarkable feat of storytelling weaves together Roy's and Betty's futures, it also unwinds their pasts.
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Hope the movie is better than the book?
- By S. Smith on 10-17-19
By: Nicholas Searle
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Down Cemetery Road
- By: Mick Herron
- Narrated by: Julia Franklin
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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When a house explodes in a quiet Oxford suburb and a young girl disappears in the aftermath, Sarah Tucker becomes obsessed with finding her. Accustomed to dull chores in a childless household and hosting her husband’s wearisome business clients for dinner, Sarah suddenly finds herself questioning everything she thought she knew, as her investigation reveals that people long believed dead are still among the living, while the living are fast joining the dead.
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Not as good as Slough House
- By wisconsinclark on 08-09-20
By: Mick Herron
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Knots and Crosses
- Inspector Rebus, Book 1
- By: Ian Rankin
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Detective John Rebus' city is being terrorized by a baffling series of murders…and he's tied to a maniac by an invisible knot of blood. As the ghoulish killings mount and the tabloid headlines scream, Rebus cannot stop the feverish shrieks from within his own mind. Because he isn't just one cop trying to catch a killer - he's the man who's got all the pieces to the puzzle…
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I've Read Mixed Reviews and Can Marry Them
- By Steve Mac on 02-13-16
By: Ian Rankin
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Amsterdam
- By: Ian McEwan
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The best-selling author of Atonement and Enduring Love, Ian McEwan is known as one of contemporary fiction’s most acclaimed writers. This Booker Prize-winning novel by McEwan finds two men connecting at the funeral of their ex-lover. Distressed by how she was slowly destroyed by an illness, the two make a pact to save each other from enduring such a fate.
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Make something, and die.
- By Darwin8u on 02-07-17
By: Ian McEwan
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The Danger
- By: Dick Francis
- Narrated by: Tony Britton
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Kidnapping is Andrew Douglas's business: they take them, he finds them. But it isn't so simple when Alessia Cenci, golden-girl jockey, disappears, followed by the young child of a derby winner and the senior steward of the Jockey Club. From Italy to England to Washington, D.C., Andrew's caseload is suddenly, violently overflowing. And he must fight triply hard to keep his own name off the growing list of victims.
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Good but disturbing
- By oseedee on 06-08-23
By: Dick Francis
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A Great Deliverance
- Inspector Lynley, Book 1
- By: Elizabeth George
- Narrated by: Donada Peters
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Into Keldale's pastoral web of old houses and older secrets comes Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Lynley, the eighth earl of Asherton. Along with the redoubtable Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, Lynley has been sent to solve a savage murder that has stunned the peaceful countryside. For fat, unlovely Roberta Teys has been found in her best dress, an ax in her lap, seated in the old stone barn beside her father's headless corpse. Her first and last words were "I did it. And I'm not sorry".
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good debut novel
- By Stevon on 11-11-19
By: Elizabeth George
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Hero: A Simon Serrailler Short Story
- By: Susan Hill
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 51 mins
- Unabridged
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When Simon Serrailler was a rookie constable with the Met, he did something reckless in the course of a night's work which caused a man's death. But his act was praised by his colleagues, and he was called a hero. Years later, now a detective chief superintendent who has been badly injured in the course of duty, he receives a medal for bravery at Buckingham Palace while recollecting that fateful night of his early career, when chance disguised itself as bravery.
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This 'story' makes no sense to me
- By Pamela Donaldson on 05-10-17
By: Susan Hill
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The Jewel in the Crown
- Raj Quartet
- By: Paul Scott
- Narrated by: Sam Dastor
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In the India of 1942, two rapes take place simultaneously - that of an English girl in Mayapore, and that of India by the British. In each, physical violence, racial animosity, the coercion of the weak by the strong all play their part, but playing a part too are love, affection, loyalty, and recognition that the last division of all to be overcome is the colour of the skin.
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This is one to get
- By Jeremy on 10-28-14
By: Paul Scott
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Frozen Out
- Gunnhildur Mystery, Book 1
- By: Quentin Bates
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The discovery of a corpse washed up on a beach in an Icelandic backwater sparks a series of events that propels the village of Hvalvik's police sergeant Gunnhildur into deep waters. Although under pressure to deal with the matter quickly, she is suspicious that the man's death was no accident and once she has identified the body, sets about investigating his final hours. The case takes Gunnhildur away from her village and into a cosmopolitan world of shady deals, government corruption and violence.
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Narration completely mismatched to genre and story
- By Knitosophy on 10-20-16
By: Quentin Bates
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Odds Against
- By: Dick Francis
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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It’s amazing what bodily injury can do for a man. A fall from a racehorse left brilliant jockey Sid Halley dangerously depressed, with a wrecked hand and the need for a new career. It was a bullet wound that helped him find one.
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Fabulous!
- By motown on 02-10-15
By: Dick Francis
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A Spy by Nature
- A Novel
- By: Charles Cumming
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Alec Milius is young, smart, and ambitious. He also has a talent for deception. He is working in a dead-end job when a chance encounter leads him to MI6, the elite British Secret Intelligence Service, handing him an opportunity to play center stage in a dangerous game of espionage.
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I highly recommend this little gem
- By Chou Young on 02-14-08
By: Charles Cumming
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Smiley is the spies' spy.
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Only a tease, a taunt of le Carré's brilliance
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A lawyer from the London finance house of Single & Single is shot dead on a Turkish hillside by people with whom he thought he was in business. A children's magician is asked by his bank to explain the unsolicited arrival of more than five million pounds sterling in his young daughter's modest trust. A freighter bound for Liverpool is boarded by Russian coast guards in the Black Sea. The celebrated London merchant venturer "Tiger" Single disappears into thin air.
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"Glasnost" is on everyone's lips, but the rules of the game haven’t changed for either side. When a beautiful Russian woman foists off a manuscript on an unwitting bystander at the Moscow Book Fair, it's a miracle that she flies under the Soviets' radar. Or does she? The woman's source (codename: Bluebird) will trust only Barley Blair, a whiskey-soaked gentleman publisher with a poet's heart.
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Spying is Waiting.
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The Night Manager
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John le Carré, the legendary author of sophisticated spy thrillers, is at the top of his game in this classic novel of a world in chaos. With the Cold War over, a new era of espionage has begun. In the power vacuum left by the Soviet Union, arms dealers and drug smugglers have risen to immense influence and wealth. The sinister master of them all is Richard Onslow Roper, the charming, ruthless Englishman whose operation seems untouchable.
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Good book. Get the Michael Jayston version instead
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The never-before-seen correspondence of John le Carré, one of the most important novelists of our generation, is collected in this beautiful volume. During his lifetime, le Carré wrote numerous letters to writers, spies, politicians, artists, actors and public figures. This collection is a treasure trove, revealing the late author's humor, generosity, and wit—a side of him many listeners have not previously seen.
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Truly engrossing from start to finish
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From his years serving in British Intelligence during the Cold War, to a career as a writer that took him from war-torn Cambodia to Beirut on the cusp of the 1982 Israeli invasion to Russia before and after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, le Carré has always written from the heart of modern times. In this, his first memoir, le Carré is as funny as he is incisive, reading into the events he witnesses the same moral ambiguity with which he imbues his novels.
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A Global Literary Treasure
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Not one of Le Carré's best
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John le Carré Value Collection
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Night Manager: Enter the new world of post-Cold War espionage. Penetrate the secret world of ruthless arms dealers and drug smugglers who have risen to unthinkable power and wealth. Our Game: With the Cold War fought and won, British spymaster Tim Cranmer accepts early retirement to rural England and a new life with his alluring young mistress, Emma.... Tailor of Panama: Le Carre's Panama is a Casablanca without heroes, a hotbed of drugs, laundered money and corruption. It is also the country which on December 31, 1999, will gain full control of the Panama Canal.
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you want to know what I think?
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By: John le Carré
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Our Kind of Traitor
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In the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and with Britain on the brink of economic ruin, a young English couple takes a vacation in Antigua. There they meet Dima, a Russian who styles himself the world’s number one money launderer and who wants, among other things, a game of tennis. Back in London, the couple is subjected to an interrogation by the British Secret Service, who also need their help. Their acquiescence will lead them on a precarious journey through Paris to a safe house in Switzerland, helpless pawns in a game of nations.
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Be Prepared - Read at your own risk
- By Tim on 10-20-10
By: John le Carré
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The Little Drummer Girl
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On holiday in Mykonos, Charlie wants only sunny days and a brief escape from England's bourgeois dreariness. Then a handsome stranger lures the aspiring actress away from her pals - but his intentions are far from romantic. Joseph is an Israeli intelligence officer, and Charlie has been wooed to flush out the leader of a Palestinian terrorist group responsible for a string of deadly bombings. Still uncertain of her own allegiances, she debuts in the role of a lifetime as a double agent in the "theatre of the real".
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Terror is Theatre: Le Carré Awakens Anger & Love
- By Darwin8u on 07-24-12
By: John le Carré
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A Most Wanted Man
- By: John le Carré
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New spies with new loyalties, old spies with old ones; terror as the new mantra; decent people wanting to do good but caught in the moral maze; all the sound, rational reasons for doing the inhuman thing; the recognition that we cannot safely love or pity and remain good "patriots" -- this is the fabric of John le Carré's fiercely compelling audiobook A Most Wanted Man.
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Nobody reads it better...than the writer himself!
- By David A. on 03-15-22
By: John le Carré
What listeners say about A Delicate Truth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- connie
- 05-10-13
I haven't enjoyed a tale this much in many listens
Although this is didactic Le Carre -- a cautionary tale of war and intelligence gone corporate -- it’s also a very exciting listen. Le Carre's plot, prose, character, and dialogue are superior to any other espionage novelist I've encountered, and he’s at his best when creating ethical dilemmas (though any including defense contractors and lobbyist-types are less morally ambiguous than in some of his classic novels!)
I loved loved loved being read to by Le Carre! The narration is actually excellent once your ear tunes into him, except for one questionable production choice, an incident of which pops up in the audio sample provided: A "handler" when on a telephone echoes like bad long distance circa cold war landlines. This is not characteristic of the listen as a whole, however.
As a novel this may not stand among Le Carre’s finest, but as a contemporary espionage yarn it can’t be beat. There are some now standard le Carre characters and political stances, but what delightful dialogue, character observation and sharp turns-of-phrases. Graham Greene would have loved this entertainment.
This novel reminds me of why I love reading. Having the author tell me the story and "turn his own phrase" and "bite" his own dialogue is icing.
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- Darwin8u
- 05-15-13
A latter-day Jeremiah of espionage & statecraft.
If for whatever reason, during the last twenty years, you've missed John le Carré's anger, and if his last 10 books were too subtle for you, and if you didn't catch le Carré's moral outrage in 'the Constant Gardner' and 'a Most Wanted Man', then you might need to skip 'A Delicate Truth'. In his newest novel, John le Carré tackles the amoral world of private contract espionage, rendition, and ineptness. Le Carré attacks Western ethics, Western hypocrisy, the West's venal “war gone corporate.”
John le Carré war is a battle of young idealism vs amoral and often incompetent mercenaries. It is a war of principled, but flawed individuals vs what Olen Steinhauer summarized as the "shortsightedness, hypocrisy, lies and unfettered greed that plagues the “post-imperial, post-cold-war world".
This isn't the most artful of le Carré's novels, but it is probably one of his sharpest. He dares the reader to follow him in his role as a latter-day Jeremiah of espionage and statecraft. He condemns the hypocrisy and the false gods of the Post-Iraq War/WOT West in his aim to "root out, pull down, destroy and throw down" the inhuman idols of the West. His NeoCon critics might aim for le Carré's eyes, but they can't destroy his vision or overlook his balls
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- Mel
- 05-17-13
May i sneak in here?
I would have passed on reviewing this novel as the last le Carré novel I read was Constant Gardner, followed by about a third of Tinker Tailor..., and I feel there are more informed le Carré fans that already cover his books with better insight than I could. But, I recommended this book to a friend that disliked it very much, surprised that I liked it at all. Looking again at the reviews (which convinced me to try le Carré again), I realized most of the reviewers indicate they are fans or followers of le Carré's work. I'm a fan, but not so consistent. I view le Carré's novels as timeless, sophisticated writing about British espionage, characteristically strongly tinted with lively moral outrage, (and--nothing like James Bond) -- I've followed his books long enough to accept this caveat upon purchase. I now understand how a reader experiencing the le Carré phenomenon for the first time might think they are getting a lightweight piece of British noir from a white-hat-wearing cantankerous Brit with a bad taste for Americans and a diseased society.
Le Carré characters tell the story to the reader with a person to person intimate style, very much in character, passing along the top secret story and bringing the reader into the espionage, something he does better than any contemporary writer in this genre. As in any conversation, if you aren't listening to the person speaking to you, especially in the sometimes hushed tones of esoteric code-speak, affected with the innuendo of the specific lifestyle, you won't know what is going on. A Delicate Truth begins in a confusing maelstrom of events; le Carré doesn't insult the reader's intelligence by spoon-feeding you the game plan, or by bloating the dialogue with information -- attention and observation crystallize the details as you listen. The characters aren't overly sketched, but the details garnered are artfully defining and individual hallmarks. He leaves the tech-gadgets to Ian Fleming, relying more on integrity and honor than reflexive aim and brute force (which I am also all for). The action may not get your adrenalin pumping, but the dead-on assessment of our global greed and ruthlessness drives in deeper than any bullet could.
This wasn't my fav le Carré, but I did think it a good one -- a return to a style of his books I preferred, with taught suspense and a plot that could erupt in a single simple action (or lack thereof). I enjoyed being a part of the intellectual and moral process. The author's bona fide performance as narrator, with his *humphs* and audible exasperations, gives an added exuberance to the story and the characters. I fault myself for not giving my friend the *caveat* with the recommendation--maybe he would have approached the book the wiser. I enjoyed le Carré again, and am glad I took the time to read the reviews of his fans. A good thoughtful listen in true le Carré style.
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- Cris
- 06-29-13
Cannot get into this book
Please let me exchange it. Audible advertises this service but they do not make it easy to actually accomplish this task.
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- Paul
- 05-20-13
The Constant Gardener redux?
I really enjoy John LeCarre books. They are all so erudite. However, I have two complaints with this reading. First, the language of the British elite becomes very annoying over time and very difficult to understand for a non-Britisher. Do they really speak this way? It was almost as if LeCarre was reading at 1 1/2 speed. I even tried to listen to the book at .75 speed but it sounded ridiculous. My second complaint is that this plot seemed exactly like The Constant Gardener. It's nice to think that there are people like the protagonist who is willing to sacrifice his life for "the truth" but I find it hard to believe that a person with his experience in Government service would have stayed in this service. The fact that several innocents who are collateral damage in a botched plot would drive all of these hard bitten men to sacrifice their lives is too much to swallow. I think the statement by the "bad guy" at the end who said, "if you want to see collateral damage, watch the films of drone strikes," was really the most rational argument against the protagonist's idealistic pleadings. The plot veered to much towards a "Bourne Identity" one in that every move the protagonist made was instantly known and acted upon by the Government and its henchment and undercut LeCarre's belief that the Government was stupid and plodding. The fact implied in the book that the Government was bought and paid for by private industry and that its agents had the ability to instantaneously react to a phone call is not believable. The ultimate feeling one comes away with is that the situation is hopeless and all good mens' actions are a waste of time and they will die in the attempt to fulfill their ideals. Wasn't that the take away from The Constant Gardener?
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- Susianna
- 05-28-13
Wrestling With Right & Wrong in a Postmodern World
In order to accurately reflect the current state of global affairs, this is the novel Le Carre had to write. We live in a postmodern world where the word 'truth' itself must be deconstructed into 'my truth' or 'according to the Judeo-Christian tradition' in order to be clear as to exactly what's being discussed. Postmodernism is here to stay and with it, the moral confusion that has brought western foreign policy (almost) grinding to a halt. Le Carre doesn't flinch from this reality and he's crafted an enthralling tale that 'shows rather than tells' what happens when moral ambiguity creeps in to mess with everything we thought was right or wrong. It's not a comfortable tale and that's the point. One can't help but wonder if Le Carre misses Smiley's Circus and the simplicity of the Cold War as much as we do.There are no simple answers anymore. And yet, Smiley's legacy is seen in the courage and conscience shown by the novel's protagonists as they fight to expose and redeem evil within the system. The fact that they are fighting at all gives hope that corruption, once exposed, will ignite public passion for transparency and restraint. After finishing "A Delicate Truth" I'm not sure if Le Carre believes redemption is possible. But one thing is obvious, he does exhort those confronted with what their conscience knows is evil, to strengthen their resolve and go down swinging.
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- Howie
- 05-13-13
Like Le Carre? You'll love this one....
An espionage novel that works well outside the Cold War, cerebral but not pretentious.
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- Absolute friend
- 05-13-13
He can't write his novels fast enough for me.....
Would you listen to A Delicate Truth again? Why?
First of all, he's a marvelous reader. Usually I hate it when an author wants to read his own book, but he was great. He had accents for everyone. He just couldn't do it for women though. And the story is intricate enough to deserve a second listen. But I want more too. Write faster please.
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- Thaddeus
- 06-21-13
Well done, superb story of secret wars
What did you love best about A Delicate Truth?
Well read and glorious use of language. The protagonist has a very difficult time trying to understand the nature of the thing(s) that he has experienced. This would be the case for any of us who cannot imagine the new dark war reality.The actual reading of the book is superb. Mr. LeCarre' has taken us to other adventures in the muddled world of the war on terror and has shown us that the people charged with its execution have become what they beheld. Sobering, to say the least.
What other book might you compare A Delicate Truth to and why?
Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield by Jeremy Schahill
What about John le Carre’s performance did you like?
His love of words and his extraordinary use of the language
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes
Any additional comments?
Being a veteran of the intelligence/security business, I love LeCarre's ability to show the importance of the human element in the whole seedy business. Human intelligence is ultimately ruled by the vagaries of the human heart.
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- Craig
- 06-05-13
You already know how it ends
What would have made A Delicate Truth better?
If it wasn't so predictable. And if the characters were not so cartoonish. LeCarre's first few books were wonderful, complex, and unpredictable. His last few run like this: The good guys will end badly. They will end badly after making utterly stupid mistakes that the protagonists in his first few novels would have considered incompetent. In "A Delicate Truth" the good guys, all of them, achieve nothing toward their moral and praiseworthy goal, because they act like rookies, despite their years of experience and knowledge of tradecraft.
What do you think your next listen will be?
Something not by John LeCarre.
Which character – as performed by John le Carre – was your favorite?
Toby.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from A Delicate Truth?
The last half of the novel.
Any additional comments?
I used to love John LeCarre. That was when his characters, both good and evil, behaved intelligently. His last 4 novels involve characters who behave like rank amateurs. In "A Delicate Truth", the main protagonist doesn't see things coming, which a 3rd grade reader would see coming a mile away. There is never any surprise anymore in his novels. The good guys are moral. They are self-defeating. They will end up very badly. The instrument of their bad ends will be telegraphed long before the end of the novel, and reader will wonder how the protagonist could not have seen it coming, when everyone else could. Sad ending for John LeCarre. He used to be able to write fiction. Now he writes cartoons.
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