2008-09-16 Le Carre may know his characters, but I don't have a clue who they are

I have to disagree with the other reviewers of this book. In fact, I can't even claim to have finished the book - I made it to page 149 before giving up. (Incidentally the only other book I had given up on before this was Catch 22.) It's not that Le Carre's writing is poor; he really has quite a good ear for the sound of his prose. It's just that I could not, despite my most strenuous efforts, keep pace with the plot. There are far too many characters, who after a while all seem to blur into one another and a good deal too many code names and operations. By page 149 I was totally and utterly confused by his Tolstoyesque myriad characters and diverging plot lines. I'm afraid there are much better books out there than this.