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rwalf's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
austinburns's review against another edition
4.0
more anticlimactic than usual from le carre, but the story was good
jpmneves's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
jason_pym's review against another edition
2.0
So far from his best, I feel bad about saying this, but it was tedious.
yandaman's review against another edition
3.0
Found this a bit boring, really. I think if I'd had to read it with my eyes I wouldn't have made it to the end. Instead, I listened to it with my ears while on an exercise bike and it was more effort to stop listening to it than to continue on and hope that it got better.
lanceschaubert's review against another edition
4.0
Dima may well be the funniest, wildest, crassest character in the Le Carre canon. All in all, this is a decent book. Certainly not Le Carrie’s best, but some key moments in this book illumine all of Le Carrie’s books:
• It maddens me how meticulous a storyteller Le Carre can be. The entire story comes down, in one way or another, to a professor and a tennis match and a bit of wiring on an emergency door. The tiniest details become so significant with Le Carrie’s deft hand
• The quiet of the novel and in all of his work stands at a stark contrast to James Bond. You can have a double homicide in a Le Carre novel and the mere lack of response is precisely why builds tension
• The craft of spying is never so well written as with John.
Great to see a master at work, even in a minor work.
But, having finished it, the double tragedy of two friends caught up in the mystical and mystifying web of spies — the sheer unknowns of how these things end for any poor souls involved — leaves us with the sort of ache we might have felt had we too been mere academics asked, while on summer break, to fetch some intelligence for our various countries of origin, only to watch the key members fall and fail.
We don't know why things explode, why they perish, where they go, from whence they come — we, like the citizens of the [b:The Men in Black: Initiation · Encounter · Invocation|3298393|The Men in Black Initiation · Encounter · Invocation|Lowell Cunningham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478043904l/3298393._SY75_.jpg|3335104] world, can only go about our merry lives if we *do not know about it*
And so we find ourselves watching planes take off from tarmacs and ships leaving port peacefully, only to find out about some utter devastation in the papers the next day that have no cause in terror, theft, money laundering, or any other typical nefarious purpose. The peace of spies comes not in lack of violence, wholeness, or sabbath.
But simply a Wittgensteinian move: that in terms of international relations, we speak about all we can speak about, but the rest we must pass over in silence.
• It maddens me how meticulous a storyteller Le Carre can be. The entire story comes down, in one way or another, to a professor and a tennis match and a bit of wiring on an emergency door. The tiniest details become so significant with Le Carrie’s deft hand
• The quiet of the novel and in all of his work stands at a stark contrast to James Bond. You can have a double homicide in a Le Carre novel and the mere lack of response is precisely why builds tension
• The craft of spying is never so well written as with John.
Great to see a master at work, even in a minor work.
But, having finished it, the double tragedy of two friends caught up in the mystical and mystifying web of spies — the sheer unknowns of how these things end for any poor souls involved — leaves us with the sort of ache we might have felt had we too been mere academics asked, while on summer break, to fetch some intelligence for our various countries of origin, only to watch the key members fall and fail.
We don't know why things explode, why they perish, where they go, from whence they come — we, like the citizens of the [b:The Men in Black: Initiation · Encounter · Invocation|3298393|The Men in Black Initiation · Encounter · Invocation|Lowell Cunningham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1478043904l/3298393._SY75_.jpg|3335104] world, can only go about our merry lives if we *do not know about it*
And so we find ourselves watching planes take off from tarmacs and ships leaving port peacefully, only to find out about some utter devastation in the papers the next day that have no cause in terror, theft, money laundering, or any other typical nefarious purpose. The peace of spies comes not in lack of violence, wholeness, or sabbath.
But simply a Wittgensteinian move: that in terms of international relations, we speak about all we can speak about, but the rest we must pass over in silence.
thisisstephenbetts's review against another edition
4.25
Great example of late Le Carré — themes of state-sanctioned and state-encumbered organized crime. Down-trodden, flawed secret service personnel, running wide-eyed plucky innocents who do the hard work out of a mix of idealism, responsibility and a sense of derring do. A young man with zeal and integrity who will come through in a crisis, and a young woman whose beauty is matched only by her integrity and loyalty, but touchingly barely seems to know it (I've mentioned before how Le Carré's women characters tend to be his weak spot). One of the major characters is a vory, and there is a great deal in there about their code of honor and ethics, and how it provided structure in a lawless country. I sound down on this book, but I think it was very good.
zach_collins's review
2.0
Our Kind of Traitor is a ho-hum “thriller” that contains very little action or explanation; whenever the protagonists aren’t playing or watching tennis, they are reciting long lists of characters who seem vaguely important but only giving the most cursory reasons why they are mentioned. There was an attempt at injecting some suspense through a non-linear structure, but the frequently changing narrators and perspectives is jarring at times and never once feels necessary. I did appreciate the verbal sparring, but even that became grating when it became obvious the author considers snarky wit as adequate characterization. As much as I enjoyed the clever banter early on, it annoyed me that every character spoke in the same sarcastic voice. I’ve heard Le Carre writes the best spy novels, but reading Our Kind of Traitor is about as fun as sitting through a staff meeting.
pachypedia's review against another edition
3.0
Es el primer libro que leo de Le Carré, y tengo que decir que no me ha convencido. La trama es buena, pero la forma de la narración, saltando de un tiempo a otro de una manera un tanto aleatoria, no me ha terminado de enganchar. Tampoco los personajes ayudan, ya que ninguno me pareció especialmente interesante.