Absolute Friends
by John LeCarré

reviewed by Byron Merritt

John LeCarré is (was?) one of the premiere writers of the 20th century. With mind-bending novels like The Russia House and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, LeCarré has proven his metal in every literary sense.

But does an author’s previous abilities and successes necessarily equate to success now? The answer is an unfortunate “No”.

Why?

First, I noted that the dialogue and characters in Absolute Friends were VERY dated, the writing almost acting as if the author were trying to mine some of that gold he’d dug up during his earlier novels. But here, again, it just seemed dated.

And here’s why:

The story is about two washed-up Cold War spies who reconnect after years of being apart. Shasha is a stubborn fascist who believes that America is the embodiment of evil, while Ted Mundy (the main protagonist) acts as a tour guide to spectacular castles in England. And that’s about it. Seriously. There are flashbacks (MANY flashbacks) to their “good ole days of spying” and why they were doing it. Although both of these men did their deadly jobs (and did them well), they apparently were doing them for entirely different ideologies. But just by listening to their later conversations — which appear first in the book — it’s not much of a surprise to the reader (at least it wasn’t for me).

Most spy novels are action-packed, or at least suspenseful. But here, all we get are the ramblings of two old men reliving their hey-days and making social and political commentary on today’s war in Iraq and the corruption of Western style governments. Does that sound interesting to you? If I want commentary on these issues, all I have to do is pick up a newspaper or listen to NPR radio.

It took me a long time to get through this book, which speaks volumes about its washed-up style of writing and plodding plot.

I still have every respect for Mr. LeCarré and his earlier works. In fact, I have several of his books on my shelves that I’ll undoubtedly read again. But this one won’t be among them.