A Perfect Spy (Dramatised) Audiobook

" Witty, and beautifully written. I did not find it hugely entertaining, but there was plenty of food for thought. "

" As was my experience with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the beginning of this book was a little tough to get through, because Le Carre's prose can be pretty dense. But once I got past the first 40 pages or so, I couldn't put this down. The story moves backward and forward in time, jumping between the telling of Magnus Pym's life (as he retells in in a manuscript for his son) and scenes of the people who are trying to find him in present-day. It's not your conventional thriller, but it's very suspenseful. And the characters, even the minor ones, are so interesting and rich with detail. "

" Slow to get into the book and requires some effort. The pay off is worth the effort though with a deep leisurly examination of why someone would betray their country and the suspense really builds towards the end. "

" The book ran long, but the life and inner workings of vanished British spy Magnus Pym kept me involved to the end. Early in the story the reader discovers what the protagonist must resolve for himself, but his story of why he has done what he has and his search for resolution made the tale of schoolboy grown to spy a captivating read. "

" I was kind of surprised to find this book on Francine Prose's list of 100 books to be read immediately. So I read it. Underwhelming. Worth a read, but one of the 100 best? Puh-lease. "

" My favorite of John le Carre. I liked even better than Tinker, Tailor. Very complex, but not impossible to follow. I read with great deliberateness, trying to see if I could solve "the puzzle" that was being laid out; and yet, the ending took me totally by surprise. What a delightful treat! "

" Somewhere there's a joke about the fact that I read this while the guinea pig secret agent film "G Force" was playing on the deck of the cruise ship, but I can't find it right now. That said, a fascinating read - showing a spy from the angles of his family, his handlers, his contacts, and his friends breaks open the genre in a really interesting way. And the ending is both note-perfect and a corker. "

" Very confusing in the beginning. One has to persist through the introduction of many characters and then the tale unfolds with all the tangled tortured souls that inhabit le Carre's Cold War world. After all the intrigue and the brilliant development of the father character, the end disappoints. "

" A strange hybrid. The sections of the book concerning Pym's disappearance and the effect it has on his family and colleagues are good solid stuff. Unfortunately too much of the book is taken up with Pym's terribly over-written autobiography, that just goes on and on and on and on and on and on. Excruciating. "

" One of the best books about human tragedy you will ever read. "

" Excellent! In a month where I have literally had maybe 15 minutes a day to read, I still couldn't put this down! "

" stayed up til 3am to finish this and was really surprised by the ending. a wonderful book. not very many popular authors write as clearly as LeCarre and have a good sense of plot. "

" It may be his best book, as good as spy who came in from the cold but very different, in some ways not a spy novel at all but more about human relationships and friendship. "

" Read to 100 page mark and realized that though this book has beautiful prose and descriptive language, it wasn't going to meet my need for an engaging spy novel. "

" One of the best books I've read in a while. Also, one of the few that have actually surprised me. "

" I could not have cared less about what happened to any of the characters in this book. Maybe some of his other novels are a bit more compelling, but this one works wonders on insomnia. "

" I actually listened to a BBC dramatized version. Perhaps the actual book would have been better. It was simply a story and not all that intriguing. "

" Though it takes Le Carre a while to set the scene and characters, by page 70 it gets going. Love the quick banter which reveals the complex / complicated relationships between the characters. "