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Our Game
Le Carré's post-Cold War masterpiece, filled with suspense, betrayal, desire and drama
The Cold War is over and retired secret servant Tim Cranmer has been put out to pasture, spending his days making wine on his Somerset estate. But then he discovers that his former double agent Larry - dreamer, dissolute, philanderer and disloyal friend - has vanished, along with Tim's mistress. As their trail takes him to the lawless wilds of Russia and the North Caucasus, he is forced to question everything he stood for.
402 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 1995
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3855 people want to read
About the author
John le Carré
376 books9,468 followersJohn le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England), was an English author of espionage novels. Le Carré had resided in St Buryan, Cornwall, Great Britain, for more than 40 years, where he owned a mile of cliff close to Land's End.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 522 reviews
September 6, 2024
‘So we shot people…A lot of people. Some were good men and shouldn’t have been shot. Others were lazy bastards and should have been shot ten times. So how many people has God killed? For what? How many does He Kill unjustly every day, without reason, or explanation, or compassion? And we were only men. And we had a reason.’ (Page 264)
Tim Cranmer a ‘Smiley’ type character. Retired, divorced and cuckolded by his mistress -Emma - for an old school friend and double agent he once ran - Larry Pettifer. Coming into money through an Aunts legacy and now running his uncles unsuccessful winery. The money will trigger the police and secret service into incriminating him in his double agents apparent embezzlement of £37 million from the Russians. With a shady bunch known as the ‘Forest’ shedding blood in the UK to recover.
Classic le Carre. The story ambles around England until emerging at the end in the Russian Caucus. It’s moralistic and profoundly sad in the seedy way le Carre paints a story. And the interrogation scene with the two British detectives is sublime.
I really enjoyed it. I reflected on the ending thinking was it a weak one and decided it wasn’t. The final part of the story was Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ and the search for Kurtz (Larry Pettifer).
Luckily I have many more of the Authors works to devour. Whilst the ‘Smiley’ series were my favourites his later works are still crackers.
Ps proof error page 143 in my 2015 Penguin Classic edition - page 3 and page 13 reference to bank book mixed up.
Tim Cranmer a ‘Smiley’ type character. Retired, divorced and cuckolded by his mistress -Emma - for an old school friend and double agent he once ran - Larry Pettifer. Coming into money through an Aunts legacy and now running his uncles unsuccessful winery. The money will trigger the police and secret service into incriminating him in his double agents apparent embezzlement of £37 million from the Russians. With a shady bunch known as the ‘Forest’ shedding blood in the UK to recover.
Classic le Carre. The story ambles around England until emerging at the end in the Russian Caucus. It’s moralistic and profoundly sad in the seedy way le Carre paints a story. And the interrogation scene with the two British detectives is sublime.
I really enjoyed it. I reflected on the ending thinking was it a weak one and decided it wasn’t. The final part of the story was Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ and the search for Kurtz (Larry Pettifer).
Luckily I have many more of the Authors works to devour. Whilst the ‘Smiley’ series were my favourites his later works are still crackers.
Ps proof error page 143 in my 2015 Penguin Classic edition - page 3 and page 13 reference to bank book mixed up.
July 4, 2018
This book is classic Le Carre.
Possible spoiler.....
I didn’t like the ending though. For me it was a bit of a let down. The momentum was built up through the story and then it dropped off into nothing.
Hopefully the next Le Carre book will be a 5 star one.
Possible spoiler.....
I didn’t like the ending though. For me it was a bit of a let down. The momentum was built up through the story and then it dropped off into nothing.
Hopefully the next Le Carre book will be a 5 star one.
May 17, 2021
An unusual style for Le Carre in that it is essentially a love story intertwined with a spy-gone-wrong affair. It is also told in the first person which I am not normally a fan of. The story is told in a series of vignettes that travel back and forth through time and it is testimony to the quality of JLC's authorship that not once did I mistake the time period in which he was narrating.
Tim Cranmer was the British spymaster who ran field agent Larry Pettifer for a quarter of a century before they were both 'retired'. They know each other too well and when Larry apparently turns 'rogue', Tim sets out to track him down. There is a shared love interest and the entire story relates to Russian post-cold-war politics in the real life Caucasus. As always, JLC's research into the background of this unique geopolitical area is second to none. The story unfolds at a pace that switches from serene to frantic and I had no problem reading the novel in less than a day.
I loved this book because it was different to JLC's normal work and because it is beautifully narrated by the master storyteller.
Tim Cranmer was the British spymaster who ran field agent Larry Pettifer for a quarter of a century before they were both 'retired'. They know each other too well and when Larry apparently turns 'rogue', Tim sets out to track him down. There is a shared love interest and the entire story relates to Russian post-cold-war politics in the real life Caucasus. As always, JLC's research into the background of this unique geopolitical area is second to none. The story unfolds at a pace that switches from serene to frantic and I had no problem reading the novel in less than a day.
I loved this book because it was different to JLC's normal work and because it is beautifully narrated by the master storyteller.
December 17, 2009
I can't believe that there are people on GR who found this book boring. What is to bore with Le Carré's beautiful writing? What is to bore with a book that teaches so much about the forgotten people, the Ingush, and the intrigues and treachery of Russian politics? What is to bore with the master of the spy novel - no, forget it, I just don't understand such comments.
For me this book was like lovely, almost syrupy, ruby port and the richest fruit cake. I wanted to upend the bottle and guzzle the port, I wanted to fill my mouth with the cake until my cheeks bulged, but then, on the contrary, and perhaps more lovingly, I wanted to sip and nibble so as to delay finishing. I can still taste it.
For me this book was like lovely, almost syrupy, ruby port and the richest fruit cake. I wanted to upend the bottle and guzzle the port, I wanted to fill my mouth with the cake until my cheeks bulged, but then, on the contrary, and perhaps more lovingly, I wanted to sip and nibble so as to delay finishing. I can still taste it.
October 27, 2013
Read in October / Goodreads defaulting to August 2013. This is the first Le Carre I haven't enjoyed. I kept reading it only because he writes so compellingly that it's hard to stop reading but the storyline became more and more ridiculous and the ending is absurd. I skim read much of it towards the end which is something I very rarely do. I'm a big enough fan that this won't put me off reading more of his work but I am hugely disappointed.
I also have to say that it would be easy to become increasingly tired of Le Carre's central characters being middle aged men, ill at ease with themselves, full of self doubt, hopeless at relationships and, quite frankly, often depressed and depressing. I'm trying to overcome this in the interests of usually very gripping and interesting storylines. I live in hope!!
I also have to say that it would be easy to become increasingly tired of Le Carre's central characters being middle aged men, ill at ease with themselves, full of self doubt, hopeless at relationships and, quite frankly, often depressed and depressing. I'm trying to overcome this in the interests of usually very gripping and interesting storylines. I live in hope!!
October 28, 2021
Gives the same vibes as the Constant Gardner, except instead of being set in Africa its spiritual center is Ingushetia. Beautiful, tragic, a Byronic love triangle that is also a story of conversions and awakenings. Sometimes you have to die to live. Sometimes you have to kill to love.
September 17, 2024
Strange or not, it depends on what you're expecting from a novel in order to give an opinion.
So, it's Our Game a policier? Not.
A thriller? Perhaps not.
A metaphor book? So and so.
A love story? Only partially.
A hermetic one? That's for sure.
So, pull the line and count...
So, it's Our Game a policier? Not.
A thriller? Perhaps not.
A metaphor book? So and so.
A love story? Only partially.
A hermetic one? That's for sure.
So, pull the line and count...
January 29, 2025
Spoilers below
This is an oblique and meditative book where the impotence of the British establishment in a post-Cold War world is equalled by the bleak inadequacy of Tim Cranmer, an ex-spy who loses his mistress to his friend, his joe and his rival, Larry Pettifer.
In lots of ways, this is a subtle doppelganger story told, unusually for John Le Carré, in a 1st person which allows us into the claustrophobic and desolate mind of Cranmer. Friends from their time at public school, Cranmer is Pettifer's handler, thinks of himself as having 'created' Larry as a double Soviet agent, and tells himself he is taking responsibility for Larry apparently going rogue.
But this is Le Carré and things are more psychologically complicated that this. For not only has Larry disappeared with Cranmer's mistress, but he has held onto a passionate - if naive - sense of moral mission which Cranmer himself, along with the Service, has never had. And, in a key scene, Cranmer tries to kill Larry - while never being quite sure whether this has happened only in his head or not, and equates it with a form of fantasized self-annihilation.
This is undoubtedly mature Le Carré that uses the world of espionage to think about a man adrift, without values, disillusioned as much by himself as by anything external to him. The political setting of Muslim would-be breakout states in the Caucasus and their fate under Soviet and then Russian brutal rule is vividly rendered, for sure, but the real conflict here is the one raging in Tim Cranmer's head.
Don't come to this expecting the excitement of a spy plot - this is deep, elliptical and despairing.
Maybe you don't want to find your friend, but to be him
This is an oblique and meditative book where the impotence of the British establishment in a post-Cold War world is equalled by the bleak inadequacy of Tim Cranmer, an ex-spy who loses his mistress to his friend, his joe and his rival, Larry Pettifer.
In lots of ways, this is a subtle doppelganger story told, unusually for John Le Carré, in a 1st person which allows us into the claustrophobic and desolate mind of Cranmer. Friends from their time at public school, Cranmer is Pettifer's handler, thinks of himself as having 'created' Larry as a double Soviet agent, and tells himself he is taking responsibility for Larry apparently going rogue.
But this is Le Carré and things are more psychologically complicated that this. For not only has Larry disappeared with Cranmer's mistress, but he has held onto a passionate - if naive - sense of moral mission which Cranmer himself, along with the Service, has never had. And, in a key scene, Cranmer tries to kill Larry - while never being quite sure whether this has happened only in his head or not, and equates it with a form of fantasized self-annihilation.
This is undoubtedly mature Le Carré that uses the world of espionage to think about a man adrift, without values, disillusioned as much by himself as by anything external to him. The political setting of Muslim would-be breakout states in the Caucasus and their fate under Soviet and then Russian brutal rule is vividly rendered, for sure, but the real conflict here is the one raging in Tim Cranmer's head.
Don't come to this expecting the excitement of a spy plot - this is deep, elliptical and despairing.
May 16, 2008
"FURIOUS IN ACTION...TAKES US BY THE NECK ON PAGE ONE AND NEVER LETS GO." That's how the Chicago Sun Times describes this book. My own impression: "BORING". The tale could be a good one if fleshed out more, but plot plods along with very little action or suspense. To call this book thrilling would be gross hyperbole. LeCarre tells you about what's happening rather than showing you. Perhaps I'm just too American in my preferences, and the author's dry British style doesn't provide me with enough energy to keep my interest. Or perhaps he just wrote a really dull book.
April 4, 2008
There was one spot in this book which recalled for me the pleasure I used to find in LeCarre's Smiley novels. But the rest of it did little for me. Immediately afterwards I picked up an Elmore Leonard mystery, and Leonard's lean, pared-down style made LeCarre's wordy and elliptical manner seem a hard slog by comparison. Oh, and once again the main character's wife is running around with another man. Can't this guy write a book without that leitmotif? With Smiley it was at the time a different kind of plot device and evoked sympathy for the main character. But when you encounter it in book after book, it gets tiresome.
October 12, 2022
In a recent interview with Der Spiegel, the political scientist Gwendolyn Sasse warns that the idea that the USSR underwent a "peaceful breakup" in the late 90s is a dangerous mistake:
Spiegel: In your book you criticize a common misconception in the west - specifically, that the Soviet Union collapsed in a largely peaceful manner in 1991. But there were resulting wars in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, Chechnya.
Sasse: From a western perspective, these conflicts seemed distant and unimportant. However, tens of thousands of lives were lost, hundreds of thousands were expelled. The current war in Ukraine is also a consequence of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. There was no peaceful break-up of the Soviet Union. These perceptions reflect our judgments and misunderstandings, not the reality.
Spiegel: Also the hope for a free and peaceful era after the end of the Cold War.
Sasse: It was a time stamped by optimism and illusions. From the belief that a system of democracy and market economy had prevailed globally, and that there was a prospect of sustainable peace. These wars didn’t fit that. Thus how brutal the end of the Soviet Union was has long been overlooked. An imperium does not simply vanish: structures, identities, claims, and legacies continue to have an effect and lead us directly to Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine.
I think this excerpt is worth quoting at some length because in the light of current events, le Carré's novel Our Game appears more relevant than ever, and leads the reader to a similar set of conclusions.
The primary action regards an ill-used ethnic group in the Caucuses called the Ingush, who have fought for survival and freedom for centuries against the hegemony and depredations of the Russians and their neighbors the Ossetians. At the beginning of the book, all these events seem relatively distant and unimportant to our protagonist, as to Sasse's putative westerner, even though he ran intelligence operations during the Cold War for decades with a Russian liaison who was himself Ingush, and whose family suffered terribly during the mass deportation of his people under Stalin.
But now the Cold War is over, and our hero or anti-hero believes that at last he can live simply and for himself, doting on his beautiful too-young-for-him girlfriend and living quietly in his country estate. Until the proverbial knock on the door late one night brings him the troubling news that his best friend and former report has vanished suddenly, drawing him back into the Great Game he thought he'd left behind.
The rest of the book unfolds with customary le Carré excellence, with many disturbing conundrums and surprises, which I will lead to the reader to discover. But I will note something about what I take to be the book's modernist influences - a certain note of T. S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi" and Conrad's Heart of Darkness hang over the thing, and the attentive reader will note an interesting fact of its structure, which I would characterize as an antitype to Joseph Campbell's famous monomyth. The Hero's Journey, per Campbell, has three primary phases: departure, apotheosis, and return. The hero dies to their old life and is reborn with a new commitment, then returns to their point of origin with a "new dispensation," with what the Mahayana Buddhists have called "gift-bestowing hands."
There is a modernist counterpart which consists of exactly one half of this journey, but the apotheosis fails, and the powers of life prove to be inadequate to the challenge at hand, or at least to the psychology of our hero. It is this that reminds me of Eliot's poem about the Three Wise Men, who return from their journey "no longer at ease," having been transformed in a negative sense, no longer functional in the old regime but not at home in the new.
I'm a big le Carré fan and this book does not disappoint. Personally, I'd rank him above most of the contemporary aspirants to the literary, despite his work in genre fiction, both in depth and in technique, and his books are invariably fascinating case studies into matters of great contemporary relevance.
Spiegel: In your book you criticize a common misconception in the west - specifically, that the Soviet Union collapsed in a largely peaceful manner in 1991. But there were resulting wars in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, Chechnya.
Sasse: From a western perspective, these conflicts seemed distant and unimportant. However, tens of thousands of lives were lost, hundreds of thousands were expelled. The current war in Ukraine is also a consequence of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. There was no peaceful break-up of the Soviet Union. These perceptions reflect our judgments and misunderstandings, not the reality.
Spiegel: Also the hope for a free and peaceful era after the end of the Cold War.
Sasse: It was a time stamped by optimism and illusions. From the belief that a system of democracy and market economy had prevailed globally, and that there was a prospect of sustainable peace. These wars didn’t fit that. Thus how brutal the end of the Soviet Union was has long been overlooked. An imperium does not simply vanish: structures, identities, claims, and legacies continue to have an effect and lead us directly to Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine.
I think this excerpt is worth quoting at some length because in the light of current events, le Carré's novel Our Game appears more relevant than ever, and leads the reader to a similar set of conclusions.
The primary action regards an ill-used ethnic group in the Caucuses called the Ingush, who have fought for survival and freedom for centuries against the hegemony and depredations of the Russians and their neighbors the Ossetians. At the beginning of the book, all these events seem relatively distant and unimportant to our protagonist, as to Sasse's putative westerner, even though he ran intelligence operations during the Cold War for decades with a Russian liaison who was himself Ingush, and whose family suffered terribly during the mass deportation of his people under Stalin.
But now the Cold War is over, and our hero or anti-hero believes that at last he can live simply and for himself, doting on his beautiful too-young-for-him girlfriend and living quietly in his country estate. Until the proverbial knock on the door late one night brings him the troubling news that his best friend and former report has vanished suddenly, drawing him back into the Great Game he thought he'd left behind.
The rest of the book unfolds with customary le Carré excellence, with many disturbing conundrums and surprises, which I will lead to the reader to discover. But I will note something about what I take to be the book's modernist influences - a certain note of T. S. Eliot's "Journey of the Magi" and Conrad's Heart of Darkness hang over the thing, and the attentive reader will note an interesting fact of its structure, which I would characterize as an antitype to Joseph Campbell's famous monomyth. The Hero's Journey, per Campbell, has three primary phases: departure, apotheosis, and return. The hero dies to their old life and is reborn with a new commitment, then returns to their point of origin with a "new dispensation," with what the Mahayana Buddhists have called "gift-bestowing hands."
There is a modernist counterpart which consists of exactly one half of this journey, but the apotheosis fails, and the powers of life prove to be inadequate to the challenge at hand, or at least to the psychology of our hero. It is this that reminds me of Eliot's poem about the Three Wise Men, who return from their journey "no longer at ease," having been transformed in a negative sense, no longer functional in the old regime but not at home in the new.
I'm a big le Carré fan and this book does not disappoint. Personally, I'd rank him above most of the contemporary aspirants to the literary, despite his work in genre fiction, both in depth and in technique, and his books are invariably fascinating case studies into matters of great contemporary relevance.
February 27, 2015
Tim Cranmer--a prematurely retired British secret service agent--is asked by both the local police and his former employers about the disappearance of Dr. Larry Pettifer, his childhood acquaintance and long-time double agent against the former Soviet Union. However, not only has Larry disappeared, but also ₤37 million from the Russian government and Emma, Tim's young girlfriend.
This is my second time through this novel. The first time was almost twenty years ago, when it was first released. Times have changed, and so have I, but this book remains an overlooked gem in a remarkable writing career.
Knowing about the plot twists and the eventual outcome doesn't hinder the reading of this story at all. At its heart, it's a story of friendship and betrayal, loyalty to a greater cause, and a discussion about the West's role (or lack thereof) regarding Russia's dealings with breakaway regions. It also deals with British Intelligence's (misguided) belief that Russia is their friend now and no longer any worry. Not only are these facets timeless in their relevance, but Russia's current actions in Ukraine bring this story around full-circle.
Overall, this novel is heavier on narrative and character and lighter on plot than, say, the George Smiley novels, and there is a lengthy interview close to the beginning that could be off-putting for new readers. I wouldn't suggest it as a first place to start with le Carré, but it's okay if you already have a few of his novels under your belt (preferably more than just his early ones). I also enjoyed it for the informative discussion about the Ingush, a North Caucasus people that seldom get mentioned the news.
A good read for those who want gorgeous writing and something more than action.
This is my second time through this novel. The first time was almost twenty years ago, when it was first released. Times have changed, and so have I, but this book remains an overlooked gem in a remarkable writing career.
Knowing about the plot twists and the eventual outcome doesn't hinder the reading of this story at all. At its heart, it's a story of friendship and betrayal, loyalty to a greater cause, and a discussion about the West's role (or lack thereof) regarding Russia's dealings with breakaway regions. It also deals with British Intelligence's (misguided) belief that Russia is their friend now and no longer any worry. Not only are these facets timeless in their relevance, but Russia's current actions in Ukraine bring this story around full-circle.
Overall, this novel is heavier on narrative and character and lighter on plot than, say, the George Smiley novels, and there is a lengthy interview close to the beginning that could be off-putting for new readers. I wouldn't suggest it as a first place to start with le Carré, but it's okay if you already have a few of his novels under your belt (preferably more than just his early ones). I also enjoyed it for the informative discussion about the Ingush, a North Caucasus people that seldom get mentioned the news.
A good read for those who want gorgeous writing and something more than action.
November 28, 2020
The first time I read this, I actually grew a little annoyed with some of Le Carre's writing tics, which include odd references to hair ('horns' and 'forelocks'), and the relentless moaning about the protagonist's lover, who had run off with an old frenemy. The second time I read it, I still noticed these things, but they really didn't bother me, because there were so many other interesting things going on. The third time I read it, I marveled at how visual it was; most of this book was set in just a few places, but I felt I knew these spots as well as my own kitchen, so beautifully were they rendered. And the fourth time I read, much older and wiser, I think I finally understood the purpose of so artfully welding the personal and the political together. This is not his best book, not by a long shot, but it's one that keeps popping up in memory.
For added fun, pair this book with the completely-factual The Man Who Tried To Save the World, which covers a small but interesting portion of the same conflict.
For added fun, pair this book with the completely-factual The Man Who Tried To Save the World, which covers a small but interesting portion of the same conflict.
November 18, 2021
Tim Cranmer is a retired intelligence agent living in Bath with his young sweetheart, Emma. The story opens with two detectives arriving at his door, questioning him about the disappearance of his friend (and former double agent), Larry Pettifer. Cranmer goes to the Office to gain more information. He finds himself suspected of assisting Larry in stealing a large sum of money from the Russians. Both Larry and Emma have disappeared. It is set in the 1990s, after the Cold War and at the beginning of the Russian Federation.
We are privy to Tim’s thoughts as he pieces together what has happened. I was riveted to this story. We find out about the conflicts in the Caucasus between Russia and Ingushetia. This is a piece of history that is not told often, and I feel I learned quite a bit.
It is a complex mix of espionage, love triangle, and politics. It mixes action sequences with analysis. It portrays two contrasting personalities. Larry is the idealist. Tim is the practical one. Emma has chosen one over the other, creating conflict among friends. I had not read anything by le Carre’ in quite a while, and this book reminds me of why I enjoy his writing so much.
4.5
We are privy to Tim’s thoughts as he pieces together what has happened. I was riveted to this story. We find out about the conflicts in the Caucasus between Russia and Ingushetia. This is a piece of history that is not told often, and I feel I learned quite a bit.
It is a complex mix of espionage, love triangle, and politics. It mixes action sequences with analysis. It portrays two contrasting personalities. Larry is the idealist. Tim is the practical one. Emma has chosen one over the other, creating conflict among friends. I had not read anything by le Carre’ in quite a while, and this book reminds me of why I enjoy his writing so much.
4.5
September 27, 2025
Pensei que ia ler um livro sobre espiões, cheio de aventuras e perseguições. Nada disso. Foi até um pouco aborrecido em algumas partes.
O nosso jogo começa com o desaparecimento de Larry, um antigo espião britânico durante a guerra fria. O seu controlador e antigo espião aposentado, ao que parece melhor amigo, Timothy ou Timbo, como Larry lhe chamava, é interrogado.
A partir daqui, Timothy começa a descobrir que Larry desviou 37 milhões de libras da embaixada russa e também "desviou" Emma, a namorada de Timothy, uma bela jovem, na flor da idade.
A restante história é a busca de Timothy por Larry e Emma, para os conseguir salvar.
Foi o primeiro livro que li de Le Carré e não me impressionou. Achei algumas partes bastante chatas e o Timothy um pouco tótó, enfeitiçado por uma moça com metade da sua idade e que o trocou pelo Larry.
O nosso jogo começa com o desaparecimento de Larry, um antigo espião britânico durante a guerra fria. O seu controlador e antigo espião aposentado, ao que parece melhor amigo, Timothy ou Timbo, como Larry lhe chamava, é interrogado.
A partir daqui, Timothy começa a descobrir que Larry desviou 37 milhões de libras da embaixada russa e também "desviou" Emma, a namorada de Timothy, uma bela jovem, na flor da idade.
A restante história é a busca de Timothy por Larry e Emma, para os conseguir salvar.
Foi o primeiro livro que li de Le Carré e não me impressionou. Achei algumas partes bastante chatas e o Timothy um pouco tótó, enfeitiçado por uma moça com metade da sua idade e que o trocou pelo Larry.
March 18, 2012
I was so disappointed in this book! I kept reading, hoping it would get better, but for me it just got worse. I could find absolutely no redeeming qualities in any of the characters or the plot ....not that it's necessary to do that to appreciate a book, but these folks were incredibly self-absorbed idiots "retired" British agents post-Soviet Union "collapse") who were unable to adjust to the real world and continued to degenerate into even more dysfunctional beings, consequently developing messianic complexes in leading some kind of "revolution" in the Caucasus. Unbelievable and totally unenjoyable. I apologize if I offended anyone.....I know Le Carre is a brilliant author....I just couldn't wrap my brain around the whole idea.
November 8, 2023
The reviews on here for this book are mostly insane. No, this isn't 'classic' Le Carré, it's a beautifully written book about love and desolation. There are some weird jumps in the narrative towards the end, but it isn't really about the mystery of where Larry has gone, it's about the narrator's absurd notions of his relationship with a friend and a lover being dismantled and replaced by nothing. It's a great book.
October 1, 2018
Wonderfully written, surely there can be none better than le Carre in this genre...?
I found the narrative became a little disjointed on a couple of occasions but the tale unfolds beautifully!
Don't think I've ever read anything by le Carre which I didn't enjoy!
I found the narrative became a little disjointed on a couple of occasions but the tale unfolds beautifully!
Don't think I've ever read anything by le Carre which I didn't enjoy!
September 23, 2012
My reading alternates between the classics and spy novels. Not sure why, but I’ve fallen into that habit. In terms of spy novels over the years, I started with Ian Flemming, then Robert Ludlum, and then for the last few years, John Le Carre (with some Len Deighton and, most recently Charles McCarry thrown in for good measure).
For those unfamiliar with LeCarre, his novels are not necessarily the most instantly accessible. For example, the style of his writing at times makes it difficult to note transitions in time or place. Some of his novels have reoccurring characters (most notably George Smiley), and some should be read in order (e.g. the ‘Karla Trilogy’).
Our Game, I’m sad to say, is not one of Le Carre’s finest, and I would not recommend it to anyone but the true (and seasoned) Le Carre fans. A retired spy, Tim Cranmer, must search for his old agent along with Cranmer’s young mistress, who have both disappeared, along with a very large sum of money. In my opinion, a main problem with the story is that characters (and even organizations) take positions and follow beliefs without nearly enough back story or reasons for doing so. Long standing relationships are turned upside down, and the reader, over time, is left to ponder why. Most notably, Cranmer risks much that was bequeathed to him in search of his friend (?) and agent. The Circus itself seems to too readily jump to conclusions.
As for many LeCarre novels, one has to set time aside in a quiet setting to concentrate on the happenings and turns of events in this novel. For the uninitiated, too much concentration, effort, and patience may be required in order to make it to the end and appreciate what’s there to be appreciated. There are many, much better Le Carre stories that I would recommend before Our Game.
For those unfamiliar with LeCarre, his novels are not necessarily the most instantly accessible. For example, the style of his writing at times makes it difficult to note transitions in time or place. Some of his novels have reoccurring characters (most notably George Smiley), and some should be read in order (e.g. the ‘Karla Trilogy’).
Our Game, I’m sad to say, is not one of Le Carre’s finest, and I would not recommend it to anyone but the true (and seasoned) Le Carre fans. A retired spy, Tim Cranmer, must search for his old agent along with Cranmer’s young mistress, who have both disappeared, along with a very large sum of money. In my opinion, a main problem with the story is that characters (and even organizations) take positions and follow beliefs without nearly enough back story or reasons for doing so. Long standing relationships are turned upside down, and the reader, over time, is left to ponder why. Most notably, Cranmer risks much that was bequeathed to him in search of his friend (?) and agent. The Circus itself seems to too readily jump to conclusions.
As for many LeCarre novels, one has to set time aside in a quiet setting to concentrate on the happenings and turns of events in this novel. For the uninitiated, too much concentration, effort, and patience may be required in order to make it to the end and appreciate what’s there to be appreciated. There are many, much better Le Carre stories that I would recommend before Our Game.
November 6, 2012
Few novelists in the spy genre give character development such high priority and thoughtful treatment as does John le Carre. In Our Game we get to meet and know the primary characters through a lifetime of service and duplicity in the eternal spy vs. spy game.
Read everything you can by John le Carre. You will not be disappointed.
Read everything you can by John le Carre. You will not be disappointed.
February 15, 2009
Was I supposed to sympathize with Pettifer and the Chechens? Because I didn't. Nor did I see how I was supposed to. The ending came out of nowhere. My first Le Carre experience, and I have to say -- underwhelming.
April 19, 2016
Its just ends. Too many unanswered questions.
July 19, 2007
a very detailed story of a retired spy master, his 'creature', and his lover all involved in a post-soviet arms smuggling. clever and complex, but way too long.
October 17, 2008
Very poorely developing story about the ill thoughts of a desrted old man. This story has hardly anything to do with espionage. Don't expect a plot or some tension: It will not appear...
January 21, 2018
I'm really puzzled how to rate this book. I like le Carre very much, especially the Smiley books, and I got through this one at a couple of readings, so it can't be all bad. But I didn't actually like it.
On the cover of the edition I read is a photo of Le Carre, and the main character in this book probably looked like him - silver haired, distinguished, well-to-do, with the lines of worldly experience on his face - and in background, he is certainly like him. But the public school/old boy network background, whilst it may give an accurate picture of the Secret Service, now seems out of date and actually distasteful. What Tim, the protagonist, has in common with his joe, Larry, is that they both went to the same public school, where Tim, as a prefect, once beat him. (Tim not only has a vineyard near Bath, but actually has his own church on the estate). Ugh. But once a Wykehamist, always a Wykehamist, and so in spite of his love hate relationship with Larry, Tim finally takes his place as an idealist and rebel. Le Carre uses psychological transformation very effectively in other novels - like the Little Drummer Girl - but it comes over a bit heavily and unconvincingly here. Larry is an unpleasant character. When I finished the book and thought about it, I could see what he was meant to be, but whilst reading I found him confusing and unconvincing. Emma, the girl they both want, is a precious creature - again, faint resemblance to the little Drummer Girl, but unsympathetic. I found the narrative in the first part of the book confused - sometimes it referred to the present, sometimes a little while earlier. Once Tim leaves the UK, the story becomes both more adventurous and more compelling, but I'm not sure all the details are necessary. Psychologically, the end is quite satisfying. But on the whole I would say it is a rather contrived story about a set of people I didn't much care about.
On the cover of the edition I read is a photo of Le Carre, and the main character in this book probably looked like him - silver haired, distinguished, well-to-do, with the lines of worldly experience on his face - and in background, he is certainly like him. But the public school/old boy network background, whilst it may give an accurate picture of the Secret Service, now seems out of date and actually distasteful. What Tim, the protagonist, has in common with his joe, Larry, is that they both went to the same public school, where Tim, as a prefect, once beat him. (Tim not only has a vineyard near Bath, but actually has his own church on the estate). Ugh. But once a Wykehamist, always a Wykehamist, and so in spite of his love hate relationship with Larry, Tim finally takes his place as an idealist and rebel. Le Carre uses psychological transformation very effectively in other novels - like the Little Drummer Girl - but it comes over a bit heavily and unconvincingly here. Larry is an unpleasant character. When I finished the book and thought about it, I could see what he was meant to be, but whilst reading I found him confusing and unconvincing. Emma, the girl they both want, is a precious creature - again, faint resemblance to the little Drummer Girl, but unsympathetic. I found the narrative in the first part of the book confused - sometimes it referred to the present, sometimes a little while earlier. Once Tim leaves the UK, the story becomes both more adventurous and more compelling, but I'm not sure all the details are necessary. Psychologically, the end is quite satisfying. But on the whole I would say it is a rather contrived story about a set of people I didn't much care about.
September 9, 2014
I am very impressed with the number of books many of my Goodreads Friends get through in a day compared with me who would be lucky to read the same number in a year. But my holidays from writing are my chance to read. I have to pick my books carefully when I have a break.
Le Carre is perfect holiday reading. This book doesn't disappoint.
Stylishly written, well plotted, and complex, as one would expect. Good treatment of post-Cold War spying though a bit dated now. Doesn't the world change too fast for spy writing?
I liked the way we are taken over and back through time, characters and perspectives.
My only small quibble is that I felt the book was a little too long in that I thought Le Carre could have made his point quicker and moved on. However, Le Carre's technique is to layer on more and more nuance and plot to the same story line, building up a complex world of multi-interpretation that suits espinoage. The skill lies in getting us into a maze without even realising that we are being lead in. If you like that you will love this.
Le Carre is perfect holiday reading. This book doesn't disappoint.
Stylishly written, well plotted, and complex, as one would expect. Good treatment of post-Cold War spying though a bit dated now. Doesn't the world change too fast for spy writing?
I liked the way we are taken over and back through time, characters and perspectives.
My only small quibble is that I felt the book was a little too long in that I thought Le Carre could have made his point quicker and moved on. However, Le Carre's technique is to layer on more and more nuance and plot to the same story line, building up a complex world of multi-interpretation that suits espinoage. The skill lies in getting us into a maze without even realising that we are being lead in. If you like that you will love this.
August 15, 2019
Le Carre seems to have literally lost the plot. The Night Manager tailed off pretty disappointingly, but this is a disaster. What starts as a gripping spy story full of twists, turns and tradecraft degenerates into a political rant which doesn't even have a proper ending. Just stops when the author runs out of ideas. The third star is really just for old times' sake; I wouldn't recommend this to anyone new to the canon.
February 27, 2023
I'd give this closer to a 3.5. This novel is more based on an awkward three way relationship among the back drop of Russia breaking out from communism. LeCarre dives deep into the personal anguish of the main character, and at times, it becomes repetitive and over the top. Nevertheless, there are many interesting characters that all come together into a typical LeCarre cryptic ending.
May 1, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in June 1999.
Le Carré, like Len Deighton, has built his entire writing career on an obsession with deception and treachery, exploring its nuances through the shadowy world of espionage. In Our Game, there are two betrayals central to the plot. The large one, the treatment of the North Caucasus by the Soviet Union and then by the Russian state forms much of the background. Their policy in this region was not so much to "divide and conquer" but to foster existing divisions and enmities to maintain control: Osset against Chechen, Ingush betraying Osset, Osset massacring Ingush (with the connivance of the Russian military). The resulting conflicts and terrorism were largely ignored in the West, even during the Cold War, except when Western citizens became involved, as happened when journalists and businessmen were kidnapped by Chechen rebels.
A Somerset vineyard and Bath University may seem far from this background. Friends since school, Tim Cranmer and Lawrence Pettifer share a secret: they are retired spies. Pettifer had been a double agent, passing on false intelligence to the Russians while pretending to be head of a network of agents with the cover of a left-wing academic career; Cranmer was his British contact, who had originally recruited him for this task. Pettifer's Russian controller, Checheyev, was in fact an Ingush, one of the few allowed to hold important overseas posts under the Soviet regime. Under his influence, Pettifer became fired up by the injustices committed against the Ingush, and laundered money stolen by Checheyev from his hated Russian masters - thirty seven million pounds over a period of years.
Now that all these people have retired with the end of the Cold War, Pettifer devotes his time to campaigning on behalf of various lost causes (as a cover for maintaining contact with Checheyev) in between his academic commitments in Bath. Cranmer grows grapes on his inherited manor. Bet then Pettifer goes missing with Cranmer's mistress, an apparent betrayal which masks what he is really up to.
So Pettifer betrays his friend, and both of his employers, in the pursuit of a dream made unattainable by the bigger betrayal of the Ingush by their rulers and those they seek as allies.
The major character, the narrator Cranmer, dominates the book with his obsession with Pettifer (several hints being given of thwarted homosexual passion). His surroundings, full of people and institutions he cannot trust, are vividly portrayed, and he himself is a convincing personality. The main place this novel falls down is when the action reaches the Caucasus. This, as described in the book, could be any one of a number of mountainous, war-torn regions: Kossova, Afghanistan, anywhere where a Kalashnikov is a standard item of clothing.
Le Carré, like Len Deighton, has built his entire writing career on an obsession with deception and treachery, exploring its nuances through the shadowy world of espionage. In Our Game, there are two betrayals central to the plot. The large one, the treatment of the North Caucasus by the Soviet Union and then by the Russian state forms much of the background. Their policy in this region was not so much to "divide and conquer" but to foster existing divisions and enmities to maintain control: Osset against Chechen, Ingush betraying Osset, Osset massacring Ingush (with the connivance of the Russian military). The resulting conflicts and terrorism were largely ignored in the West, even during the Cold War, except when Western citizens became involved, as happened when journalists and businessmen were kidnapped by Chechen rebels.
A Somerset vineyard and Bath University may seem far from this background. Friends since school, Tim Cranmer and Lawrence Pettifer share a secret: they are retired spies. Pettifer had been a double agent, passing on false intelligence to the Russians while pretending to be head of a network of agents with the cover of a left-wing academic career; Cranmer was his British contact, who had originally recruited him for this task. Pettifer's Russian controller, Checheyev, was in fact an Ingush, one of the few allowed to hold important overseas posts under the Soviet regime. Under his influence, Pettifer became fired up by the injustices committed against the Ingush, and laundered money stolen by Checheyev from his hated Russian masters - thirty seven million pounds over a period of years.
Now that all these people have retired with the end of the Cold War, Pettifer devotes his time to campaigning on behalf of various lost causes (as a cover for maintaining contact with Checheyev) in between his academic commitments in Bath. Cranmer grows grapes on his inherited manor. Bet then Pettifer goes missing with Cranmer's mistress, an apparent betrayal which masks what he is really up to.
So Pettifer betrays his friend, and both of his employers, in the pursuit of a dream made unattainable by the bigger betrayal of the Ingush by their rulers and those they seek as allies.
The major character, the narrator Cranmer, dominates the book with his obsession with Pettifer (several hints being given of thwarted homosexual passion). His surroundings, full of people and institutions he cannot trust, are vividly portrayed, and he himself is a convincing personality. The main place this novel falls down is when the action reaches the Caucasus. This, as described in the book, could be any one of a number of mountainous, war-torn regions: Kossova, Afghanistan, anywhere where a Kalashnikov is a standard item of clothing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 23, 2013
John le Carre is one of my favorite "guilty pleasure" writers. I'm a sucker for a decently told spy story and he is one of the best, if not the absolute best. Saying that, this book just didn't do it for me. It starts out strong, sort of a slow burn, teasingly handing over tidbits of what's happening rather than smacking us with a big, sudden reveal, and that's cool. The narrator, a an aging, cynical ex-spook turned academic and gentleman vintner, proves marginally unreliable in his role, holding back his own secrets, lying when it suits him, and giving us only a morsel more than he offers the various authorities who are hoping the trip him up. The middle of the book is suitably tense, and then the story rumbles to it's conclusion like a sputtering old bus with several stops left on it's route. I think I get what he was trying to do, and perhaps I'm too conditioned to expect (demand?) a more traditional climax and conclusion to appreciate the emptiness and dissatisfaction of the narrator's frustrated, desperate search for meaning and closure. I plowed through, waiting, but was disappointed, but the story and what has to be an intentionally anti-climatic end are still stuck in my head, so I reserve the right to expand or even alter this paragraph at a later date.
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