Smiley's People

Smiley's People by John le Carré
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It was so nice to get back to Smiley again...le Carre finished his Karla trilogy with an ode to Smiley. Here Smiley is at his best with his small, quiet thoughts and long walks, but gets thrown in the action, too as he tries to uncover the motive behind the murder of a former agent. Everyone gets their cameos, too, from Toby Esterhouse to dear old Connie. I could have used more Guilliam, though, who played a prominent part in The Honourable Schoolboy and who I kind of crushed on a bit (couldn't you see an English Peter Krause playing him?). The ending is strangely anti-climatic, but seemed entirely fitting: sometimes the ending is not nearly as much fun as the chase.

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Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Read this for book club. I loved the beginning, rather enjoyed the way the novel puttered along, put up with the country club scene that seemed to be lifted somewhat from The Help, actually teared up at the thought Major Pettigrew could be a knight in shining armor and then it was ruined with a knitting needle of all things. A knitting needle?? Really?!?? I almost couldn't bear to read it from that point forth.
At the end, I felt like Simonson said to herself, I am going to explore how rules shape our customs, mores, courtesies of our community. When should those rules be kept? When should they be set aside for a greater good? Then she brainstormed all these ideas and fit them together in a novel. Perhaps if she hadn't used every idea she came up with it might have turned out to be a cute, droll and touching novel of finding love when and where you least expect it. As it is, you can almost hear her "you shouldn't follow the rules of class and race because those shouldn't exist"; "you should follow the rules of courtesy because otherwise that's rude"; "you shouldn't follow the rules of business if requires duplicity and underhandedness"; "you shouldn't follow the rules if someone's life is at stake", etc. etc.(We get it, we get it) And then to set these premises up her plot turns to the absurd--KNITTING NEEDLES???? Can you tell how much I hate the plot line of the KNITTING NEEDLES!!!
Otherwise, it was an okay book.

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Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Reading my kids' YA novels again. Another dystopian love story. This one has more action than love story, which is good. It is also an interesting premise--there are 5 factions that emphasize certain personality traits: Erudite, smart; Candor, truth; Abengnation, selflessness; Amity, friendship; and Dauntless, bravery. All good traits, it is true, but there is a hazard in taking each exclusively and to its extremes. Tris chooses Dauntless as her faction, and it was a little unsettling as a mother to see toughness, tattoos, and lack of feminity so celebrated, until Tris discovers that being Dauntless may not be all it's cracked up to be. It does have good character development and the plot is pretty tight.

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The Honourable Schoolboy

The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carré
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked that le Carre writes an introduction to these editions of the Karla trilogy, because it helps me forgive the some of the distractions and ramblings in what is the most exciting but also weakest of the three. First of all, le Carre explains that he went on location to gather sights, sounds and experiences for this book, which explains the vividness and a lot of the action. It also explains why there are scenes in the book that, while interesting, don't move the plot forward. It's like he wanted to include an experience he had but didn't know where to put it.
Also, in the forward of Smiley's People, le Carre writes that he had anticipated doing a whole series of Smiley novels, which explains why neither Smiley nor Karla appear very prominently in this book. That being said, this was a great thrill ride with lots of mysterious persons, great loves, bombs, murders, thugs, and horse racing. Of the three, it is the most cinematic, yet it is the only one that didn't get made into a dramatization (yet).

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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: A George Smiley Novel by John le Carré
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really liked this book. I liked the cadance of the words le Carre uses, I liked the pondorous deliberateness with which the riddle unravels, I liked the humanity of the characters which blinded them to the answers when it was staring right at them. The villian Karla became that much more unlikeable as he twists the knife that he stuck in. I liked the secret language of the spies, (apparently this book introduces the word "mole" as a traitor into the vernacular)even though I sometimes didn't quite understand what was going on. In fact, I think it is a compliment to le Carre that I liked this book even though at the end, I was like, I think this is what happened.

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A Moveable Feast

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When we booked our trip to Europe, I started reading books that were known to capture the essence of places we were visiting. This book is touted as Hemingway's lovesong to Paris. I have to say it didn't really take me there (nor was I reminded of it while I was in Paris). But I did love the vivid snippets from his life. It made me want to get to know more about Hemingway, and the artists and authors he associated with there. Watching Midnight in Paris before reading this helped me visualize the characters more. It is interesting how time and life plays with memory and it would be interesting to see if he felt so romantic about his first wife if he had written this in the present tense, rather than at the end of his life in Idaho. He also described his writing process, which was very interesting.

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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A timeless story about the dual natures of man, about how hard it can be to deny ourselves pleasure, even when we are sure it will ruin us. Dr. Jekyll seems to have found the perfect way to enjoy his debauchery without the problem of recognition, blame, or even guilt. Yet in the end, the consequences catch up to him, and the desperation of not being able to control himself or his fate becomes a horror story.
It is a succinct, well-told story, much shorter than I thought. I bought the Barnes and Nobles classic and they had quite an elaborate critical study at the beginning (which I would save and read after the story, since it gives everything away)and several more stories by Stevenson which I enjoyed just as much. I found it interesting that he wrote so much about people pretending to be someone they're not. Sometimes it leads to ruin, or near-ruin, and other times, they use their double personalities to bring justice and order.

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