The Russia House

3.5 stars rounded down Spying is waiting I don t typically read spy thrillers any, and I would say the word thriller is used loosely here Spying may be waiting, and waiting is what I did for about one third of the book before becoming nearly fully absorbed It starts off slowly, and likely due to my ignorance of spy jargon, I was a bit lost Quite a few characters were introduced, and I had trouble distinguishing between several of them I even struggled to determine the role of the first person na [...]

The old isms were dead, the contest between Communism and capitalism had ended in a wet whimper Its rhetoric had fled underground into the secret chambers of the grey men, who were still dancing away long after the music had ended I love The Russia House I love the anger the way the novel seems to capture all the threads that le Carr had woven in most all of his cold war novels and noose both sides I love it for its humanity In some ways it reminded me of Orwell s Nineteen Eighty Four with the b [...]

I think it s instructive to read one of Graham Greene s spy novels back to back with one of John le Carre s because, surprisingly, it s instantly clear that le Carre is the better writer It s not just his plotting, which is always tight and suspenseful it s the actual strength of his writing the descriptions of places, the dialogues, the constructions of his wounded and noble characters One concern I had with this book was that it was written in 1989 after the golden age of the Cold War, which w [...]

The Russia House is a love story wrapped in a spy story The love story is somewhat less convincing than the spy story, but compelling Le Carre is a strong storyteller nonetheless, achieving vivid atmospheric effects Moscow, London, an island off the coast of Maine, Leningrad and driving scenes forward with deft, spirited dialogue.The peculiar satisfaction of the book lies in the main character, Barley, shaking off the chains he s been wrapped in by the British and American intelligence agencies [...]

i just finished it two nights ago, and what a book thanks, ted, for turning me onto le carre he is a master of characterization, he has intricate, exciting, and utterly believable plots, and he has the added bonus of actually knowing what the hell he s talking about, having been on the inside of all this himself.even if you don t like spy fiction, there s much to admire here i can see why he s regarded as a grand master far and away better than ludlum, whose stuff has become dated in my opinion. [...]

I noted on Facebook before I left for holiday that I have a habit of selecting crap books to read on it, but I always take Le Carre as a standby John, John, just when I needed you most, you let me down A painfully slow, slight tale of the ending of the Cold War that made me wonder where Le Carre found the motivation to persisit with the novel when he knew where it was going to an end not with a bang nor a whimper It felt like an elongated subplot from one of his better thrillers The writing was [...]

This is a good, solid Le Carre, but as is often the case, the novel needed editing The story concerns a Soviet physicist with information that Soviet nuclear technology is less advanced than the world thinks, who communicates this information through a manuscript that he asks a friend, Katya, to pass on to a British publisher, Scott Blair Barley British intelligence intercepts it, and then recruits Barley to go back to Moscow and try to recruit the scientist to find out Soviet secrets Things, a [...]

I haven t read much of Le Carre but enjoyed what I have so far This was quite complicated, with lots of characters, and I found myself having to re read bits to check who people were and what was happening However, its beautifully written, and even now, so many years after glasnost , it offers a fascinating insight into changes in Russia, and the spying industry in general Overall a rewarding read but not one to skim over.

If you ve never ready any le Carre, the Spy Who Came in From the Cold is a great place to start I also enjoyed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Russia House is good, though my guess is the Cold War fiction is probably suffering a bit in popularity.

I loved this O

Some le Carr novels are deeply satisfying This is not one of them Here we are on the cusp of the Cold War ending glasnost and perestroika have been put in motion yet among the insiders, the spycraft continues Of course, the Cold War was the agar for spy novelists Did le Carr get a sick, sinking feeling in his stomach as he watched the Soviet empire crumble As a reader, I felt like there wasn t much here to bite into The story line wasn t terribly compelling We re supposed to fall in love with th [...]

In my reading, this book was all about the challenges, perils and rewards if any, in this case of nuclear disarmament It s a world weary view of the subject, though, especially in le Carre s take on experts From a conversation between Barley, the British publisher, and Goethe, the Russian scientist Experts are addicts They solve nothing They are servants of whatever system hires them They perpetuate it When we are tortured, we shall be tortured by experts When we are hanged, experts will hang us [...]

finished this one todayok me some time, things happening, here, there, everywhere i did not have time to enjoy the story don t believe this is one that you cani could notpick it up and read some, put it downe back to it time permitting, this that the other maybe you can i can t i did butummmm.just not into it i liked iti have enjoyed any spy stories i ve read, fiction or fact that is all over and out.

So this is the BBC adapted radio play The voice acting is good, but I don t buy the whole romance, great love, sub plot Pfeiffer and Connery could sell it, but the voices don t.

It s 1989 or so, and a bookseller is the protagonist The Russia House is an office of the British foreign intelligence service LeCarre rocks Just read it.

An amateur spy down at heel English publisher Barley Blair is given a few weeks training by the British and then, backed by the USA, he s sent to Moscow to receive documents from a highly placed but anonymous source which will prove the Soviet s nuclear missile capability is based on lies The go between is the beautiful Katya and Barley complicates matters by falling in love with her.Meanwhile, le Carre details how the joint British American operation is set up, with the Americans gradually taki [...]

A good companion piece to A Perfect Spy Barley Blair and Magnus Pym share many similarities and, I ve just realized, Aldo Cassidy may be a brother here as well As is Le Carr s wont, he employs a narrator who is, like Christ encouraged the disciples to be, in the world but not quite of the world The narrator may be a bona fide member of The Circus, but he is also in some way detached from full conformity to its norms The protagonist, then, is always seen at least partially from a vantage point ou [...]

I am late to reading John le Carre , and only now getting around to his non Smiley books such as this one Because it s set in the heady days of glasnost and perestroika, I thought it might seem dated but given what s been going on in the news today about the Russians trying to tilt our presidential election, it turned out to be far timely than expected It was also a compelling read, despite lacking the nail biting suspense of his Call for the Dead or Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy The story start [...]

I had difficulty at first with the main character He was an unlikely spy, recruited first unwittingly by the KGB s disinformation agency, then by British intelligence, then the CIA A book publisher with failed marriages, a drinking problem, a womanizer who used women and then discarded them, a businessman who operated his publishing house in the red You might say, a loser who becomes everyone s pawn I had difficulty becoming invested in the story until about page 95, mostly because I found the m [...]

This is almost perfect Le Carr world weary but romantic cynical but whimsical The setting is a world thrown into confusion by Gorbachev s glasnost and perestroika And I guess much like spy novelists, the spies are unsure whether to pull up stumps and congratulate each on a good game or to dig in for the inevitable double cross With such a rich and complex milieu, it is perhaps understandable forgivable beneficial that the plot is straightforward than his earlier works That s not to say it lacks [...]

A beautiful Russian woman brings a manuscript to a book agent at a Russian book fair to forward to Barley Blair, a UK publisher The manuscript is not a creative work, rather, it contains detailed information about Soviet nuclear capabilities When the agent can t find Barley, he turns the documents over to the British authorities They recognize the value of it and find Barley and send him on missions to find the author of the manuscript and to verify that its contents are accurate.This was a real [...]

The Russia House is the kind of top notch spy thriller we ve come to expect from the great John Le Carr That is to say it is a compellingly readable and suspenseful procedural that exposes the dirty, deceptive world of espionage tradecraft in all its conspiratorial and ambiguous glory The bureaucrats are officious, the case officers are ruthless, the analysts are cynical, the assets are coerced, the targets are idealistic, and everyone is an alcoholic Written and set in the years when the end of [...]

Mais um excelente thriller de espionagem ao bom estilo de John Le Carr Aqui, os espi es n o andam armados de gadgets sa dos de hist rias de fic o cient fica, mas de intelig ncia e das capacidades de observa o e manipula o Durante todo o romance h um intenso jogo de influ ncias, mentiras e meias verdades Ningu m realmente honesto e todos camuflam as suas verdadeiras inten es nas entrelinhas.Quando, nos fins da Guerra Fria, chega a Londres informa o sobre o armamento sovi tico, h que determinar a [...]

this is a spy novel set at the end of the cold war and beginning of perestroika it is brilliant on the grey men in the intelligence services and their thought processes and on the smoke and mirrors of spying and trust the world weary conclusion , that the bluff and counterbluff between Russia and the West were essentially empty , seems to ring true e scenes in Russia were great , although the Ruskies seemed a little bit stereotyped or perhaps absolutely everyone there really drinks and is soulfu [...]

Strangely, it s closest to a thriller in genre but there were no swerves in the plotline you pretty much see everything coming before it happens I don t view that as a flaw in the book, that le Carre is offering a point of view on the world of spying Spying is waiting, he writes For about half the book, I wished the first character we met, Niki Landau, was the main character Barley isn t particularly likeable, but I took that as intentional as well My only real complaint is how boring the meeti [...]

My first Le Carre book, and I will read many I ve heard Le Carre described as too slow I would say instead that he s very deliberate I can handle deliberate if the author narrator say enough interesting things along the way see Nelson DeMille And while it does feel as if it s developing slowly at times, by the time you re done it s clear that he s packed an awful lot into just 353 pages Great characters and scene descriptions, some absolutely brilliant turns of phrase, and a solid ending make t [...]

With his deep familiarity with both the world of spies and Soviet Russia, John LeCarre presents Barley Blair, who may be the most improbable secret agent in the history of espionage This is classic LeCarre, both in plot and setting After reading this book, I felt that I could navigate through parts of Moscow without a map I recommend this book not just for the scenery, but because LeCarre s uses espionage as a canvas to paint very large pictures on the universal themes of life and death, honor a [...]

This was one of those books I had put off for many years I finally got to it probably motivated due to a recent trip to Eastern Europe le Carre s writing is fabulous the tension and human innuendos, the patterns of those who are involved with spying versus those who would rather just live and love, and Mr Barley s place in both as a reluctant hero sets the probably realistic tone for the glamorous gray life of secret service.

One of le Carre s best novels A good enough thriller, but importantly, audacious in its telling, from a Watsonian perspective first person observer, with the main character not the narrator I like that, and I like that le Carre cared about thrillers enough to experiment with form When it comes to spy novels, you could do a hell of a lot worse than just reading le Carre and skipping everyone else.

Smiley s People is my absolute favorite by this author, but Russia House runs a close second When it came out, the central idea of the collapse of the Soviet Union seemed like very big stretch of the facts Now, of course, it just seems like history One of the most charming heroes ever created by Le Carre and one of the happiest endings.