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, w...

3.5 stars rounded down"Spying is waiting."I don’t typically read spy ‘thrillers’ anymore, 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

3.5 ☆Published in 1989, The Russia House provided a tale very much rooted in its time. The USSR was on the precipice as it wavered between its Iron Curtain Communist grip and Gorbachev's new policies of perestroika and glasnost during the late 1980s. In the new climate, doing nothing was itself an act of opposition. Because by doing nothing, we change nothing. And by changing nothing we hang on to what we understand, even if it is the bars of our own jail. A few individuals charged bo...

"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 Carré 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:...

Well, I don't like to criticize for the sake of criticism, to attract by the cover! But, due to the film and curiosity to discover the universe of John le Carré, I let myself tempted. Nay, quite in agreement with all the critics, it's long as a day without bread, it is complicated, it's confusing, and I too do not understand the appreciators of this author. So, I may try another of his novels, but as the other would say, let it go, really not essential! Sorry, John.

As in most of John le Carré's novels, the characters take center stage, driving the novel forwards, while the plot remains insidiously in the background, though nonetheless potent. This approach emphasizes that whatever happens depends on the personalities and behaviors of the players - remove them and nothing happens. This is the exceptional creative power of this author.In many of his earlier works, le Carré is sending a message, i.e. that espionage is a game that exists only for the sake of p...

I understood what was going on the entire time! That's a big deal for me when it comes to John le Carré's books! Of course, what that really means is that The Russia House isn't as devilishly complicated as some of the author's other works. Definitely not that I'm getting smarter, so put that right out of your mind!

I don't particularly like John Le Carre,generally he bores me and I have read few of his books.But I have seen the movie version of this one.Great cast,an older Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer. What's more,the film was actually filmed in Russia,shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union.That was a very big deal in those daysThe locations were Moscow and what was then,Leningrad.Lots of great shots of the Kremlin.That alone made it worth watching.As for the story,well it dragged.As Roger Eb...

Definitely not one of le Carré's best books, this feels a bit formulaic as, again, we get a pair of lovers, not young, not innocent, caught up in the wiles of the British and US intelligence services. If you've read le Carré before it's not hard to predict where the plot is going long before it makes its moves. Barley Blair reminded me, unhappily, of Jerry Westerby (The Honourable Schoolboy) even though he's an alcoholic and lacks Westerby's naivety - but there are similarities between the the p...

For me this book had a slow start, so it took a bit to get into. And towards the climax of the story it seemed like it got a bit muddled.What I enjoyed most about this work was that it was set in the world of publishing during Peristrokia. And the reader got a small insight to what Western publishers had to do to have their books published during the end of the Soviet Era.And yes, the spycraft story line in this story was brilliant once you got into it. Still, it did not have Le Carre's usual fl...

I have created a bookshelf "on-hold" specifically for this book and I hope it won't stay there for long. Actually, I pray the bookshelf forever remains empty. For the record - this is the first time I have started and not finished a book. I come from a school of thought that reading a book to its completion is not an obligation but a responsibility, and this time, quite frankly, I have failed in this responsibilty. And the guilt I have can only perhaps be assuaged by this prereview. The Russia H...

One reads Le Carre not as much for the plot as much as for the mastery of the prose. It's a delight to read and re-read. Just the descriptions alone are worth it. This book, along with the Secret Pilgrim & the Tinker Tailor / Smiley's People & A Perfect Spy comprise his best work, in my opinion. The sheer talent is captivating in its allure. His 21st century work is not nearly at the same level I'm afraid. The Cold War was his forte. I could give examples of the master of prose at work but there...

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 more Soviet secrets...

Spying is waiting!!!!!!! This is not the best of le Carré's books, nor is it my favourite thereof, but I appreciate how angry he was when he wrote it. Le Carré was not a politically subtle man, and I appreciate that.

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 writin...

When a soviet scientist reaches out with a secret manuscript to an English publisher, Barley Blair, he hopes to shed light on the Russian incompetence in military and scientific accomplishments. Forced by British Intelligence, Blair must act as an intermediary in hope of find more secrets. But when he meets the beautiful Katya, all thoughts of East-West espionage are all but forgotten. He must find a way to extract both him and Katya out of the gun sights of both governments.This was a BBC enact...

The Russia House is a love story wrapped in a spy story. The love story is somewhat less convincing than the spy story, but more 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

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 more 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."Th...

Some le Carré 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 Carré 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...

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 opin...