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20th November 2008

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Most reviewed: A Most Wanted Man

29.09.08 Katie Allen

The most reviewed title by far this weekend was John le Carré's return to the espionage novel in A Most Wanted Man (Hodder, 9780340977064, £18.99), and it attracted both admiration and dismay from critics.

Henry Sutton writing in the Daily Mirror proclaims:  "Once again, le Carré proves he's so much more than a thriller writer by tackling very urgent themes with rare insight and clarity" while Peter Millar in the Saturday Times hails "a timely work of intelligent insight, rare humanity and cynical realism". The Sunday Times' Stephen Amidon writes that le Carré's "narrative power and abiding humanity remain intact" while Barry Forshaw in the Daily Express praises his "idiosyncratic characterisation and elegant prose".

Hari Kunzru in the Saturday Guardian states that A Most . . . is "an uneven book, but despite its flaws it stands as one of the most sophisticated fictional responses to the war on terror yet published, a humane novel".

Other critics were more damning. Gilbert Adair writing in the Financial Times found the novel a "startlingly slipshod effort", concluding: "it felt to me throughout . . . that the job le Carré was attempting to do is performed more thoroughly and hauntingly by investigative journalism".
Two reviews in the Independent reflect the critics' diverging views, with Tim Martin on Saturday approving of le Carré's "rare lightness of touch", adding "[he] creates plausible, breathing characters . . . black, brilliant, hypnotic stuff", while Joan Smith writing on Friday complains: "It is fiction as polemic . . . a surprisingly dull read".

A considered response comes from former director general of MI5, Stella Rimington, who writes in the Daily Mail "I award A Most . . . eight marks for readability and style, but no more than four marks for reality."

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