Review: Single and Single

With nary a spy in sight, Le Carre, British master of Cold War spycraft, constructs a taut tale of international finance and betrayal involving two families – one Russian, one English.

With a plot involving intricate high finance it’s a good idea to start off with something that will grab the reader’s attention and this Le Carre does with the graphic – and videotaped – remote mountainside execution of a proper pinstriped lawyer representing a British investment firm.

The narrative then moves to the Devon coast where Oliver Single, a children’s magician and divorced father, mysteriously hiding out >from something or someone, discovers that a deposit of five million and thirty pounds has been paid into his baby daughter’s account. The extra thirty, Oliver knows, is the Judas fee for betrayal.

Gradually over the first third of the novel, Le Carre weaves together these disparate events. He resolves various elements of suspense as he sets up the plot, revealing a background of financial, international and familial intrigue. The resolution of minor mysteries opens a treacherous path to a game with much higher stakes, for one of Le Carre’s special charms is the aura of deadly playfulness that surrounds the narrative.

Another is the development of character. All of LeCarre’s players, but for the most thuggish villains, embody soft spots of family love, compassion, humor and whimsy. Oliver, the key, appears as a big, sad, disillusioned amateur, a novice in the unprincipled world of high finance whose education brought about revolt. An unhappy pawn, he develops powers of resourcefulness that cut to the heart of things worth dying for – love and self-respect.

The plot moves around the globe from the staid elegance of London’s eponymous investment firm, to a lavish villa on the banks of the Bosphorus and an ugly rented house in the new suburbs of Istanbul, to the land scars and idled bulldozers of a busted development in the rural Caucasus, Republic of Georgia.

Place embodies character. The “prickly sofa” of a safe house, the faithful Indian retainer asleep in the bay window of his master’s deserted office (“the Tiger’s tomb, closed but waiting for the robber”); the shiny new BMW motorcycle parked in the drawing room of the Russians’ extravagant villa, the “wet Turkish winter.”

Le Carre explores the vulnerabilities of the new Russian economy, the opportunities for looting and robbing and the sophisticated Western systems for laundering – and grabbing – much of the money. But the scheme is a primarily a mechanism for motivation as Le Carre lets greed, gullibility, deception, scruples, revenge, fear and bravery work their magic.

Oliver is a thoughtful, endearing character whose heroism is practical and nearly devoid of machismo. His physical presence is deceptively clumsy, his morose demeanor equally useful. And he even gets the girl.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Lynn Harnett

Book Review: Single and Single