Constant Gardener, The

LOVE. AT ANY COST. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM FOCUS FEATURES, STARRING RALPH FIENNES AND RACHEL WEISZ. Tessa Quayle-young, beautiful, and dearly beloved to husband Justin-is gruesomely murdered in northern Kenya. When Justin sets out on a personal odyssey to uncover the mystery of her death, what he finds could make him not only a suspect but also a target for Tessa's killers. A master chronicler of the betrayals of ordinary people caught in political conflict, John le Carr© portrays the dark side of unbridled capitalism as only he can. In The Constant Gardener he tells a compelling, complex story of a man elevated through tragedy as Justin Quayle-amateur gardener, aging widower, and ineffectual bureaucrat-discovers his own natural resources and the extraordinary courage of the woman he barely had time to love. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal. To be fair, abridging le Carr? must be very difficult, since his books depend so much on character and plot built up over many pages. This problem pretty much sinks The Constant Gardener. Justin Quayle, a British diplomat in Kenya whose pretty young wife has been murdered, tries to make sense of the atrocity. Many of the large cast get reduced to names without faces. The story is compressed to pretty much a linear narrative, leaving the listener wondering why it takes so long to figure the characters out. All but the briefest reference to Quayle's gardening gets omitted, rendering the very title a cipher. Though le Carr? remains a fine writer, and proves more than competent as a reader, this program cannot be recommended. Happily, The Tailor of Panama, a shorter, more straightforward, and often more lighthearted book, fares better. British intelligence, at a loss about the impending transfer of the Panama canal to Panama, recruits humble tailor Harry Pendel as a spy. The money's good, and Harry's glad to oblige. Trouble is, he's more than a bit of a fraud. This one is a keeper. [The recent well-reviewed film starring Geoffrey Rush and Pierce Brosnan should create additional demand. Ed.] John Hiett, Iowa City P.L. - John Hiett, Iowa City P.L. Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review. "The book breathes life, anger and excitement." - Observer (UK). "Vintage le Carr©, a morality tale set in the New World Order." - The Globe and Mail. "Heart-wrenching." - Publishers Weekly. "The master storyteller...has lost none of his cunning." - Daily Mail (UK). "Brilliant...No serious novelist can do more." - The Washington Post Book World. "Le Carr©'s prose... is a feast... The Constant Gardener is classic le Carr© - even after 500 ripe pages, you find yourself wanting it to be longer." - The Montreal Gazette. "Nobody writing today manipulates suspense better. Nobody constructs a more tantalisingly complex plot ... Essential reading." - Sunday Telegraph. "Amazingly seductive, pulling you in deeper all the time." - David Halberstam. "A novelist of conscience, pure and simple...A masterpiece." - Seattle Post. "Immensely readable and engaging...le Carr© has combined a trinity of genres - international thriller, murder mystery and ghost story - into a masterful tale." - The Edmonton Journal. "The Constant Gardener is not only about the triumph of the gray men who rule the world. It's also a love story, and as we watch Justin take on his wife's cause in spite of himself, we realize that there are parts of ourselves that the gray men will never reach." - Booklist. "Le Carr© has never been angrier or more satisfyingly entertaining." - New York Daily News. "Tough-minded, fast-moving, and uncompromising. The Constant Gardener is a tale of personal transformation . . . eloquent . . . civilized and forceful." - Boston Sunday Globe. "Le Carr© continues to craft characters who cause us to not only look into ourselves, but also demand we question our ability to negotiate the increasingly moral issues in an increasingly immoral world...The Constant Gardener begs us to take the time to uncover the curiosities of a well-written story even as we race to uncover the twists and turns of another captivating plot." - Calgary Herald. "'A cracking thriller." - Economist. "Le Carr©'s narrative...illuminates the tangle of hypocrisy, politics, and passion roiling beneath that steadfast British restraint." - Entertainment Weekly --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.