There was a fair degree of agreement about A Most Wanted Man - as follows:
Disappointing in terms of what we had expected. The Le Carre history and/or reputation for well told, complex plots that were atmospheric and gripped the reader proved unfounded in relation to this latest offering. General feeling was that this book lacked sophistication and generally failed to 'grip' people
It was as though Le Carre had tried to adapt to a 'post Smiley' world in his writing - but failed. By trying to deal with Islamic terrorism (rather than the cold war) and introducing real relationships between men and women (rather than simple cameo's of separated ageing spies and their mistresses) he appeared to enter territory that he simply didn't have the knowledge about. If the Islamic terrorist threat was to be effectively written about, then it needed greater depth and insight than he offered, and his writing about relationships was generally considered to be just awful - people suddenly were stated to have fallen for each other without any build-up, tension nor rhyme nor reason offered.
Somewhat one-dimensional - with a slow build up to the one central event, rather than the usual Le Carre complexity of several things happening at different points in the novel.
There were different views on the ending. Most thought it was weak and hurried, whilst Rob (alone?) rather liked the swift brutal conclusion
General consensus that we enjoyed the Yank bashing, which almost saved the book from itself.
Some of the writing was of a very disappointing quality (who is Le Carre 'when he was at home' - P58) - though Ras took offence at Rob's suggestion that on occasions he was beginning to fear he was reading Jeffrey Archer writing under a stolen name.
Why did he write it? A publishing commitment he couldn't get out of? Lost money in the banking crash and needed to top up the pension? The general view was that it was as though his heart wasn't really in it and he dashed it off without his previous degree on in-depth writing and research.
In summary, views ranged from it being a pleasant but uninspiring read to being a bit of a waste of time.
