The Constant Gardener, by John le Carré

29th April, Forester & Flower, Combe Down, Bath.

The Constant Gardener is a 2001 novel which is provocative and challenging. It is Le Carre’s take on the different dynamics and influence of governments, aid agencies, politicians and multinationals in the developing world. In a review in the Observer, Nigel Williams described the book as “a work of fierce political intelligence, tackling the key question of the failure of the West to deal with all those things that the collapse of communism should have made easier to confront - Third World poverty, corporate greed and political cynicism”.

The novel tells the story of Justin Quayle, a British diplomat whose activist wife is murdered. Believing there is something behind the murder, he seeks to uncover the truth and finds an international conspiracy of corrupt bureaucracy and pharmaceutical money. A large pharmaceutical company working under the cover of AIDS tests and treatments, is testing a tuberculosis drug that has severe side effects. Rather than help the trial subjects and begin again with a new drug, the company covered up the side effects and continued to develop the drug. The plot was vaguely based on a real-life case in Kano, Nigeria. Le Carré writes in the book's afterword: "by comparison with the reality, my story [is] as tame as a holiday postcard". The book was later adapted into a feature film in 2005.

JH: saw the novel as a fable – a story of good and evil, the weak versus the powerful (in the tradition of David & Goliath, Robin Hood, or the Lord of the Rings). As in the tradition of all good fables it is rather improbable, for example, the way that Justin travels on a false passport to Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Canada and back to Kenya. But is a great story of individual commitment & personal passion in contrast to the cynicism & pragmatic amorality.  It can also be read as a historical novel reflecting the values and experience of the late 20th Century. - a world on the cusp of arrival of the internet and computer security, higher levels of corporate scrutiny, governance & accountability.  Could it happen today?  Are multinationals, particularly big-pharma, as unethical, manipulative & venal as described in the book? The context of Kenya rings true – the government at the time was notoriously corrupt, and certain individuals and companies had significant influence.

Chris B:  enjoyed the book, liked the way the tension and the drama kept up through the book. Felt Le Carre good at creating scenes and characters – particularly the way that characters emerged, for example, how Justin’s character evolved and was developed through the book. He noted that you get to know Tess much more after her death.  Some of characters may appear stereotypical and rather old fashioned, but drawing on his experience working in government and internationally such people do exist. He recognised that diplomats have a difficult role balancing their own personal values with government’s different agendas – a state of constant tension which often means they appear indecisive. He also noted that it would be interesting to see how other authors, like Graham Greene, would have handled this issue and explored the resulting personal conflicts and tensions.

Chris W: a good and exciting read.  He enjoyed some of the characters involved and good descriptions of the Kenyan setting and events like the funeral. Concerned it may have been a rather superficial commentary on some highly complex issues – for example the characterisation of diplomats and their role., or the negative portrayal of pharmaceutical companies and the way they work in Africa. Felt the level of malfeasance portrayed was not plausible – as no company would risk the legal repercussions and potential consequences. This led to a discussion, based on past and recent experience, of the way big pharmaceuticals currently behave and what they have been accused of. 

WM:  enjoyed individual bits of the novel and some of the characterisation, such as Gloria, but generally found story improbable and felt the style was exaggerated and overly stereotypical. In general the book did not work for him and lost interest in it.

RV:  found story not terrible satisfactory – not sure Le Carre writes very well about some of the internal conflicts and potential contradictions.  Felt characters in this book rather two-dimensional characters (good or bad) and feels that in some of his earlier novels he was more successful at portraying characters struggling with moral and personal conflicts - complex characters who were internally conflicted. He was not sure these internal conflicts brought out or explored sufficiently in this novel. For example, how UK diplomats are expected to represent, and so appear to condone, UK government policies etc. – policies that might be at odds with their own values and moral compass. RV also raised a concern that the author appears to takes sides on some issues – this raised a debate as to whether authors should take sides in writing novels that touch on sensitive political issues or personal behaviour.

SC:  not normally comfortable with spy fiction and in the past had found many of Le Carre’s novels hard work and so was surprised how much he enjoyed this novel. He found the subject matter interesting, and liked the characterisation of some those involved.  But was concerned that at times it read like a rather tedious exposition of some of the issues involved, and at times the discussion around some of the issues was rather clunky.  He wondered if spelling out the issues involved in this way was a device to move the story along. Different characters were introduced to develop such expositions, for example, the way the pilot McKenzie was used to explain the particular context of what was happening in the North of Kenya and Southern Sudan. 

MW:  the Constant Gardner feels like a book written by an author who knows his skills and his limitations; I have read the Smiley novels and this one has similar characteristics, for example the plot is well thought through, and it’s a good read.  It’s a political thriller with a sympathetic but rather boring hero, (definitely not James Bond), a number of Bond villains, both foreign and closer to home and, best of all, sexy Bond women all over the place. The only other thing I would like to say is about the ending, which, for such a long book, I found rather abrupt and disappointing, and depressing, with the baddies seemingly getting away with it but Justin being blown away. Yes I know that is how it would have gone in real life, actually he probably would have been blown away sooner in real life, but it would have been nice if Justin could have lived happily ever after with Ghita or Lara or Brigit from Hippo, and the baddies could have gone to jail. 

MT:  mostly enjoyed the book and it thought it was easy to read - I used to look forward to reading it. There were some confusing bits; however the book was easier to follow than the film. The telling the story from different people’s perspective and in different time zones was a bit confusing at times. But I did sort out the plot in the end. It was mostly told from Justin’s view point, so I felt I got to know him a bit, and liked him. It is a fascinating insight to this world. Is it really as corrupt as the story makes out? I have had some experience with the generosity of Pharma and medical device industry, but never as bad as the story - just flash flights and expensive dinners to try and buy your allegiance, not more than that - no killings at all?  Whilst reading the book, he had been watching the Widow on the TV; thought there was lots of overlap between the stories. I liked the way everyone fancied Tessa, especially the scoundrel Sandy. The interplay between Sandy and Tessa was well done. Certain parts I remember and liked -the lunch scene with Pellegrin, not listening at all was good. I suspected the Doctor was gay long before it came out, and knew he was not having an affair with Tessa. It was a strange coincidence that we have another book about TB. I would like to know what the connection is between TB and Aids, mentioned in the book, for example. There were lots of mention about clinical trials, and some things were not correct, so maybe the author had not researched that properly, or maybe things were very different in the past? The ending was a bit frustrating -at one point I thought he was going to commit suicide, but I wanted to know more how the end came. 

AA:  Le Carre is a great storyteller and he tells a great story here. He keeps the narrative moving along at a good speed without skimping on atmosphere or description.  And his concise way of writing is compact with elegant turns of phrase without being dense or knotty.  He has a fluent, easy-to-read, clear writing style. I really enjoyed the development of Woodrow, Justin, and particularly Tessa who is gradually being constructed from the eyes and words of other characters. 
Quotes that I particularly enjoyed were:
“The High Commission stood on a slope, and its continuing subsidence was enough to tilt pictures out of true after a weekend on their own.”
“Bluhm when the party’s nearly over, slumped in a chair and looking lost and empty, with everything worth knowing about him hidden five miles down.”
“He advanced on her, and said, ‘Good evening, Gloria, how very good of you to have me,’ in a voice so bravely mustered that she could have wept and later did.”

AA, as a doctor with experience of working with TB patients and in light of the book’s focus on TB (and the group’s interest in the disease), pointed out that:
* •    One-third of the people in the world are infected with TB, but most don't develop disease as their immune systems contain it. The waning of the immune system with old age may result in reactivation with the bacteria no longer being contained so they start to cause disease. There are two main groups in the UK who have TB - elderly indigenous people with reactivation and immigrants infected overseas who come with disease.
* •    TB used to be endemic in UK - Tom Jones and Ringo Starr had it and my dad’s chest X-ray showed he’d been infected with TB as a child in the 20s which had stayed contained. TB, what was called “consumption", lead to the death of millions including illustrious individuals such as Orwell, Burns, DH Lawrence, Florence Nightingale, Dylan Thomas, Alan Sillitoe, Somerset Maugham and various Brontë’s, plus Eleanor Roosevelt, Stravinsky, Camus, Chekhov and Kafka.
* •    Given that development of disease is a fine balance between immune containment and bacterial challenge, AIDS (which suppresses/destroys the immune system) unmasks latent TB. It also makes each disease harder to treat, and the patient ends up on two separate cocktails of nasty drugs which often interact and cause further trouble in an already weakened individual without a functioning immune system to assist in the battle against the bugs - that is if you are lucky enough to have access to medical care and the correct drugs. Not to mention the funds.
* •    When HIV took off in Africa transmission was mainly heterosexual, so it was young adults who were the main victims of the epidemic. As TB was (and still is) endemic and effective treatments were elusive, the results were devastating with huge numbers of children orphaned – many who had been infected with HIV through maternal-child transmission.


Constant Gardner BBBC Scores:  CW-7.1, CB-7,  AA–7,  MT-7,  JH-7,  MW-6.7,  SC-6,  RV-5.5, WM-3,