On my very first trip to Books for Free I
faced a dilemma: with Group Portrait with Lady and What a Carve Up! already
in my bag I had to pick my third (and last) free book for the day. On the one
hand I had The Russia House, on the other Brighton Rock by Graham
Greene. Much like Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I chose
poorly, picking up le Carré’s novel and leaving behind Greene’s (never to be
seen again, at least not for free!).
The Russia House is actually ok, but that’s about it. I was
expecting something as exciting as Gorky Park, but instead found a
fairly slow book in which, ultimately, very little happens. It probably was
thrilling back in the time of Glasnost and Perestroika, but for someone who has
to teach about those times (and who has grown to take a number of the comments
made by Goethe as rather obvious in the late stages of the Cold War) it just
wasn’t that interesting.
The love-story behind the old washed-up
anti-hero and the beautiful Russian is just a bit too cliché. And the most
interesting character in the novel (Landau) just disappears after two chapters.
Also, can somebody explain to me how a spy
(like the narrator) who has access to tapes but not to video recordings of the
meetings described can know how the characters he is spying upon are sitting
and how the light reflects in their eyes?!?
