The Night Manager
(John Le Carre)
Jonathan Pine, the night manager at a posh Zurich hotel, is a well-bred Englishman who battled the IRA in Ireland, and, while still an average civilian himself, had some tangential experience with the British Secret Service. Before his employment in Zurich he worked as a hotelier in Cairo, where a woman he grew infatuated with had given him documents for safekeeping. Seeing the paper?s sensitive nature, he gave copies to his friends in Intelligence, and soon afterwards the woman was met her death at the hands of her rich boyfriend. The narrative eventually introduces readers to an arms dealer as the killer, although Pine feels responsible himself.By sheer coincidence, the arms dealer turns up with his staff in tow at the hotel in Zurich. He and Pine become friendly, and Pine grabs this opportunity to enter into the man?s confidence. Pine contacts his secret Service acquaintances, and they gibe him the green light. Thus Pine starts a slow, intricate process infiltration into the arms dealer?s operation.A major part of the novel is Pine's slow building of a cover story that will withstand any background checks. LeCarré is being true to himself in avoiding the pitfalls of omniscience, letting the reader know only what is said and what is done, leaving the reader to figure out the meanings of characters? motives and the critical scenes.As Pine penetrates the arms dealer?s inner sanctum, the novel develops two narratives: one tracks Pine's penetration, and the other that follows Pine's friends as well as their colleagues in American intelligence to safeguard the operation from suspicious operatives in their own agencies. The climax is built up further when Pine has to minimize contact with his handlers, while the arms dealer?s organization is narrowing the scope of their search for a possible plant.The plot?s twists and characters seem surreal, but Le Carré masterfully weaves them into an impressively convincing web.
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