The Mission Song

The Mission Song by John le Carré

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a difficult one for me to wrap my brain around for a review. Its generally not my genra of choice, never really been into spy novels. But actually it was more than that, it was a love story not only of a couple but of their country. I would really give this one 3.5 stars because it really was very well written.

Bruno Salvo is a very talented interpreter of obscure African languages that happens to be trapped in a loveless marriage. He is drawn in to the life of a spy and uncovers a conspiracy against is beloved Congo. In the meantime he falls in love with a wonderful woman that is also from Africa. Salvo is very naive being very new to the life of a spy and his conscious won't let him sit back and do nothing. In difficult situations its often not easy to do what is right and even then sometimes its impossible to make any difference against such odds as wealthy high ranking conspirators.

The problem that I had with this novel was that it would have helped if I had more of a knowledge of African politics (ok, I'll be honest I have no knowledge of African politcs, I don't really care for any politics regardless of geography). I felt kinda lost in the middle of all that was going on at the conference. What I did enjoy was the way it was told from the point of view of the interpreter. Not only was his knowledge of different languages interesting but also the way he picked up sounds in general. Every tone or inflection of speach was picked up and had meaning. Background noises also had meaning in the way he interpreted what was going on.

Overall, I enjoyed alot about this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good spy novel.



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