All right,” he said aggressively to Mildren, having first closed the door behind him and dropped the latch. All right, she was into all that gender crap. So she should be. Give Africa to the women and the place might work.” The Constant Gardener is the perfect title for this novel in that it's a double entendre that describes two important aspects of Justin, our titular “constant gardener.” He was brought up to join the ''family firm,'' as his father called the Foreign Office, and he has cultivated the image of ''a sweet chap passionately interested in nothing except phlox, asters, freesias and gardenias.'' Justin gardened “constantly, in one sense, as an escape from a world he viewed as very dark: ’'Man was vile and evermore would be so. The world contained a small number of reasonable souls of whom Justin happened to be one. Their job, in his simple view, was to head off the human race from its worst excesses -- with the proviso that when two sides were determined to blow each other to smithereens, there was precious little a reasonable person could do about it.’' Is it a story of bravery and passion as he becomes determined to walk in the way that his wife once walked? Yes. Justin had always stayed out of the activist part of Tessa's life. And she had always protected him and his diplomatic career from it. This all changes when Tessa is murdered, and Justin is overwhelmed by a tragic loss. He feels the necessity of unraveling the reasons and the people involved in his wife's death, learning things he never knew about her when she was alive, globetrotting as a pseudo-spy. What he uncovers is nothing less than the dark side of global capitalism.

It is only as Justin's quest for his wife's murderers turns into a crusade that this masterly storyteller begins to show his hand. As Quayle flies round the world, on the tail of a sinister pharmaceutical company which has found friends among his English Establishment masters, this second XI Englishman acquires heroic status. Justin learns that Tessa had uncovered a corporate scandal involving medical experimentation in Africa. KVH (Karel Vita Hudson), 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, KVH covered up the side effects and improved the drug only in anticipation of a massive multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis outbreak. Justin appeared not to like this question. Perhaps it was the moment when he realized there was purpose to Woodrow’s small talk. Or perhaps—thought Woodrow—he didn’t take kindly to being pinned down on the subject of Tessa, when he couldn’t pin her down himself. Woodrow was once more conscious of Donohue’s probing stare. Sheila had disappeared. Woodrow had the impression she had gone to do something urgent. But what could that be? Why should Tessa’s death require the urgent action of the spies? He felt chilly and wished he had a cardigan, yet the sweat was pouring off him. Like most John Le Carre film adaptions I’ve seen, the Constant Gardener is a good one. In fact i don’t believe I’ve experienced a bad Ralph Fiennes or Rachel Weisz film so congrats on the casting choices.

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So its summer, finally and at last, here in the Great White North. It’s time for some summer fun reading about espionage! This is my first venture into Le Carré’s work and I enjoyed it. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. When did you first get the idea something might have gone wrong? Over,” he asked lamely—like, Do you live up there all year round? Over. Or, How long have you been running your nice hotel? Over. Returning to London, Justin's passport is confiscated. He dines with Pellegrin, who lies that Arnold must have murdered Tessa, and believes that Justin has his incriminating letter. Justin meets with Tessa's cousin and lawyer Ham, and they access her computer files to reveal her investigation into Dypraxa and its manufacturer, pharmaceutical conglomerate KDH, who hired Three Bees to test the drug on unsuspecting Kenyans. The book talks about a very serious issue in the form of a thriller and is superbly written with complex characterizations and clever plotting. The author says that the book is a result of extensive research. It did drag a bit at times, but I am fine with that. Le Carre is famous for his Cold War novels, but this one is excellent. The author admits that he is not against pharmas. They do a lot of good too, he also says that “ my story is as tame as a holiday postcard.”

The High Commission is sad to announce the death by murder of Mrs. Tessa Quayle, the wife of Justin Quayle, First Secretary in Chancery. Mrs. Quayle died on the shores of Lake Turkana, close to Allia Bay. Her driver Mr. Noah Katanga was also killed. Mrs. Quayle will be remembered for her devotion to the cause of women’s rights in Africa, as well as for her youth and beauty. We wish to express our deep sympathy to Mrs. Quayle’s husband Justin and her many friends. The High Commission flag will be flown at half-mast until further notice. A book of condolence will be placed in the High Commission reception lobby. He was still quoting from notes or if he wasn’t he was pretending to. His cheeks were still in his hands and he seemed determined they should stay here, for there was a stubborn rigidity across his shoulders.

The Next Chapter in Story Development

Use your imagination, Mr. Chancery. You know what happens to corpses in this heat? You want to fly her down to Nairobi, you better cut her up or she won’t get into the hold.” Justin Quayle, a British diplomat in Nairobi, Kenya, is told that his activist wife, Tessa, was killed while travelling with a doctor friend in a desolate region of Africa. Investigating on his own, Quayle discovers that her murder, reportedly committed by her friend, may have had more sinister roots. Flew her,” Woodrow said, recalling Wolfgang’s repulsive image of slicing up her body to get it into the hold. Indeed she is,” said Justin proudly. “Night and day, the poor girl. Everything from wiping babies’ bottoms to acquainting paralegals with their civil rights, I’m told. Most of her clients are women, of course, which appeals to her. Even if it doesn’t appeal quite so much to their menfolk.” His wistful smile, the one that says if only. “Property rights, divorce, physical abuse, marital rape, female circumcision, safe sex. The whole menu, every day. You can see why their husbands get a little touchy, can’t you? I would, if I was a marital rapist.” If the extent of the corruption in this novel sound bad le Carre lets us know in the Afterward that his novel lets his readers off easy with the details he shares:

I hate to say it, but I’m not a big fan of thrillers. I apologize to my thriller-loving friends. As long as you’re happy with them, my opinion counts for diddly-squat. I'm not typically drawn to fast-paced action in my reading life. I'm a characters, reflective reading kind of gal. However, if thrillers were all written in the style of John le Carré, I would happily join the ranks of the true addicts! I can get on board with a smart, literary thriller. Justin was having difficulty coordinating. First he had to wait for the sound of Woodrow’s words to catch up with him. Then he hastened to respond in brisk, hard-won sentences. “There’s this shop off Piccadilly. She bought three pairs last home leave. Never seen her splash out like that. Not a spender as a rule. Never had to think about money. So she didn’t. Dress at the Salvation Army shop. Given half a chance.” The first half of The Constant Gardener is an excellent mystery with beautifully written prose and emotional detail about the characters, but the novel slowly devolves into a more conventional thriller, devoid of the psychological nuance and moral ambiguity that were so marked in another le Carre stand alone novel (which I loved), The Little Drummer Girl. The good guys are very good and the bad guys are very bad. This is not a simple political thriller. There is so much more going on here than I was expecting, despite vague memories of the movie, seen ages ago. Le Carré created something incredible with the story of Justin and Tessa: two magnificently complicated and layered characters whose barely lived love story is the fire that drives both of them – albeit in different directions, tragically. Issue one: the side effects are being deliberately concealed in the interest of profit. Issue two: the world's poorest communities are used as guinea pigs by the world's richest. Issue three: legitimate scientific debate of these issues is stifled by corporate intimidation.”

There is probably an element of fantasy-fulfillment on Le Carré’s part: the early relationship between Justin and Tessa screams midlife crisis, and other male characters sexualize her a lot, which can get a little weird. But once we get passed how hot she is, the profound nature of her relationship with her husband develops, and it is so much more than meets the eye. One of the pleasures of this story is seeing this love story unfolds through Justin's recollection, but also through the things he finds out about how far Tessa went to protect him, how much she was willing to sacrifice to keep him safe.

Dark hair, no makeup, tall, late twenties, not British. Not for me. South German, Austrian or Italian. I’m a hotelier. I look at people. And beautiful. I’m a man too. Sexy like an animal, how she moves. And clothes like you could blow them off. That sound like your Abbott or somebody else’s? Over.” Wolfgang. He radioed the police and informed his office here in Nairobi. Also by radio. The Oasis has no telephone.” And you’re all well, I trust?” Justin asked in that same studied drawl of his. “Gloria not languishing in this awful heat? The boys both flourishing and so forth?”Justin Quayle, a British diplomat and avid horticulturalist, is confronted by Amnesty International activist Tessa during a lecture in London. They strike up a romance, and marry after she accompanies him to his posting in Kenya, where she befriends Belgian doctor Arnold Bluhm, leading to rumors of an affair. Tessa has no qualms confronting corruption, to the chagrin of Justin's superiors, and they lose a child late in her pregnancy. It took me a moment to gather my thoughts and figure out where I stand on this book. It certainly could have been trimmed quite a bit, making it much tighter. It certainly could have given a bit more subtlety to Tessa Quayle. It certainly could have made Justin Quayle a bit less laughably clueless about computers. But then it still managed to create something special out of the bleak conspiracy and slightly hopeful rather than crushing defeat and the unfathomable power imbalances. And that managed to work, although in a rather depressing way. But hey, there are comfort reads elsewhere and this book doesn’t need to be one. This one is meant to make you unsettled, and in that, it succeeds. I had expected a rather light & frothy thriller and instead I got a serious examination of big pharma—its use of the unfortunate as test subjects and its desire to put profit well ahead of human kindness. Also explored is the nature of colonialism in Kenya, reminding me a bit of The Poisonwood Bible. Heavy subjects for a popular novel! But the book is not about Africa. It's about Justin, the wronged man and husband, and a reluctant spy. Moglie e marito non avrebbero potuto essere caratterialmente più diversi: coinvolta, impegnata, testa calda lei, distaccato, tranquillo, assorto lui.