Product Description

Harry Pendel, tailor and spy, decides to take matters into his own hands by deceiving everyone and masterminding a scheme so brilliant that his life careens into a deadly game of politics and deception, in a humorous and fast-paced thriller. Reprint. NYT. "

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134652 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07-30
• Released on: 1997-07-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 416 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345420435
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Amazon.com Review
John le Carré, the greatest spy novelist of the Cold War era, continues his post-Cold War quest to define the genre he helped perfect. The classic spy novel was essentially a story of good (England, the United States) vs. evil (Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union), in which good more or less prevailed. The Tailor of Panama is something else entirely: a spy novel with no spies in which the bad guys reap most of the rewards. It is also a viciously funny satire. The novel is set in Panama, where a plot is in place to make void the Panama Treaty, which would return control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians in 1999. At the center of events is Harry Pendel, the tailor of the title. Coerced into working for British Intelligence, he concocts out of whole cloth a left-wing movement with the goal of luring the American military to do the dirty work--invade Panama à la 1989 and nullify the treaty. From the characters to the setting, le Carré has succeeded in setting new parameters for an old genre.

From Publishers Weekly
The many and various talents of le Carr‚ give this new audio version of his 1996 novel more than enough reasons for approval. Most obvious is the fact that he is a wonderful reader a natural, honest storyteller and artful actor who can command our attention and hold it long after others might lose their grip. In just a few minutes, he brings to life a large gallery of diverse characters: an upper-class narrator; a British tailor, Harry Pendel, who can't quite hide his East End Jewish, ex-convict roots; his American wife, Louisa, who pulses with do-gooder zeal; a Panamanian soldier whose English is limited to one phrase; a Panamanian banker who oozes hypocrisy; the Cockney ghost of Harry's crooked old uncle; and a rather nasty working-class British spy who threatens to upset Harry's delicately balanced life. Le Carr‚'s superb reading skills also enable listeners to stop and sniff the prose to realize just how good a writer he really is. Based on the Knopf hardcover.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Harry Pendel is the "Tailor of Panama," a haberdasher whose clients include the Panamanian president, the commanding American general, and most of the country's powerful and influential men. Harry is happily married to Louisa, daughter of an American engineer and devoted staff member to a liberal Panamanian politician. But Harry's life is a lie; he has invented the person whose life he lives. He is also badly in debt, the result of having been double-crossed by his own bank. That debt, and knowledge of the jailbird he once was, are what make Harry prey to a smarmy British agent who believes Harry knows or can learn the deepest secrets of Panama. Harry doesn't, but he's adept at making up what people want to hear, even if it is a geopolitical conspiracy on a grand scale. By turns comic and tragic, this is the kind of reading experience we have come to expect from le Carre (The Night Manager, LJ 7/93). Surely nobody writes this kind of novel better than le Carre, not even the late Graham Greene, whose Our Man in Havana (1958) was the inspiration for this novel. For all collections.?Charles Michaud, Turner Free Lib., Randolph, Mass.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

The Guilty Shall Be Rewarded
John le Carre is an honorable man. In his acknowledgements, he gives due credit to Graham Greene as follows: "Without GrahamGreene this book would never have come about. After Graham Greene's OUR MAN IN HAVANA the notion of ................ " With that out of the way, THE TAILOR OF PANAMA is pure John le Carre and is his alone. Like most of the better spy genre authors, le Carre had to make some adjustments in theme since the end of the Cold War. In my opinion, he again shows that he is up to the task in THE TAILOR OF PANAMA.

Andy Osnard, "young Mr. Osnard" to his rather pompous, conspiracy minded, Intelligence chief back in London, is posted to the Panamanian Embassy with the express objective of finding a plot to take over the canal when the Americans leave. He rightly understands that he is to find a plot even if none exists. "Young Mr. Osnard," has larceny in his heart and sees this posting as a golden opportunity to get rich.

As his man in Panama, he picks Harry Pendel, gentlemen's tailor to the rich and powerful. Harry is already living a double life. He is actually an ex-convict who learned tailoring in a British prison. He has come to Panama and invented a background for himself that has him being the junior partner of what was once London's finest tailor shop, and who relocated to Panama after the heart-wrenching death of his beloved partner. He has also gotten himself into serious financial difficulties in Panama.

Along comes "young Mr. Osnard" with threats to expose Harry if he refuses to spy on his important clientele. Along with the threats are promises of substantial monetary gain if he cooperates. Harry succumbs to the combination of the stick and the carrot.

In reality Harry is privy to nothing, but there's really nothing to be privy to anyway. This doesn't present much of a problem to a man with Harry's creative imagination. Before long there is a network of spies made up entirely of Harry and his creativity. There is "the silent opposition" and the "students" and the "fishermen" and the mysterious folk from "the other side of the bridge." There are clandestine meetings between high ranking Pandamanian officials and mysterious foreign delegations, and even a serious plot to build a bigger, better canal. And above all, there is the threat of rebellion and violence. Harry's information leaves no doubt that revolution is brewing.

As if this wasn't trouble enough, there is a real meeting of a small powerful group of millionaire power brokers and military opportunists back in Jolly Old England. These movers and shakers can make the unbelievable believable to the public in order to justify a military takeover of the canal. To top this off, a few highly placed British politicians need a boost in their popularity to keep their careers moving. The Panama plot is just what they need.

This tale of deviousness, incompetence, lies, ambitions run amok, and con artists conning other con artists keeps us chuckling until we realize its explosive nature. By the time Harry Pendel, the spy tailor, comes to the same realization it is too late. Way too late.

There is a moral to this tale: Only the innocent and naive shall be punished, the guilty shall be rewarded.

In defense of this book
i think perhaps many of the reviews here miss the point of this novel. It is not, I agree, Le Carre's best thriller. It is instead a satire, not about Panama, but about the propensity we all have to believe our own lies, and those whose lies justify actions we want to take anyway. It has been said here that he misrepresents Panama while sparing the west(England), also that le Carre is tired and out of ideas since the cold war ended. Far from the truth. His writing style may be slow for those raised on TV, but it has a point. His last 3 novels(Our Game, The Night Manager, and this one) can be seen together as a manysided indictment of the West at the end of the Cold War. They are among his best novels as literature, and should be read not as thrillers, but as examinations of wasted lies, of the arrogance of the West and it's willingness to sacrifice innocents for political and economic conveniences, of the corruption of money at the center of our intitutions at the century's end. Thank you Mr. Le Carre, for doing more than sitting back and gloating on the so called victory of the West.

An incredible, funny, touching tragedy
I read this book for the first time two months ago, and now I've read it again. My second reading was inspired by the fact that I was part way through the book the first time before I realized what an incredible book it was. So I wanted to read it again from the start with a proper sense of appreciation.

"The Tailor of Panama" is purportedly a spy thriller, but the spy story is actually just the framework on which John le Carré weaves his amazing study of human nature. And the human characteristics which are dominant are not ones that the human race should be proud of. We are presented with large amounts of greed, dishonesty, jealousy, cruelty, selfish lust, corruption, apathy, frailty and stupidity. On top of that we are presented with some of the less attractive conditions for human existence: poverty, suffering, guilt and sickness.

But the amazing thing is that John le Carré writes about these human characteristics and conditions with a great deal of humor and understanding. And he does provide a few glimpses of love, altruism and generosity.

So even though the story ends tragically it is for the most part a funny and touching story, and this makes the book very readable.

Another strength of the book is John le Carré's masterful command of the English language. He writes beautiful descriptions, and has a surprising and inventive way with words. I often found myself delighted with one sentence after another, each one saying something in a way I hadn't realized was possible.

The way in which the plot is slowly but surely expanded is also very satisfying. We start out with the daily lives of a few seemingly ordinary people. But then the seemingly ordinary people are shown to be less and less ordinary, and at the same time more and more people are added to the story, and the scope of the story expands until high-level international politics of the worst sort get involved.

Yet another positive aspect of the book is the large amount of very interesting information about life in Panama and how Panama society works. In this respect the book can be considered to be an insider's tourist guide to Panama.

Highly recommended - and to be read slowly and savored.

Finally, my opinion as to why there have been a lot of reviewers who have given this book a low rating: I'm guessing that many of these reviewers expected a straight James-Bond-style spy thriller and were disappointed because "The Tailor of Panama" is definitely not a simple spy thriller. Another "problem" may be that most of the main characters are very British, and the book is written in British English. The dialog between the characters contains a lot of British slang and British expressions. To me this adds to the charm of the book, but I'm guessing that some readers find this irritating.

Rennie Petersen