Getting through the first part of any book is a difficult thing, even more when it's for school, but I did it. A lot has been happening in the book so far, a lot still has to happen. The English and the Americans are spying on the Russians, a publisher is made a messenger for the English and a Russian woman started the whole mess. On to something that I noticed though, the narration feels all jumbled. I can't tell whether is Palfrey (the narrator) speaking since the book is all in the past, sort of like a retelling. Or Katya (the Russian women who started the mess) talking since Palfrey had no way of knowing how she felt or what she was thinking. Or it could even be Barley (the English messenger) talking because of the same reason from above. It seems as if the narration jumps around with no clarity. I feel that everything John le Carré has done so far is amazing. The way he writes the characters out and the style he uses in his writing. If it wasn’t really for the last two chapters I read, chapters 7 and 8, I would have been perfectly content.
I probably would try to only stick with two narrators at most if I was going to write something like this. It should be clear to the reader who the speaker is at all times and I’ve tried that in my writing many times before. Each time I failed, I was perplexed by the way it stumped me. I couldn’t read an example of one that wasn’t clear. Now that I have, I want to try to focus on making everything very clear. If I got stumped on a published authors writing, I can’t imagine how confusing mine must be.
