Charity: A New Bernard Samson Novel

by Len Deighton

Book Overview

'The master of espionage writing at his brilliant best." - Mail on Sunday Bernard Samson is still tormented by the mystery surrounding the cold-blooded murder of his sister-in-law, Tessa, on the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006018728X
• ISBN13: 9780060187286
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 279 Pages
• Weight: 1.22 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Len Deighton is the master

Bernard Samson is one of the great characters of modern popular fiction. The three trilogies are, collectively, in my opinion, the greatest piece of spy drama ever written, with the singular exception of le Carre's great trilogy (Tinker, Tailor; Honourable Schoolboy; Smiley's People), the high water mark of the genre. Actually, it's really not fair to compare them. Despite what the jacket tells you, the Samson epic shouldn't be read out of sequence. Start with Berlin Game and work your way through, grateful that there are nine of them (ten, if you read Winter, which probably should be read first to understand Samson's family history). Action buffs may be disappointed because the thrill is in the characterization and the mystery: nothing is as it seems and the intrepid Samson soldiers on, perhaps the last man standing on the battlefield of the cold war. When I finished Charity I was sad, and envious of those that would discover Berlin Game and have the whole journey ahead. That, to me, is the true measure of a book or books. Bravo, Mr. Deighton. Well done.

Circles Within Circles

Bernard Samson is one of my favorite espionage characters. I was delighted by this excellent completion of the Faith, Hope and Charity trilogy. The hard part about Deighton's trilogies is that they leave the reader hanging between books, dying for the next one. Charity does not resolve everything, but it certainly takes care of a lot of the dangling questions. The plot complications invite paranoia. It seems like nothing is ever what it appears to be. The only constant is that Bernard continues to play the role of the unwitting dupe in others' ploys. Since he is a good and thoughtful person, that pulls us away from having sympathy for the spymasters who dream up the plans to go awry so often. It raises the rather nice question of how far the means can and should go to justify the end. Will we ever have enough of the Cold War and its espionage? Perhaps not. If so, we are fortunate that Len Deighton has written this book.If you have not read the earlier Bernard Samson novels, I strongly urge you to begin at the beginning with Winter. You'll have two advantages that way: You will appreciate the plot development better, having known of the prior complications; and you won't have to wait for the next book to come out. If you follow this advice, I envy you. You have a lot of fun reading ahead!

Good finish to the triology -- but more left to reveal

Charity wraps up the Faith, Hope and Charity triology and concludes 10 books with Samson/Samson/Volkmann/Gloria et al. However, all the questions are not sufficiently answers which makes me hope that there will be further books in this exciting series. As a hint to those who are somewhat disappointed in the finish of this book (I wasn't), re-read Sinker. I particularly admire the characterisation in these books; most actions books have, at most, two interesting characters. This series has many.

A deflating conclusion

Mr Deighton is one of my favourite writers, and I have all hisproduction on my shelves. Sense of the plot and of humour, the rightdose of skepticism in human nature, tongue-in-cheek, mastery of the language, eclecticism can all be found in his books. He is capable of different styles of writing: the one in the initial "Harry Palmer" series is different from the ones found in the Bernard Samson trilogies and in the other books. That trek of a group of South American rebels through the jungle in "MAM-ista" has an epic value. The only difficulties for the reader lie in a somewhat cryptic writing, where several in-between passages are left to his powers of interpretation and recollection, and ability to decode; and the tendency to jump in time - real time warps, back- and forwards, which may leave the reader disoriented and trying to remember where he's already met this or that character, seen (from another angle) this or that situation, in a succession of deja vu's. This is especially evident in the 3 Bernard Samson trilogies, which this book concludes: it took me several weeks of re-reading the whole saga, and many sheets of yellow foolscap paper, to establish their chronology. The autor himself found it necessary to wrap up the Berlin background of the first trilogy in "Winter"; and it cannot be casual that another writer, Edward Milward-Oliver, felt the need to publish 2 books (The Len Deighton Companion, and - - - Annotated Bibliography, 1954-1985) to sort out for the perplexed average reader who's who in L.D.'s books. One of the best traits of the writer is that he can hint at existing erotic/sexual situations without dwelling on them for pages. The non-fictional books on WW2 are also masterpieces. Mr Deighton, with John LeCarré, is one of the best espionage writers of this century and he deserves a mention in the history of English literature of this period. He is of my same age and, I presume, personality ("crafty, nasty,suspicious and irritable", from Horse under Water) and he also is a draftsman! I always look for new production of his whenever I enter a bookstore. I hope to find more of it well into the next century. He is one of the most entertaining writers I ever found.

I hate to see the end of the Samson series

I have loved the Bernard Samson character, from the start. Although reading them somewhat out of order caused me mental trauma. I began with Faith, picked up at a bookstore, worked backwards buying whatever books I found, then working forwards with Hope and Charity. The insite into office politics and the realities of middle age "success" is something to behold. (Len Deighton has as much insight as Scott Adams into the "office".) I was disappointed with this ending, and hope that Mr. Deighton will somehow revive the series. I still rated it as a 5 star because the series is the most enjoyable set of books I have ever read.