Wednesday, March 30

3. The Constant Gardener

Book 3: The Constant Gardner by John le Carre (A+)

What an amazing book turned into an amazing movie!!! I'm not going to say the book was better (like everyone says). I will say that the movie and book were equally great in their own separate ways.
So if you didn't already feel paranoid about phramasuedical companies, then this is the book for you!! It is an amazing activist book for third world countries told through the tireless efforts of a British diplomat's wife then by her husband as he tries to avenge her death!
Tessa Quayle (pronounced like quail the bird) is viciously murdered while attending a gender conference. Her husband Justin, a diplomant for England's High Commission in Africa, finds out that her death wasn't just the stereotypical violence of Africa but a planned and ordered murder to silence his wife. Tessa and her assumed lover (which is another twist in the plot) Dr. Arnold Bluhm were trying to expose the horrors of the pharmasuedical company the House of Three Bees. Three Bees was selling and distributing a TB-curing drug in Africa even though the clinical trials for the drugs had been rushed and had shown horrible side effects, including blindness, death, and stillborn children in women. Tessa and Arnold try to expose the truth while bad people, including individuals from the High Commission who have ties and stock with Three Bees, try to silence them with everything from threats to public excommunication and finally with death. Justin picks up where his wife left off in an effort to discover to quell love triangle rumors and uncovers more than he bargained for. He then embarks on a worldwide mission to learn not only about the work his wife did but also who she truly was.
The story races from one scene to another and is tied with passionate, beautiful, raw flashbacks of Justin and Tessa. The characters are so deep and multi-layered that you can have a long list for each of why you hate and/love them. It is an extremely exhilariating read that you won't want to put down.
The only thing I have to say about it is that the ending was drawn out a bit but possibly necessary.

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