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Roman Clodia's Reviews > Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
by
This may be the third time I've read this but it's still tense, gripping and impactful all over again. Le Carré is especially good at revealing the way the Circus is mostly a washed up service run by old, white men (almost all men) still trading on heroic WW2 records even though that was thirty years in the past, outdated ideas of the British Empire and delusions about the voice that Britain might have on an international stage. From that point of view it's fascinating to see that le Carré's more recent post-Brexit books are essentially continuations on a theme.
This time around I was especially fascinated by Smiley: his impotency in relation to a serially unfaithful wife, and his unnerving bond with Karla that makes them mirror reflections of each other. Is it precisely his continued love for Ann that is both Smiley's weakness and his moral strength in a world driven by less salubrious motives?
A bleak, moody and cynical book.
----------------------------------------------------
Le Carré's world is perhaps as far from the glamorous cosmos of James Bond and his followers as it's possible to be. There is bureaucracy instead of wild flights of individualism, brown cardboard files instead of new-fangled gadgets, and gloomy offices in places like Acton and Brixton. Yet, for all that, the labyrinthine plot grips relentlessly - even on a re-read or for those of us who know who the mole is. It's a testament, then, to le Carré's craft that this is about more, so much more, than simply a race towards that final revelation.
Be prepared, I'd say, to not know what's going on at the start - and trust le Carré to pull it all together, in all its complexity, by the end. Ultimately, this is a book which is bleak, filled with lonely, wounded, betrayed sometimes mean, greedy and egotistical characters. There's little to uplift - but gosh, this is gripping! And as part one of the Karla trilogy, it sets out the terms upon which Smiley and his Russian counterpart will continue to cross swords.
by
In that moment Guillam felt not merely betrayed; but orphaned. His suspicions, his resentments for so long turned outwards on the real world - on his women, his attempted loves - now swung upon the Circus and the failed magic which had formed his faith.
This may be the third time I've read this but it's still tense, gripping and impactful all over again. Le Carré is especially good at revealing the way the Circus is mostly a washed up service run by old, white men (almost all men) still trading on heroic WW2 records even though that was thirty years in the past, outdated ideas of the British Empire and delusions about the voice that Britain might have on an international stage. From that point of view it's fascinating to see that le Carré's more recent post-Brexit books are essentially continuations on a theme.
This time around I was especially fascinated by Smiley: his impotency in relation to a serially unfaithful wife, and his unnerving bond with Karla that makes them mirror reflections of each other. Is it precisely his continued love for Ann that is both Smiley's weakness and his moral strength in a world driven by less salubrious motives?
A bleak, moody and cynical book.
----------------------------------------------------
Le Carré's world is perhaps as far from the glamorous cosmos of James Bond and his followers as it's possible to be. There is bureaucracy instead of wild flights of individualism, brown cardboard files instead of new-fangled gadgets, and gloomy offices in places like Acton and Brixton. Yet, for all that, the labyrinthine plot grips relentlessly - even on a re-read or for those of us who know who the mole is. It's a testament, then, to le Carré's craft that this is about more, so much more, than simply a race towards that final revelation.
Be prepared, I'd say, to not know what's going on at the start - and trust le Carré to pull it all together, in all its complexity, by the end. Ultimately, this is a book which is bleak, filled with lonely, wounded, betrayed sometimes mean, greedy and egotistical characters. There's little to uplift - but gosh, this is gripping! And as part one of the Karla trilogy, it sets out the terms upon which Smiley and his Russian counterpart will continue to cross swords.
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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
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Reading Progress
August 1, 2018
–
Started Reading
August 1, 2018
– Shelved
August 6, 2018
–
Finished Reading
October 7, 2019
–
Started Reading
October 9, 2019
–
Finished Reading
February 27, 2022
–
Started Reading
February 27, 2022
–
56.4%
"'I exchanged my predicament for his, that is the point, and as I now realise I began to conduct an interrogation with myself... I could have sworn I was getting through to him, that I had found the chink in his armour: when of course all I was doing - all I was doing was showing him the chink in mine.'"
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238
February 27, 2022
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Finished Reading
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Aug 07, 2018 07:35AM
I liked your comparison of le Carre's world with that of James Bond (although both Fleming and le Carre supposedly worked in the 'intelligence' industry). I heard somewhere, sometime long ago, that le Carre's Spy Who Came in from the Cold was written in the early 'sixties directly to debunk the glitz-and-glamour ideal then so strongly propounded by the first Bond movies. It is, indeed, an exceedingly bleak vision, and one which, in all likelihood, is much closer to the truth.
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Here in the UK we had a TV series called Spooks about MI5, and while the plots were grittier than Bond it was filled with handsome/beautiful spies being heroic. Fun to watch, but I agree that le Carre offers something very different.
Yea - as I'm much more into movies/tv than you, it should come as no surprise that I've watched all 10 seasons of Spooks. First rate. But again, what it failed to do, and only le Carre seems to have gotten close to - and even he leaves it somewhat aloof from his main story lines - is the incredible degree which Soviet intelligence actually infiltrated MI5. At one point Donald Maclean, a double agent, was actually put in charge of ferreting out Soviet agents in the organization! If you haven't already done so, check out the British miniseries - it does a good job of telling this story.
I definitely need to know more about the whole Maclean/Philby/Burgess story as I only know the bare bones - as usual, though, I'd prefer to read than watch!
You've inspired me to pick up 'A Spy Named Orphan' about Maclean. Have you seen 'The Americans' about two Soviet spies, married and living in the US during Reagan's presidency? I've just started season 1 and am hooked!
Yea - The Americans is very good - kind of raw, but in that, much more believable than the glitzy hard-bitten Bond types. The series has now finished, after 6 seasons - I've only watched the first three, but look forward to finishing it. I've got the whole series dwnlded and burned.
Would you agree that he sometimes gets boring ?
No! I love the understated way that le Carre writes: the bit where Jim Prideaux is recounting his interrogations by the Czechs, for example, where he's clearly being tortured but plays it down as unspeakable. Many 'spy writers' would have made a big fuss about those scenes, I prefer this spare, read-between-the lines style.
