Customer Reviews

John Le Carré : Three Complete Novels ( Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy / The Honourable Schoolboy / Smiley's People )

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A winning trifecta from the Spymaster. Revisit the good old days of the cold war and espionage through the eyes of everyman intelligence genius George Smiley in three of LeCarre's best. An excellent writer of prose, with an ear for understated English conversation, LeCarre is an underrated novelist, as plot, dialogue, and denoument are all strong. All three novels combined is a must read for spy readers, and a pleasing literary work for those who appreciate top notch writing skills.

I was interested in the espionage story but what I found most compelling were the characters and how much i grew to care about them over time (especially Smiley). The conclusion, that if you choose the methods of your enemy you are no better than your enemy is quite true. I do not like much modern fiction but found these three novels completely compelling, and have read them twice.

Master sleuth George Smiley, now retired, has a problem. The whole of Britain's intelligence web, and possibly the future of Britain itself, lie uncovered and bleeding from wounds delivered by a British double agent. Smiley must come out of retirement and perform a miracle. The manner in which he attempts to do so, as related by John Le Carre, is no less than a miracle in itself.

Le Carre's Smiley novels are masterworks of intricacy, double and triple dealing, subtle and surprising plot twists, and remarkable characterizations at every turn. Smiley and his associates, in London and Hong Kong and Vietman and a brown Italian hillside, are fully-developed characters, as real as their problems.

Le Carre's novels are a wondrously complex combination of superior writing and lively plots, grand and memorable treats for the discerning reader.

Le Carre has been compared to Dickens once too often; Great Expectations was never this exciting.

When I make my fantasy list of the best books I've ever read, Le Carre's trilogy about George Smiley is near the top. The author is difficult reading. You have to pour over most paragraphs, so as not to miss each nouance. Smiley is the ultimate father figure in espionage literature. You are comfortable when he is there and figuring things out, but you marvel at the complexity and difficulty of what he has to do, and how he does it. I commend this to anyone who loves rich characterization, and wants a book he or she will come back to again and again.

The three central questions of this trilogy:

1. How do you retain your humanity as your innocence and illusions die?

2. At the end of the day, are you any different or any more right than your enemy?

3. Do the ends justify the means?

See how George Smiley, a titan in the guise of a downtrodden, inconsequential man, learns the answers.

I was interested in the espionage story but what I found most compelling were the characters and how much i grew to care about them over time (especially Smiley). The conclusion, that if you choose the methods of your enemy you are no better than your enemy is quite true. I do not like much modern fiction but found these three novels completely compelling, and have read them twice.

Like George Smiley, who is gifted far beyond his peers, John LeCarre's Smiley trilogy is far and away the most literate of the entire genre of cold war espionage thrillers. In fact, these aren't thrillers at all, but finely crafted tales to read for the language, the nuance, and a sensibility largely gone from the world. Particularly fine are the dialog and characters. Perhaps the only other author with as good an ear is cyberpunk author William Gibson.

Seldom do trilogies work out... for the reader, that is. Most of the time they seem to be some a kind of perverse sandwich, with a bland slice of white bread stuck between the real meat of character and plot (See the Dune Trilogy, for instance).

This is not the case with Le Carre, who deftly uses the Honourable Schoolboy to set us up for the conclusion of Smiley's People. There is no neat linear progression of plot from Tinker Tailor to the denouement, the apprehension of Karla and the triumph, however muted or understated, of George Smiley, but a finely-varied panorama of character, setting, and action, well-paced and well-presented.

Le Carre seems capable of creating fully-realized characters at will, without ever falling into the trap of predictability or homogeneity. His people reveal different facets of their personality from novel to novel. For instance, the Toby Esterhazy of Smiley's People, selling fake Degas bronzes, is a more rounded, more human, but identifiable and convincing extrapolation from the haughtily dismissive Toby of Tinker Tailor.

And such character development takes place within the framework of themes set forth in the first novel, e.g., the stretch between the spy as public servant and as a civilian with very human wants and needs, the gulf between the liberal Smiley who attempts to see the world through the eyes of others - such as when he meets Karla in India - and the fanatical Karla who pays the price for his "lack of moderation", the tension between ideology and personal loyalty - symbolized by the mole's betrayal of his best friend, on the orders of Moscow Centre.

No one is better at creating the milieu of the cold war as a backdrop for the exploration and interplay of personalities.

In short, three great reads.

LeCarre is far to involved in spy terminology to let his readers understand the story he is trying to tell them. Although you eventually get there, it really is'nt worth the ride.I read it when the cold war was in progress. Think what a reader today would make of it.