Showing posts with label John le Carre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John le Carre. Show all posts

Saturday, 6 March 2021

"Single & Single" by John le Carre

 Year of Publication:  1999

Length:  374 pages

Genre:  Thriller


What connects the murder of an English lawyer in Istanbul, a shabby children's party magician in Devon who finds a vast fortune mysteriously deposited in his daughter's trust fund, and the disappearance of the head of a once respected financial institution with ties to organised crime?  Tenacious British customs officer Nat Brock investigates the mystery and uncovers a vast international criminal conspiracy.


The death of British author John le Carré, the pen name of David Cornwall, in December 2020 robbed the world of one of the great writers of popular fiction.  Making his name with Cold War spy thrillers in the 1960s, le Carré managed to navigate the complex and ever shifting landscape of international politics.  As with most le Carré novels this is essential of a conventional thriller and more a psychological piece about the moral and spiritual price of lives built entirely on deceit.  It's not one of his best books, the book starts well and then gets bogged down in the middle with complex debates on money laundering and other legal and financial issues, but it does pick up as it moves towards it's conclusion.  However, it ends so abruptly I thought my book was missing a chapter.  Like a lot of John le Carrè, the characters are all deeply flawed, which makes it more realistic but also means that it's really hard to care about most of them, which really isn't good for a thriller.



   

Sunday, 30 August 2020

"Agent Running in the Field" by John le Carre

Year of Publication:  2019
Length:  366 pages
Genre:  Spy, thriller

This is the 26th book by British author John le Carré and he still has his finger on the political pulse of our troubled times.  The story revolves around Nat, a 47 year old veteran of the British Secret Service, who forms a friendship with a young man named Ed with whom he plays badminton once a week.  At first these games offer a respite from Nat's professional problems, as he is put in charge of an all but washed-up subsection of the Service, with a motley collection of spies.  However soon his personal and professional lives collide and Nat finds himself in an even murkier world of betrayal and intrigue.

This book deals with some of the most pressing political issues of our time and John le Carré is scathing against Brexit, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Boris Johnson.  However, this is not a political tract.  It mixes important messages with an exciting thriller plot full of interesting and engaging characters, and the story moves forward at a fast pace.  Despite being almost 80, le Carré has lost none of his ability to tell a story or remain engaged in the times that he is living in.  If you have never read le Carré before, this is a very good place to start.



 

Monday, 18 September 2017

"A Legacy of Spies" by John le Carre

Year of Publication:  2017
Number of Pages:  264
Genre:  Thriller, espionage

Moving between past and present, the novel follows Peter Guillam, retired British spy and former right-hand man of legendary spymaster George Smiley, living peacefully on his family farm in Brittany, until he is summoned back to London by the Secret Service who are investigating an operation Guillam was involved in over fifty years ago.  Forced to rake over his murky past in Cold War espionage, Guillam is forced to reckon with the consequences of a life of personal and professional betrayal.

This fine novel returns to the world of Cold War spying that made John le Carre's name and features the return of his best-loved character, tubby, bespectacled, soft-spoken, but ruthless spymaster George Smiley.  The novel is a kind of follow-up to le Carre's 1962 breakthrough novel The Spy Who came in From the Cold, and also calls back to his other best known book Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1973).  Written in spare terse prose, this is nevertheless complex and emotionally devastating.  As with many le Carre novels, this deals with the psychology of a spy, and the moral and psychological consequences of that lifestyle.  This is John le Carre at his best.   


Sunday, 14 May 2017

"The Pigeon Tunnel" by John le Carre

Year of Publication:  2016
Number of Pages:  342 pages
Genre:  Non-fiction, autobiography

In a career that has lasted 55 years, ex-spy turned novelist David Cornwell (who writes under the pseudonym John le Carre) has become one of the greatest living authors.   Initially writing intelligent Cold War thrillers such as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (1963) and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974), le Carre has come to use the structure of the espionage thriller to explore human psychology and explore the political and moral climate of modern geopolitics.  This book is not really an autobiography, but it is likely as close to one as we are ever likely to get.  It collects reminiscences and anecdotes of events and people in le Carre's life, that have helped shape his remarkable career.  We are presented with a cast of actors, spies, directors, politicians, journalists, crooks, prisoners and fellow authors.  Beautifully written, and full of interesting stories, by turns funny and dark, and sometime both, particularly in one of the book's best stories where le Carre writes about his complex relationship with his con-man father.  This is a book to treasure.

"I'm a liar... Born to lying, bred to it, trained to it by an industry that lies for a living, practiced in it as a novelist.  As an maker of fictions, I invent versions of myself, never the real thing, if it exists."
- John le Carre, The Pigeon Tunnel    


Sunday, 22 January 2017

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Year of Release:  1965
Director:  Martin Ritt
Screenplay:  Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper, based on the novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carre
Starring:  Richard Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner
Running Time:  112 minutes
Genre:   Spy thriller

Shortly after the death of one of his operatives, Alec Leamas (Burton), a British spy working in West Berlin, is recalled to London and drummed out of the Service (in spy parlance "coming in from the cold").  Short of money and spiraling into alcoholism, Leamas accepts a job in a library, where he catches the eye of fellow librarian, Nan (Bloom).  However there is more going on than it appears.  Far from coming in from the cold, Leamas is embarking on the most dangerous mission of his career, and soon it is not only his own life that is in danger, but Nan's too.

John le Carre's 1963 novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, became famous for it's gritty and realistic depiction of the world of international espionage and was a best-seller worldwide.  The novel and the film can be seen as a riposte to Ian Fleming's hugely successful "James Bond" series.  Shot in crisp black-and-white, the film evokes a seedy, miserable, dangerous world, and the spies are, to quote Leamas in a famous speech, "...a bunch of seedy squalid bastards like me..."  Burton portrays Leamas as a cauldron of hatred and anger, mostly directed at himself, mercurial and dangerous.  Claire Bloom provides the film's moral centre as the idealistic young Communist librarian who Leamas loves.  Full of superb performances and still timely after all these years, this stuill may not be too all tastes (the unrelenting bleakness - although alleviated by a touch of mordant humour, the at times complex storyline and slow pace may put some people off).   It certainly is not an action-packed thriller, but it demands to be seen.  The closing images will stay with you for a long time.

              Richard Burton and Claire Bloom in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Sunday, 28 August 2011

"Our Kind of Traitor" by John le Carre

Year of Publication: 2010
Number of Pages: 306 pages
Genre: Thriller, espionage, crime

Summary: Young English couple Perry Makepiece and Gail Perkins are taking an off-peak holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua, where they intend to spend their time relaxing and playing tennis. They meet an eccentric, wealthy Russian man named Dima and his large family. Dima challenges Perry to a game of tennis, and the couple end up becoming unwillingly attached to the family.
It turns out that Dima is a reknowned money launderer and is very high up in the Russian underworld. He is part of an extensive and complex multi-national criminal plot, but has become disillusioned following the suspicious death of his closest friend and associate. Knowing that time is running out for him, Dima plans to defect to Britain using his knowledge of the criminal syndicate and their plot as leverage. He wants Perry to broker the deal for him with the British intelligence services. Soon Perry and Gail find themselves drawn into a deadly game played between ruthless spies and a vast and murderous crime empire.

Opinions: British thriller author John le Carre first made his name with powerful and intelligent depictions of Cold War espionage such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1962) and Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (1974) in which the realism was in part due to the fact that le Carre himself was a spy for several years. More recently he has turned his gaze to more topical global problems and, with this novel, he focuses in on the banking and financial crisis.
There is plenty of anger here and, as usual, great sympathy towards the unfortunate individuals left twisting in the wind, at the mercy of ruthless and brutal powers on both sides.
The story moves well and there is plenty of suspense and action. Le Carre also has a natural ear for dialogue and a gift for characterisation, as well as a strong eye for detail. Powerful, disturbing and thrilling, this is a must read for thriller fans.



Friday, 20 August 2010

"The Looking Glass War" by John le Carre

Year of Publication: 1965
Number of Pages: 318 pages
Genre: Spy, thriller

Summary: In the Second World War a department of British military intelligence known only as "The Department" had it's finest hour. However, by the mid 1960s The Department has faded away to the point where it is almost shut down, with most of it's jobs being given to it's bitterist rival, the British Secret Service (nicknamed "The Circus"). However The Department has received spy photographs of a secret missile base, apparently being constructed in Communist controlled East Germany, with evidence of a powerful, experimental missile being stored at the site. Leclerc, head of The Department, is excited about a chance to return to the glory days and the opportunity to show up those at the Circus, such as spymaster George Smiley, that The Department still has value. They decide to bring back retired Polish operative Fred Leiser, retrain him and send him on a dangerous into East Germany to find information about the missile base.

Opinions: David Cornwall, who writes under the pseudonym John le Carre, worked as a secret agent for about six years and became acclaimed for spy novels that were more realistic than the Ian Fleming "James Bond" style tales. This book is very typical of le Carre's style. It's not a shoot-em-up, supercool spies fighting evil villians and romancing glamorous women. Instead there is very little violence with the story being primarily character driven, with most of the drama in the book being due to their emotional and moral conflicts. The characters are complex and morally ambiguous and, as is usual with le Carre novels, the spies are doing the job more for the sake of the spying game itself rather than for any real notions of good and bad. They are also deeply flawed with many important plot points being due mainly to the character's screw-ups than anything. The story is beautifully written and le Carre has a perfect eye for character and detail, and a lot of the minutuae of spycraft described in the book is very interesting. However it is very slow moving. John le Carre claimed that this book was the most realistic depiction fo the intelligence world as he knew it, and believed that this might be one of the reasons for it's relative lack of success.
Incidentally, the fact that the book has been recently republished under the label "A George Smiley Novel" isn't really accurate. Although the character of George Smiley (a recurring character in le Carre's books) does feature, he only appears fairly infrequently and is only a supporting character.