28 replies to this topic

[Loomis]

Recently read my first John Le Carré, "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", and am making my way through the miniseries version starring Alec Guinness. Novel and TV adaptation both excellent.

Any Le Carré fans here? Which of his books do you think are must-reads?

[spynovelfan]

I used to be a huge le Carré fan, and wrote one of my university dissertations about him (well, the use of melodrama in the works of John le Carré, Josph Conrad and Lawrence Durrell, in fact). I've kind of gone off him in the last few years, because he seems to be repeating the same book. THE TAILOR OF PANAMA, OUR GAME, SINGLE AND SINGLE and several others have pretty similar plots and themes, and increasingly I feel his politics have become preachy. Even when I agree with a writer's politics, I don't want their views to intrude.

To my mind, his best works are THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, A PERFECT SPY, and the Quest for Karla trilogy, TINKER, THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE (although the middle one is terribly long-winded at times).

If you like le Carré's stuff, I'd strongly urge you to try to seek out the out of print spy novels by Joseph Hone. Similar, but I think much much better. One of the great lost writers of the 20th century.

Edited by [dark], 02 June 2009 - 12:37 PM.

[Loomis]

Thanks, spy. Certainly, I plan on reading all the Smileys. Never heard of Joseph Hone, but that's a name I'll keep in mind.

[Four Aces]

...Any Le Carré fans here?...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

doh!

Of course! One of my favorites. I've read most all of his books, except the post Cold War ones.

4A

[Johnboy007]

I bought "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" about a month ago. I haven't been able to get around to really reading yet, but I certainly look forward to it. It's supposed to be the greatest spy novel ever.

I'm slightly skeptical.

[Goldfinger007]

I read "The Tailor of Panama" before the movie came out... I enjoyed it quite a bit... I also have "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" but still haven't been able to read it...

[right idea, wrong pussy]

I used to be a huge le Carré fan, and wrote one of my university dissertations about him (well, the use of melodrama in the works of John le Carré, Josph Conrad and Lawrence Durrell, in fact). I've kind of gone off him in the last few years, because he seems to be repeating the same book. THE TAILOR OF PANAMA, OUR GAME, SINGLE AND SINGLE and several others have pretty similar plots and themes, and increasingly I feel his politics have become preachy. Even when I agree with a writer's politics, I don't want their views to intrude.

To my mind, his best works are THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, A PERFECT SPY, and the Quest for Karla trilogy, TINKER, THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE (although the middle one is terribly long-winded at times).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with everything written above. LeCarre really got me into reading good literature back in junior high school. I remember being driven home after a long trip and reading "Tinker, Tailor . . ." long into the dim twilight because it was so beautifully written and so well-plotted. I read everything LeCarre wrote up to Smiley's People (other than "The Naive and Sentimental Lover", which isn't a spy novel at all) and all of it is good. Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People are among the best, but Spy Who Came in From the Cold is good too. I'm particularly fond of "Call From the Dead" and "A Murder of Quality". They're LeCarre's first novels, from the early sixties. Neither is really a spy novel but both involve George Smiley, who is undoubtedly LeCarre's greatest creation.

The problem with LeCarre is that after he put Smiley out to grass for good after Smiley's People, he had retired the only really sympathetic character he'd ever created. Even the early novels that don't involve Smiley, like "The Looking Glass War" and "A Small Town in Germany" tend to be weaker efforts. But from the early eighties onward, LeCarre has not only repeated himself and gotten VERY radical and VERY preachy in his politics, as spynovelfan says, but he has failed to create a single character I care a damn about. Everyone betrays everyone else. Everyone fails in their marriages. Everything's always so damn gloomy. I've started a lot of post-Smiley LeCarre novels and never finished a one of them. Granted, the pessimism was always there, but it was tolerable because George Smiley was a genuinely sympathetic character.

The Tinker Tailor TV series is certainly excellant though. I sometimes sit down and watch it all in one evening. There was another series with Alec Guiness (the greatest actor who ever lived, in my opinion) based on Smiley's People as well, and that was quite good too. The Richard Burton film of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" is good (the scenes around Checkpoint Charlie are like the best of Fleming) and Denholm Elliot made a good "A Murder of Quality" a few years before he died in the early nineties or so.

So there's lots of good stuff with LeCArre, but theres also a lot of crap, I think. I used to think LeCarre was one of the greatest writers ever, now I don't think nearly so highly of him, though he was once good.

[Hitch]

I tried to read Tinker, Tailor, etc. a few years ago and failed miserably. The book seemed like a tiresome working out of a plot and little else. It felt like I was playing Cluedo and had forgotten to write down the clues. Deeply disappointing.

Last month I bought a 1964 hardback of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. It was a handsome book and I thought I'd give Le Carré another go, because his reputation is so good - and I was desperate to read a good spy thriller. To cut a long story short, the novel is excellent - bleak, gritty, full of complex ideas and sparse language. It's a thriller for grown-ups because most of the action takes place between the ears. Le Carré's prose is stripped to the bare minimum and does a lot of work in a very small space - so much so, that I think I'm still right in saying that the baroque plot can get very confusing. Le Carré makes the reader weigh every word, which is a good thing, but it doesn't lend itself to casual reading. But it does make for a very satisfying read.

Now I might have to track down George Smiley...

[manfromjapan]

I finished reading The Spy Who Came in from the Cold last week. What a brilliant book. Beautifully written: clear, precise, controlled writing and commendably lean. One of the best novels I have ever read. I aim to read all of Le Carre's books now. I am currently onto The Constant Gardener, and recently watched the excellent TV adaptations of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People.I am halfway through the TV version of A Perfect Spy. On a bit of a Le Carre kick!!!

[Santa]

I've kind of gone off him in the last few years, because he seems to be repeating the same book. THE TAILOR OF PANAMA, OUR GAME, SINGLE AND SINGLE and several others have pretty similar plots and themes, and increasingly I feel his politics have become preachy. Even when I agree with a writer's politics, I don't want their views to intrude.

To my mind, his best works are THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD, A PERFECT SPY, and the Quest for Karla trilogy, TINKER, THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY and SMILEY'S PEOPLE

My thoughts exactly. The later books are too cynical for me but the Smileys are some of the most enjoyable fiction out there.

[Harmsway]

I haven't read much Le Carre, but I did love THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD.

[marktmurphy]

Don't miss the Radio 4 adaptations of the whole run of Smiley books, running at the moment:

http://www.bbc.co.uk.../smiley-season/

[Scrambled Eggs]

The Alec Guinness Smiley adaptations are brilliant, among my favourite things.

I'm becoming more and more of a Le Carre fan. The first book of his I picked up was A Perfect Spy which I didn't really care for.
But, The Spy Who Came in From The Cold is a fantastic novel by any measure. The Karla novels are all excellent, and I found myself enjoying The Hourable Schoolboy much more than I'd expected.

Read his first one, Call For The Dead recently, very interesting to see how he started out. Its well written but jaw droppingly thin compared to his later books.

[Frimmel]

I haven't read much Le Carre, but I did love THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD.

Ditto.

Cold is like recommending 'Rear Window' or maybe 'North by Northwest' to someone who has never seen Hitchcock. It requires no qualifications or explanation beyond, "This is good."

[OmarB]

I love Le Carre! He's one of my top 3 favorite writers (the others being Ayn Rand and Ian Fleming).

I started with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and was hooked. He used language in such a beautiful way and his narrative style was no different. From then on I've read everything of his. I never finished Absolute Friends because my backpack was stolen out of a bar and the book was in there (and I was half way through!).

[Scrambled Eggs]

I never finished Absolute Friends because my backpack was stolen out of a bar and the book was in there (and I was half way through!).

What James Bond would have done:

Waited to finish his drink then chased after the crooks, perhaps by heicopter, while reflecting on what this petty crime said about the decline of western civiisation. After getting the book back he'd break their legs then straighten his tie.

What George Smiley would have done:

Quoted some German poetry to himself and compared the incident to when Ann had taken his beloved copy of Faust and given it to one of her young paramours. He would then have contacted Toby Esterhase and asked him to keep an eye on second hand bookshops in Bloomsbury.

What Harry Palmer would have done:

Gone to a bookshop, bought a new copy.

[OmarB]

Alas, it was my b-day and I was partying pretty hard. My friends and I pretty much occupied the whole bar so I felt safe with my backpack left at our table. One of the people not belonging to our group must have stole it but I didn't notice when because if I did he would have been broken in half by yours truly.

[Kilroy6644]

I haven't read much Le Carre, but I did love THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD.

Ditto.

Cold is like recommending 'Rear Window' or maybe 'North by Northwest' to someone who has never seen Hitchcock. It requires no qualifications or explanation beyond, "This is good."

Ditto ditto. Cold is one of my favorite books. I tried to read A Perfect Spy once, but I just couldn't get into it, and that's put me off reading some of his other ones I've since gotten. I fully intend to try again, someday, but I don't know when.

My copy of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold is a '64 hardback like Hitch's, and was apparently a present from Frances to Hugh, Valentine's Day, 1965.

[glidrose]

Le Carré? Rarely has so much been made of so little for so long. Let me quote something that someone posted on a blog: Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, Clive James, Brian Moore, Harold Bloom, John Updike, and Salman Rushdie have either been sceptical or thought nothing of him.

His 1992 novel The Night Manager is a James Bond novel in all but name. Padded to unfortunate lengths. There's a 200 page novel crying to get out of that doorstopper.

[Messervy]

Le Carré? Rarely has so much been made of so little for so long. Let me quote something that someone posted on a blog: Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, Clive James, Brian Moore, Harold Bloom, John Updike, and Salman Rushdie have either been sceptical or thought nothing of him.

Well, if someone said this on a blog, we must all bow to the wisdom ...

[Major Tallon]

He's got talent, but I think he's overpraised. In addition, his world view has become so fixedly anti-American that, a few years back, one of our magazines wrote a profile of him titled "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Jerk."

[Dustin]

He's got talent, but I think he's overpraised. In addition, his world view has become so fixedly anti-American that, a few years back, one of our magazines wrote a profile of him titled "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Jerk."

Well, there's those that might argue America's world view has become so fixedly anti-world that one ought to write a profile 'In Fear We Trust'. Of course that would be bloody unfair as it's evidently just a minority's fixation and opinion, hardly the entire nation's.

That said I have not as yet read leCarré's more recent works (i.e. after CONSTANT GARDENER). My impression was he didn't at all tend to oversimplification and generalisation, a feat not all of us can claim. I'd be indeed surprised if he should have fallen for brain dead propaganda there. I'll always fondly remember him for addressing just the specific moral rot, not the whole rotten system. And to the best of my knowledge he never condemns humans for their weaknesses and tendency to fail.

[univex]

I never finished Absolute Friends because my backpack was stolen out of a bar and the book was in there (and I was half way through!).

What James Bond would have done:

Waited to finish his drink then chased after the crooks, perhaps by heicopter, while reflecting on what this petty crime said about the decline of western civiisation. After getting the book back he'd break their legs then straighten his tie.

What George Smiley would have done:

Quoted some German poetry to himself and compared the incident to when Ann had taken his beloved copy of Faust and given it to one of her young paramours. He would then have contacted Toby Esterhase and asked him to keep an eye on second hand bookshops in Bloomsbury.

What Harry Palmer would have done:

Gone to a bookshop, bought a new copy.

Wonderful Made me laugh.

Love Le Carré, although Panama is essencially Hour Man in Havana and he does repeat himself in many of his own works. Loved Tinker Taylor, Cold and The Russia House.

[Harmsway]

Le Carré? Rarely has so much been made of so little for so long. Let me quote something that someone posted on a blog: Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, Clive James, Brian Moore, Harold Bloom, John Updike, and Salman Rushdie have either been sceptical or thought nothing of him.

Some great and not-so-great names in there. But it ultimately means little.

But yes, Le Carré's best days are behind him. Still, THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD is splendid.

[glidrose]

Le Carré? Rarely has so much been made of so little for so long. Let me quote something that someone posted on a blog: Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, Clive James, Brian Moore, Harold Bloom, John Updike, and Salman Rushdie have either been sceptical or thought nothing of him.

Well, if someone said this on a blog, we must all bow to the wisdom ...

Why the sarcasm, pal? I verified the information before posting.

[Messervy]

Le Carré? Rarely has so much been made of so little for so long. Let me quote something that someone posted on a blog: Kingsley Amis, Anthony Burgess, Clive James, Brian Moore, Harold Bloom, John Updike, and Salman Rushdie have either been sceptical or thought nothing of him.

Well, if someone said this on a blog, we must all bow to the wisdom ...

Why the sarcasm, pal? I verified the information before posting.

Because quoting a blog is like quoting a friend or a passer-by. It has no added-value per se. It's just someone saying what he fancies; not much to be taken from that. I could quote numerous other blogs praising Le Carré.

[glidrose]

Because quoting a blog is like quoting a friend or a passer-by. It has no added-value per se. It's just someone saying what he fancies; not much to be taken from that. I could quote numerous other blogs praising Le Carré.

Go back and read what I posted. It's not just someone saying what he fancies. It's someone quoting what other distinguished authors don't fancy. World of difference. Read before you post and pontificate.

Five of those names are Booker Prize nominees/winners. You find me that many Booker Prize nominees/winners who think Le Carre is the dog's bollocks then we'll have an even discussion.

[Messervy]

Because quoting a blog is like quoting a friend or a passer-by. It has no added-value per se. It's just someone saying what he fancies; not much to be taken from that. I could quote numerous other blogs praising Le Carré.

Go back and read what I posted. It's not just someone saying what he fancies. It's someone quoting what other distinguished authors don't fancy. World of difference. Read before you post and pontificate.

Five of those names are Booker Prize nominees/winners. You find me that many Booker Prize nominees/winners who think Le Carre is the dog's bollocks then we'll have an even discussion.

Your point being?
So some famous authors don't like Le Carré. Ok. What now? Because they don't like it we shouldn't either?
Sorry, no offense meant, but I still fail to see how this could be anyhow pertinent.
It's a matter of taste, and I could perfectly understand your not liking it and saying why. But just quoting some authors who don't like it, and leaving it at that as if it were the definitive opinion, is irrelevant.

[glidrose]

Your point being?
So some famous authors don't like Le Carré. Ok. What now? Because they don't like it we shouldn't either?
Sorry, no offense meant, but I still fail to see how this could be anyhow pertinent.
It's a matter of taste, and I could perfectly understand your not liking it and saying why. But just quoting some authors who don't like it, and leaving it at that as if it were the definitive opinion, is irrelevant.

You misunderstand my argument. I'm saying that he's overrated and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Nowhere do I say or imply that people shouldn't like Le Carre because x, y and z don't like him. I'm saying that naysayers do exist, some of them very well read. With all the plaudits Le Carre's gotten over the years, one could wrongly assume that he's a first-rate author of serious literature and accepted by all and sundry around the world as such. Not only do I dislike his books, but - and this is more important - I resent the myth that exists around him that he is a critically acclaimed serious author. There's much more I could say on this to help you understand but I think my points are self-explanatory. I can't help you if you keep misinterpreting my posts.