Tuesday, September 26, 2017

'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' by John le Carre

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John le Carre (4.0)
John Le Carre is one of the few writers who can get away with telling as opposed to showing. His erudite spy novels tend to be discussions of what has happened yet can still be riveting. In this, the first ‘Karla’ novel (yes, I found that quite fun), Smiley comes out of retirement in order to root out a possible Russian spy in his organization. He works back to his first encounter with the Russian intelligence chief, Karla, where he failed to turn the Russian and may have started a vendetta. What I like most about Le Carre’s stories is that they are believable. His experience in British intelligence lends credence to his plots and characters. It becomes easy to believe the intricacies. In this case, my only complaint has to do with the complexity of the story. I got lost a few times in the details. I don’t recommend reading Le Carre quickly or lightly – too many twists and turns with a lot of characters make it a tough plot to follow.


1 comment:

  1. Le Carre's novels have long been a staple of the spy genre. Like you, I feel that he has a few too many twists and turns, but overall, I love his books. They seem to have withstood the test of time, as well.

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