DrCris Reads

Book review: Tinker, tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre

January 14, 2009 9:48 am admin Review

Why I chose it

This book is on the - 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (amazon) List, which I am sort of obsessed with.

The Buzz

1001 books:

Through the character of Smiley, Le Carre deftly proposes searching questions about the state of Britain. In many ways, Smiley is the logical sucessor to Sherlock Holmes… The novel wonderfully captures a dark, brooding environment where human warmth appears as a rare commodity

What I reckon

The British secret service is in trouble and they pull expert spy, George Smiley, out of retirement to sort it out. Smiley is a little hobbit of a man with thinly veiled personal life catastrophes, and professional enigma. He uses his contacts to unravel the twist of politics and subterfuge to identify a highly placed soviet mole at the height of the cold war.

I had never read any John Le Carre before, as I put them in the “books for my Dad” basket. I’m not sure I’ll read anymore. This is perhaps one of the first spy novels I have read. I enjoyed how workplace political tensions were tangled up with the effects of inaccurate information and double crossing by the mole. In other genres, spies are cut and dried, but these were as feeble as the rest of us in some ways, but with better hand to hand combat skills.

I’m not sure how this is one of the 1001 I must read. I guess it is a fine example of a classic spy novel, and may be worth it for that value alone.

The copy of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy I read was registered with Bookcrossing. It is currently still with me, but I will soon get it traveling again.

What else to read?

The Librarything Suggester top 10 recommendations are:

• John Le Carre:
  • Smiley’s People (LibraryThing, Amazon
    );

  • The Spy Who came in from the Cold (LibraryThing, Amazon
    );

  • The Honourable Schoolboy (LibraryThing, Amazon
    );

  • Call for the Dead (LibraryThing, Amazon
    ).
• Ian Fleming:
  • Casino Royale (LibraryThing, Amazon
    );

  • Thunderball (LibraryThing, Amazon
    );

  • Diamonds are Forever (LibraryThing, Amazon
    ).
• PD James:
  • A Taste for Death (LibraryThing, Amazon
    );

  • Death of an Expert Witness (LibraryThing, Amazon
    ).
• Len Deighton:
  • The Ipcress FIle (LibraryThing, Amazon
    )

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