false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167245877m/19494.jpg 19494 63 It would be an international crime to reveal too much of the jeweled clockwork plot of Le Carré's first masterpiece, <I>The Spy Who Came in from the Cold</I>. But we are at liberty to disclose that Graham Greene called it the "finest spy story ever written," and that the taut tale concerns Alec Leamas, a British agent in early Cold War Berlin. Leamas is responsible for keeping the double agents under his care undercover and alive, but East Germans start killing them, so he gets called back to London by Control, his spy master. Yet instead of giving Leamas the boot, Control gives him a scary assignment: play the part of a disgraced agent, a sodden failure everybody whispers about. Control sends him back out into the cold--deep into Communist territory to checkmate the bad-guy spies on the other side. The political chessboard is black and white, but in human terms the vicinity of the Berlin Wall is a moral no-man's land, a gray abyss patrolled by pawns.<p> Le Carré beats most spy writers for two reasons. First, he knows what he's talking about, since he raced around working for British Intelligence while the Wall went up. He's familiar with spycraft's fascinations, but also with the fact that it leaves ideals shaken and emotions stirred. Second, his literary tone has deep autobiographical roots. Spying is about betrayal, and Le Carré was abandoned by his mother and betrayed by his father, a notorious con man. (They figure heavily in his novels <I>Single & Single</I> and <I>A Perfect Spy</I>.) In a world of lies, Le Carré writes the bitter truth: it's every man for himself. And may the best mask win. <I>--Tim Appelo</I> 1177001 book 1963 The Spy Who Came In from the Cold total:2609|5:694|4:1085|3:685|2:118|1:27| 2609 10128 3543 288 4 3 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 26 23:13:01 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 26 23:13:01 -0700 2007
The story is of Leamus, a spy for Britain, worki...more...]]> 4 2 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 11 11:06:49 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 11 11:27:03 -0700 2007 now i need to...more...]]> 3 2 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 10 16:01:50 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 08 12:36:48 -0800 2008 4 2 false false Fri Mar 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Mar 20 11:30:25 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 06 17:47:15 -0700 2008 www.mysterywriters.org) and see also World Magazine January 12/19, 2008, pg. 27).

An excellent read. This book is much drier and less sensational than the James Bond genre, and i have to say I like that. Generally,...more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Nov 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 31 20:12:10 -0700 2009 Tue Nov 03 20:23:01 -0800 2009 1
"And suddenly, with the terrible clarity of a man too long deceived, Leamus understood the whole ghastly tri...more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 19:30:19 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 19:34:45 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Nov 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 14:19:47 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 14:32:19 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false true Sun Aug 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 11:48:16 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 12:45:29 -0700 2009
Despite th...more...]]> 4 0 false true Mon Jul 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 06:15:47 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 06:25:38 -0700 2009
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold was one of the books listed in an All-Time Beach Books article in the Washington post last summer (2008) when I did the first round of Beach Books on a Bus. I didn't get around to Le Carre's novel last time so I ca...more...]]> 2 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 17 20:33:59 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 20 20:40:29 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jun 03 09:56:52 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 11:06:01 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Sep 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 06:31:02 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 12:55:34 -0700 2009
The most prominent plot point in Le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, is the double-cross, or triple-cross, or in the end, from the reader’s point of view, which is never, even up to the very end of this brief, focused novel, enlightened as to the motives of every cha...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 12 06:44:19 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 08:11:58 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Jan 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 07:55:20 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 07:55:46 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Feb 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 10:14:38 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 14:45:02 -0800 2009 Reading Dangerously Challenge. Unfortunately, the novel left me disappointed. I found the plot with its twists and interwoven charact...more...]]> 1 1 false false Fri May 30 08:34:51 -0700 2008 Fri May 30 08:36:35 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Sat May 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 13:41:02 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 21:37:53 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Sep 28 15:15:52 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 16:23:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Nov 08 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Oct 31 05:04:09 -0700 2009 Sun Nov 08 06:45:14 -0800 2009
As it turned out, I hoovered it up in two sittings. It's a classic.
Not being an aficionado of this genre, I enjoyed it very much, because it all hung together so seam...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Feb 08 05:00:40 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 05:02:17 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=19494