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The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (George Smiley #3)
by John le Carré
by John le Carré
Kemper's review
bookshelves: spy-vs-spy, 100, classic-lit
Apr 24, 11
bookshelves: spy-vs-spy, 100, classic-lit
Read from October 15 to 20, 2010
It’s been over 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell, and as someone who grew up in the 1970s - 80s, reading about dueling Cold War spies gave me a weird nostalgic rush. “The Soviets? East Germans? Damn! We used to HATE those guys!”
In this era where decades of misdeeds by intelligence agencies are common knowledge and the notion of elaborate spy games are widely used fictional plots, it’s a little hard to imagine how groundbreaking this book was back in 1963. James Bond was in full literary swing and just beginning his cinematic career, and most people in the western nations still trusted their governments and believed that their spies were the good guys who would hold back those dirty Commies with sheer moral superiority.
It had to have been a hell of a shock to read a novel like this from a writer who had worked for British intelligence who convincingly told a story where the conflict between the two sides was a series of elaborate con games about either hiding what you knew or tricking the other guy into believing a lie. And as demonstrated here, both sides fully believed that the ends justified the means.
Alec Leamas is with the British intelligence service nicknamed the Circus and runs their operations in West Berlin. However, he’s lost every valuable agent he had to a ruthless East German operative named Mundt. Leamas is recalled by the Circus back to London where he is offered a dangerous new assignment. The Circus demotes Leamas. He pretends to become a disgruntled drunk who eventually loses his job and his pension, and he briefly gets sent to prison after assaulting someone. The ploy is to make the other side think that Leamas is ripe to turn on the Circus so that they can plant false intelligence and get back at Mundt. However, Leamas may have made a critical mistake by actually falling in love while playing a drunken disgrace.
Even with nearly 50 years worth of spy stories after this using similar plots, this book still had enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. The theme about how the supposed ‘good guys’ were just as willing to use any individual or deal with any devil to get the job done as the ‘bad guys’ were is just as relevant today as it was when it was first written. I can’t believe it took me this long to read this book.
In this era where decades of misdeeds by intelligence agencies are common knowledge and the notion of elaborate spy games are widely used fictional plots, it’s a little hard to imagine how groundbreaking this book was back in 1963. James Bond was in full literary swing and just beginning his cinematic career, and most people in the western nations still trusted their governments and believed that their spies were the good guys who would hold back those dirty Commies with sheer moral superiority.
It had to have been a hell of a shock to read a novel like this from a writer who had worked for British intelligence who convincingly told a story where the conflict between the two sides was a series of elaborate con games about either hiding what you knew or tricking the other guy into believing a lie. And as demonstrated here, both sides fully believed that the ends justified the means.
Alec Leamas is with the British intelligence service nicknamed the Circus and runs their operations in West Berlin. However, he’s lost every valuable agent he had to a ruthless East German operative named Mundt. Leamas is recalled by the Circus back to London where he is offered a dangerous new assignment. The Circus demotes Leamas. He pretends to become a disgruntled drunk who eventually loses his job and his pension, and he briefly gets sent to prison after assaulting someone. The ploy is to make the other side think that Leamas is ripe to turn on the Circus so that they can plant false intelligence and get back at Mundt. However, Leamas may have made a critical mistake by actually falling in love while playing a drunken disgrace.
Even with nearly 50 years worth of spy stories after this using similar plots, this book still had enough twists and turns to keep me guessing. The theme about how the supposed ‘good guys’ were just as willing to use any individual or deal with any devil to get the job done as the ‘bad guys’ were is just as relevant today as it was when it was first written. I can’t believe it took me this long to read this book.
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Larry
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Apr 24, 2011 03:51pm
I read A Small Town in Germany several months back. It is amazing that a spy book going on 50 could still be interesting. Still, spy movies have kind of spoiled me; my brain sometimes works better seeing the action rather than reading it.
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i remember this being really depressing. and sorta amazing. i still plan on eventually getting around to le carre's Quest for Karla novels.
I thought it was quite an intense read actually. The convoluted plot, complex characters and shady dealings all add up to a convincing, absorbing novel that reminds me of what the world was probably like 40 or 50 years ago. The whole novel is like a game where innocents and some who should know better are drawn into power play by Control (ironic name there) or "The Party" (shades of irony again) and simply used as pawns in the game. I suppose this kind of thing may well have happened but the main point is that it's a cracking good novel.
