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Smiley's People

(George Smiley #7)

John le Carré

4.27 · Rating details · 32,384 ratings · 967 reviews

Featuring George Smiley, this New York Times bestseller is the third and final installment in the Karla Trilogy, from the author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Tell Max that it concerns the Sandman… A very junior agent answers Vladimir’s call, but it could have been the Chief of the Circus himself. No one at the British Secret Serv ...more

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Paperback, 398 pages

Published June 28th 2011 by Penguin Books (first published 1979)

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Jun 02, 2019 Candi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: espionage, favorites, kindle, thriller

"Like an archaeologist who has delved all his life in vain, Smiley had begged for one last day, and this was it."

Smiley’s People is the extremely satisfying conclusion to John le Carré’s Karla trilogy. Having finished the first in the trilogy (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) in March and the second (The Honourable Schoolboy) in April, I was able to sink into this installment with reasonable ease. Although once again presented with a fairly large cast of characters, I was more readily able to wrap "Like an archaeologist who has delved all his life in vain, Smiley had begged for one last day, and this was it."

Smiley’s People is the extremely satisfying conclusion to John le Carré’s Karla trilogy. Having finished the first in the trilogy (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy) in March and the second (The Honourable Schoolboy) in April, I was able to sink into this installment with reasonable ease. Although once again presented with a fairly large cast of characters, I was more readily able to wrap my head around the spy world in general. I’m feeling quite comfortable in le Carré’s realm now!

With less action per se than The Honourable Schoolboy, this novel was not without its generous share of tension. The interactions and dialogue were the highlights of this book, and the spotlight on George Smiley himself was the main attraction. Smiley is a man that I warmed to almost immediately with my first ever introduction to him in Call for the Dead and he has been growing on me ever since. In fact, I would say that I have grown to esteem the man quite highly. He is someone I would like to have standing by my side in my darkest days. Even more than before, the reader is able to worm his or her way into Smiley’s psyche and truly understand the workings of his conscience. We recognize the harsh demands that the moral complexities of the intelligence world place on a man after so many years in the field.

"He was not at peace; he was not, in a single phrase, definable as a single person, beyond the one constant thrust of his determination. Hunter, recluse, lover, solitary man in search of completion, shrewd player of the Great Game, avenger, doubter in search of reassurance—Smiley was by turns each one of them, and sometimes more than one."

Once again, I cannot emphasize enough the true mastery of this author’s writing. This is a literary spy novel brimming with intelligence and chockfull of memorable characters – both the good and the bad and those in between. I loved how the ending played out in this one. With a le Carré novel, you never can be sure who will win – or if anyone at all truly triumphs in the game of espionage.

"On Karla has descended the curse of Smiley’s compassion; on Smiley the curse of Karla’s fanaticism… We have crossed each other’s frontiers, we are the no-men of this no-man’s-land." ...more

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Aug 02, 2017 Jaline rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: xx2018-completed

If you have ever been curious about exploring John Le Carré’s writing, this Trilogy (titles listed in order in the next paragraph) from his George Smiley series would be a great place to launch from. I learned in the author’s notes that his intention was to continue the conflict story between George Smiley and the head of Russia’s most top secret intelligence agency for several novels. However, T.V. and movies got in the way – the key characters had become so closely associated with the actors w ...more

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Jul 11, 2014 Warwick rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: folio-society, fiction, hamburg, switzerland, espionage, germany, bern, england, london

What is so exhilarating and fulfilling about reading le Carré is the sense of genuine intelligence at play, both in the characters and in the author. There are different ways of trying to convey great cleverness in a literary character: one approach is to give them superhuman deductive skills à la Sherlock Holmes, you know – I perceive, sir, that you have recently returned from a hunting excursion in Wiltshire and that your wife's tennis partner owns a dachshund called Gerald — But my dear fello
What is so exhilarating and fulfilling about reading le Carré is the sense of genuine intelligence at play, both in the characters and in the author. There are different ways of trying to convey great cleverness in a literary character: one approach is to give them superhuman deductive skills à la Sherlock Holmes, you know – I perceive, sir, that you have recently returned from a hunting excursion in Wiltshire and that your wife's tennis partner owns a dachshund called Gerald — But my dear fellow, how could you possibly?! — Quite elementary; the leaf that adheres to your left boot-sole is unmistakably from a holm oak, one of the rarest English trees, a fine specimen of which grows outside Wiltshire's best-frequented hunting lodge; you may perhaps have glanced at my recent monograph on the subject in the Evening Post which proved so useful in the recent unpleasantness concerning the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro…

And so on. Don't get me wrong, I love this stuff – but it's a game, it's amusing, it's manifestly nonsense. The thrill of what le Carré does in the Karla trilogy – and I don't believe anyone does it better – is of a completely different order. You believe it: the leaps of intuition are logical and motivated, and just slightly out of your reach, so that you constantly feel both flattered to be keeping up and somewhat awestruck at how they always make the connections a bit faster than you do. It's rather like how I feel when I play through top-level chess games, the sense that you can just about follow why they're doing what they're doing; the deceptive conviction, as you watch an unexpected rook sacrifice, that it all makes perfect sense and that you would undoubtedly have thought of the same move yourself.

This is hard to do as a writer. Because writers are often not that smart, even when they're talented. Le Carré writes as though he's smarter than all his readers, and when I read him I'm convinced. The thrills in these books come not from action sequences, but from the plausibility of the dialogue: I was more on edge during Smiley's calm ‘interrogation’ of Toby Esterhase here than I've been in any number of car chase or bomb-defusion scenes. What to say next? How to press them in exactly the right way, without scaring them off?

In a sense this book is composed simply of a number of these intense, magesterially-written duologues stacked together, a stichomythic layer-cake: Smiley and Lacon, Smiley and Mikhel, Smiley and Esterhase, Smiley and Connie, Smiley and Grigoriev, Smiley and Alexandra…and always, at the end, the prospect of somehow reaching the the endgame conversation, between Smiley and Karla. (It would be quiet and undramatic, and fascinating.) But then again, the whole trilogy is that conversation being played out.

These dialogues are stitched together with a prose style that is economical and unclichéd. The plot is thick and chewy and le Carré does not cheat with his exposition. Perhaps overall The Honourable Schoolboy was my favourite – I just love the oblique portrayal of foreign reporting – but this is a stupendous end to a brilliant trilogy. A lot of books are clever – ‘oh that's clever,’ you might say after a literary trick or a narrative sleight-of-hand. These books are intelligent. That's rare enough in fiction as it is, and the fact that it comes in so-called genre fiction just shows how distracting such ghettos can be. ...more

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Jun 22, 2009 Chloe rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Chloe by: Ted Graf

Shelves: 1001-list, mystery-crime-thriller, fiction, spy-vs-spy

Note for completists: This is the third of the Karla books, preceded by first Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and then by The Honourable Schoolboy. While it is possible to read these books out of order and still enjoy them, the later books are informed by the events that come before and definitely spoil salient plot points of those novels.

Life has not been overly kind to George Smiley. Devoted husband to a faithless wife, dedicated servant to a government that does not admit he exists, archnemesis Note for completists: This is the third of the Karla books, preceded by first Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and then by The Honourable Schoolboy. While it is possible to read these books out of order and still enjoy them, the later books are informed by the events that come before and definitely spoil salient plot points of those novels.

Life has not been overly kind to George Smiley. Devoted husband to a faithless wife, dedicated servant to a government that does not admit he exists, archnemesis to his Soviet doppelganger, betrayed by his closest friend- Smiley has been through much in his years of service. Smiley's People finds the former spymaster once more cast out of the Circus of British intelligence, yet another sacrifice to the twisting winds of political favoritism. Prematurely aged and tired from a life lived in the shadows, Smiley doesn't quite know how to go about existing without subterfuge.

Yet when his old acquaintance Lacon shows up requesting Smiley's help investigating the murder of a friend and former asset, Smiley laboriously pulls himself from his over-stuffed easy chair, smoothes rumpled clothes over his mammoth stomach, puts on his horse blanket of a jacket, and tromps dutifully back into the world of intrigue that is his life. At stake is the opportunity to finally take down Karla, the Soviet spymaster who has bedevilled Smiley for decades in the great and secret chess game they have played against one another. Working unofficially, completely off the books and deniable, Smiley must piece together Karla's plan before more of his friends end up dead on a rainy night.

Fortunately, Smiley has built up all the resources he would need over a lifetime of intelligence work. In the spy game, all the fancy gadgets and gizmos in the world will never compare to a solid piece of human intel, and Smiley knows just who to ask to get the information he requires. Visiting retired Circus personnel, from the senile research assistant who helped compile nearly all of the known data on Karla to the disgraced lamplighter Toby Esterhase, who can still muster more than a few surveillance teams if there's the chance for personal glory and a return to the game, Smiley pieces together the bits of story he needs in order to weave a trap of his own and conclusively win in the battle of wills that he and Karla have fought for nearly their whole lives.

This is what le Carre excels at: the slow and methodical piecing together of events, some decades old, into a coherent conspiracy that has a very real effect on the present. Field work doesn't play too large of a part in Smiley's methodology. He already has most of the puzzle pieces in his hands, it just takes a careful review for Smiley to uncover the importance of each nugget of knowledge. Some readers deride this as moving too slowly, but to them I recommend the works of Robert Ludlum. Smiley is British, and if Monty Python taught us anything it's that the Brits love their dry subtlety. The reader is left even more in the dark than Smiley himself and half the fun of the book is trying to trace those connections between events and characters and (possibly) beat Smiley to his final showdown with Karla.

A fantastic end to this trilogy, Smiley stands out as one of my favorite spies ever (above Valerie Plame but below the Wen Ho Lee). Le Carre proves once again why he is the grandmaster of this genre with this carefully crafted, delicately paced thriller that delivers the perfect conclusion to a rivalry that is far more interesting than any battle between Bond and SPECTRE ever was. ...more

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Nov 26, 2008 Manny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The conclusion of the trilogy that starts with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; but, while that book is about betrayal, this one is about manipulation. The heartbreaking message is that, when you want to manipulate someone, the most effective approach is not to try and exploit their weaknesses. Needless to say, that can work too. But the very best way is to exploit their kindness, their decency, and the things that make them a worthwhile human being.

It's been done in many other books too, of course, ...more

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Mar 19, 2007 Krissa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: all-time-favorites, espionage

This book changed my life. My dad, sick of hearing me make fun of his spy novel proclivities, bet me $50 that I would love this book. It was a safe bet, too. If I loved it, I owed him nothing other than the smug satisfaction of having been right. If I hated it, he'd give me $50.

I loved it. I love the entire trilogy, in fact, but since I read this one first, out of order (tsk tsk dad) it has the special place on my favorites shelf.

And even though I now own THREE copies, this edition was my fathe ...more

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Jul 16, 2018 Lewis Weinstein rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: crime-and-thrillers

The best of the best ... everything a spy novel could possibly be ... Smiley vs Karla ... a weakness, a mistake, a brilliantly orchestrated response ... and of course the bridge into West Berlin.

Smiley's People is also a master class in writing ... when to expand, when to move quickly, setting a scene, using peripheral characters. I think I'll read it again. But for now, I will go into my class next week at Oxford - British Spies in Fact and Fiction - as prepared as I can be and ready to learn m ...more

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Jan 20, 2017 Abubakar Mehdi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Smiley’s People is the last book in the “Karla Trilogy”; a series that describes the world of espionage during the Cold War. The story starts with a revelation by a ‘lost-agent’ recently resurfaced that at the very top of Circus (British secret service) there is a KGB agent, a mole spying for the Russians. And he is there for decades. Dangerous, resourceful and one of their own, this double-agent is capable of wrecking havoc if he isn’t caught immediately and off-guard. Here Smiley is called bac Smiley’s People is the last book in the “Karla Trilogy”; a series that describes the world of espionage during the Cold War. The story starts with a revelation by a ‘lost-agent’ recently resurfaced that at the very top of Circus (British secret service) there is a KGB agent, a mole spying for the Russians. And he is there for decades. Dangerous, resourceful and one of their own, this double-agent is capable of wrecking havoc if he isn’t caught immediately and off-guard. Here Smiley is called back from Retirement to spy on a spy, to draw a web inside the web and then patiently wait for him to walk into the trap.
From the offset the language of the book has marked “British-ness” to it, the slang, the jargon and even the sense of humour. As the story proceeds, the thrill of the game intensifies and one cannot help but admire Le Carré’s mastery. The second book, though not as a charming as the first one, had a very different tone and setting. I found it slightly ‘dragging’ at times, but the writing was so enchanting that one can hardly complain.
The third and the final book, pits Smiley and his arch-rival Karla against each other. The story, unlike the first two books, kicks off from a very thrilling start and keeps the reader on edge. Le Carré has a singular talent for story telling, and a keen eye for the details. He registers every flinch of fingers, every shift in tone of voice or demeanour and then describes it so perfectly that the reader can visualize the whole scene. His insights on the thoughts of a mind under extreme duress, the art of interrogation and reading of small signs in one’s body language are worth an entire book in itself.
There are some recurring themes present throughout the trilogy. Themes like Betrayal, Sexual frustration, promiscuity and love. There is a general mood of futility to the storyline, a sense of unending trepidation and unrequitedness. Maybe its not unique to just this series but is true for most of his fiction (A most wanted man, our kind of Traitor…) where there are no complete victories. The success is always short of triumph, always incomplete or inadequate.
But what really piqued my attention was how painfully all the romantic entanglements concluded, and how pessimistic a view the author takes to such storylines. Ricky Tarr, Smiley, Jerry and Karla, all of these men were hopeless lovers, and love was their downfall. Love, in Le Carré’s fiction proves to be, as Karla called it, “an illusion”.

This series is often remarked as the Magnum Opus of John Le Carré. In the tradition of Greene and Chandler, Le Carré’s fiction is a departure from the glint and glamour of Fleming’s Bond series, which gained immense popularity during the cold war period, but which also lacked the grim and nonchalant realities of espionage. Le Carré is the real deal. The dark chocolate; bitter and unsavoury on the first bite but with an intoxicating after-taste that stays with you for a long time. ...more

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Sep 23, 2020 Barbara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: enrichment, spy-thriller, smiley

And so we have come to the conclusion of the Karla trilogy, in which John le Carré pits quiet, self-effacing George Smiley of the Circus, the British espionage agency, against Karla, his ruthless Soviet counterpart. In the first book, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, we learned how Karla used a "mole" placed in the Circus decades before to threaten both Smiley's intelligence service and his marriage. An unbiased judge would probably give that round to Karla.

The middle volume, The Honourable Schoolb And so we have come to the conclusion of the Karla trilogy, in which John le Carré pits quiet, self-effacing George Smiley of the Circus, the British espionage agency, against Karla, his ruthless Soviet counterpart. In the first book, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, we learned how Karla used a "mole" placed in the Circus decades before to threaten both Smiley's intelligence service and his marriage. An unbiased judge would probably give that round to Karla.

The middle volume, The Honourable Schoolboy, has the two spymasters squared off against each other again, this time via intermediaries (some innocent, some less so), in an exotic locale. Count this one a draw.

So how will events play out in the final volume? Given le Carré's preference for harsh realities to sugar coated endings, it's best not to anticipate, but just go along for the tension-filled ride. Of course, with Smiley that tension more often takes the form of a chess match than a horse race, but it is no less thrilling for that.

Having learned of a potential crack in Karla's personal world through the Russian émigré community in Paris, the supposedly retired Smiley turns to old Circus colleagues to create a snare that will finally put an end to Karla. Smiley's strategy requires the use of the ailing Connie Sachs' prodigious memory, Toby Esterhase's spycraft and connections, and Peter Guilliam's current location in Paris, as well as Oliver Lacon and Saul Enderby's grudging bureaucratic support. There are, as always, keenly described new characters including my favorite, the marvelous feisty, resilient Madame Ostrakova, who sets all the pieces in motion through her awareness that things may not be as they seem.

One of le Carré's techniques that I've appreciated over the course of the three books is to provide external commentary in the form of retrospective discussions by those who work at the Circus as to the wisdom or significance of events. A sort of Greek chorus that adds a nice bit of texture to the narrative.

Although it was satisfying to bring the Karla series to a conclusion, I am delighted that two novels featuring Smiley remain. One each to savor in October and November. ...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Steve rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: i-spy

The last book of le Carre's Karla series might be the best. I turned to this book after watching the recent -- and excellent -- film adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (I read the book many years ago). I don't know why it took me so long to finish this series, since I also loved the second book, The Honorable School Boy. Maybe I just didn't want the series to end. In this chapter Smiley finally goes on offense against his nemisis, the Soviet spy master, Karla. But it takes him over half ...more

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Mar 26, 2018 Jason Koivu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, spy

Smiley comes out of retirement was his people come under attack in this aptly named conclusion to the Karla trilogy.

This is fantastic stuff! Taut tension, high stakes, personal vendettas...ah, it's all wonderful. The characterizations and conversations are finessed with an admirable subtly. The Cold War settings descriptions put you in the middle of these depressingly drab locations. John le Carré is on fire in Smiley's People!

It's far more cerebral cold war spy novel than say Fleming's stuff. T ...more

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Jan 02, 2021 Jamie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A deeply introspective slow burn with a deliberate, measured pace, much like Smiley himself, that nonetheless delivers an incredibly taut end-game. Smiley remains a puzzling figure. Understated and unassuming, possessed of a particular brilliance and practicality which sadly he doesn't seem capable of leveraging in his personal affairs.

"I have destroyed him with the weapons I abhorred, and they are his. We have crossed each other's frontiers, we are the no-men of this no-man's land."

Whether le C ...more

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May 25, 2017 Michael rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is my absolute favorite le Carre novel--and in my view the best of the Karla Trilogy. All the cerebral incisiveness of Tinker, Taylor, married to a well-constructed, suspenseful, and active plot. A real crescendo of a novel.

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May 27, 2011 Sara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: spy-thriller, cold-war, favorites

Some faces, as Villem had suggested this morning, are known to us before we see them; others we see once and remember all our lives; others we see every day and never remember at all.

And, so it is with literary characters, some are so like us that we know them instinctively; some are not like us at all but completely unforgettable; and others are forgotten the moment we close the pages of the book. George Smiley is of the second sort, he wiggles his way into your sensibilities and lodges him

Some faces, as Villem had suggested this morning, are known to us before we see them; others we see once and remember all our lives; others we see every day and never remember at all.

And, so it is with literary characters, some are so like us that we know them instinctively; some are not like us at all but completely unforgettable; and others are forgotten the moment we close the pages of the book. George Smiley is of the second sort, he wiggles his way into your sensibilities and lodges himself in your mind and heart, and while you might forget the details of the book over, say, the course of 39 years, you do not forget George...you never forget George.

Perhaps one reason for this is that Smiley is the moral man, the man with a conscience in the midst of all the greed and corruption and self-interests. Smiley was in all the other novels up to Smiley’s People, he led the charge in most of them, but they were just as centered around other characters: Bill Haydon, Jim Prideaux, Jerry Westerby. He isn’t in this novel, he is this novel, and John le Carre performs open heart surgery on him, and we see his bones and blood. While reading this, it seemed to me that every word written before it was just preamble to this, just groundwork to knowing and understanding the cost to a man’s life if he stands outside the group and does what he believes to be the moral thing.

Here we see the toll that this Cold War (how aptly named!) has had on both Smiley and his counterpart, Karla. We watch them perform the last steps in the last dance and marvel that they have survived so long in a world that kills off and uses up men as if they were straw dogs. If we could not see before how perverse this world is, we can see it clearly here, for both men have a weakness and that weakness is love.

This is the saddest and most despondent I have felt reading a Smiley book. I think le Carre has posed the age old questions: Who can you trust? Can lies and deceit ever be the right thing? Are there ever winners in international intrigues? Why do men do it; what motivates them? What is the personal cost when you do the wrong thing, even for the right reason? And, in the end, what difference does one man make; are we all just disposable? As a society, we might not like the answers.

...more

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May 10, 2010 Bettie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: summer-2016, paper-read, re-visit-2016, series, film-only, spies

Revisit via film

Description: John le Carre's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge and have earned him -- and his hero, British Secret Service agent George Smiley -- unprecedented worldwide acclaim.Rounding off his astonishing vision of a clandestine world, master storyteller le Carre perfects his art in "Smiley's People."

In London at dead of night, George Smiley, sometime acting Chief of the Cir ...more

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Dec 28, 2018 Cphe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, england, psychological, guardian-boxall-2018, mystery-thriller, russia, trilogy, cold-war, spy, suspense

Normally pretty stingy with handing out 5 star ratings but this was a terrific read and a satisfying conclusion to the Karla trilogy.

Such an interesting character George Smiley, a master spy wonderfully depicted in this conclusion. An espionage novel that ticked all of the boxes that I look for in this genre.

A novel of disillusionment, betrayal and love. Another from the Boxall 1000 list, time and money well spent.

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Dec 04, 2010 Greg rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I've been watching Roberto Rossellini's The Age of the Medici this afternoon. Or about the middle two and a half hours of the four hour long 'mini-series'. I've been really enjoying it and surprisingly I haven't gotten too distracted watching it (this is something of a rarity for me in the past two years or so, I can probably using my fingers and toes all of the movies I've been able to make it through since the start of 2009). It's made me wonder though why the thought of watching movies leave I've been watching Roberto Rossellini's The Age of the Medici this afternoon. Or about the middle two and a half hours of the four hour long 'mini-series'. I've been really enjoying it and surprisingly I haven't gotten too distracted watching it (this is something of a rarity for me in the past two years or so, I can probably using my fingers and toes all of the movies I've been able to make it through since the start of 2009). It's made me wonder though why the thought of watching movies leave me so blah lately. Partly, I think I might have overdosed on movies in my maniacal attempt to watch the entire Criterion Collection, when I would watch up to three movies a day and feel extremely anxious if anything was going to come between me and the times I designated as 'must watch more films' time. Instead I've traded in obsessive movie watching with abnormally large amounts of reading for embarrassingly abnormal amounts of reading, no movies, and a handful of tv shows that I half heartedly try to keep up with.

On of the plus sides of almost never watching movies anymore is that the ones I do find myself actually watching probably are more impressive to me than they would be if I were watching a lot of films. Unlike many of my goodreads.com friends, I can't talk intelligently about movies, there are things I like and things I don't like and even though I have somewhat pretentious, or snobbish, or highbrow tastes I can do little to articulate why I like a movie. Part of it is that movies don't inspire my thoughts like books do, another is that I don't think I really get or like the principle language of film. The more literary directors, like Bergman I could probably talk about but it would be using the language of books to say what I like or how I think the film works. That is what I'm enjoying about The Age of the Medici the way that Rossellini is moving the story and ideas along not by action but by words. The film is visually interesting with the lavish depiction of Renaissance Florence, but the narrative moves like a cross between the party goers of James Joyce's "The Dead" and the espionage novels of John Le Carre.

Le Carre writes the anthesis spy novel's as compared to someone like Robert Ludlum or what I imagine Ian Fleming's novels to be like. His hero in this trilogy of novels is George Smiley, a person who is the exact opposite of what the movie version of James Bond is. Smiley is a short fat man. He's unremarkable looking. He has a beautiful wife who is always openly sleeping with other men (she has at least 11 regulars she is sleeping with and a second tier group that she can turn to). When Smiley is at his best in working a case the description of him is bored looking and at times other characters aren't sure if Smiley is awake or asleep. With all of these not so appealing traits he is also one of the most effective caseworkers in The Circus (the British Intelligence or Spy business).

There is some action that occurs in the Smiley books but it is almost always told in dialog. Rarely does the reader see the big events, rather they are presented them the same way that Smiley receives most of them through briefings, reports conversations and interrogations. Le Carre does a fantastic job at creating a lush espionage world through mundane activities. There are no racing speed boats and high speed car chases through exotic streets, instead there are subtle moves and operations set up to try to out maneuver the Soviet spymaster Karla.

In a TV analogy the espionage world of Le Carre in the Smiley novels (of which, I should have mentioned earlier, this is the conclusion to a trilogy) is like "The Wire" or, sort of, "Homicide", as opposed to any of the hour long police procedurals with their fast resolution and instant results (and I guess that makes Smiley sort of a fat, short, white Lester). The slow meticulous unfolding and the little details in both the shows mentioned and the Smiley novels might seem a little labored at points but their end payoff is greater than the 44 minute resolution of "CSI" or say a James Bond film.

I wasn't sure where I was going with this review at the start, it was actually going to be a review for Crumley's The Last Good Kiss, but instead Smiley's People seemed a better move to come off of my ramblings about movies with. Sorry I'm too lazy to get the accent over the final E in the authors name. ...more

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May 26, 2020 Constantinos Capetanakis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

In memoriam, as Mr. Le Carre has now left the building.

This is only one, and perhaps the most representative, sample of his genius, perception and empathy.

Had it not been for the ever-annoying prejudices which also afflicted masters like Graham Greene, Mr. Le Carre's oeuvre would have been recognized in its truest merits. Not that it hasn't but still, he was not a spy writer. He was a great writer. ...more

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Dec 11, 2017 Calzean rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: author-england, culture-england, espionage

This is probably the most fulfilling of the Smiley stories. But it does follow the usual format.
Something happens. Smiley is pulled out of retirement. He talks to his old contacts/colleagues. He reads a lot of files. There are lots of words as the story rolls slowly along. Then in the last 20 pages the denouement occurs where the final act is not known till the last page.

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Oct 13, 2019 Roman Clodia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

On Karla had descended the curse of Smiley's compassion; on Smiley the curse of Karla's fanaticism. I have destroyed him with the weapons I abhorred, and they are his. We have crossed each other's frontiers, we are the no-men of no-man's-land.
My first comment on this - the third part of the provisional 'Karla trilogy' - is the utter and beautiful restraint of le Carré: not so much in the writing which is detailed and precise, but in the depths of what is not said. Le Carré shows complete con ...more

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Apr 05, 2009 Jen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Soviet history fans, mystery-lovers, Smiley lovers

Shelves: truthiness, historical-fiction, fiction, my-favorites

The first thing I have to say is IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FIRST TWO BOOKS IN THE TRILOGY, DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT READING THIS BOOK!
Okay, sorry 'bout the all caps, but you cannot possibly read this book in isolation and enjoy it in the way that it was meant to be savored and enjoyed. This is the ultimate book in a trilogy, and all the pieces come together, characters deepen, brief glimpses of characters and places make sense, and the hard work that you've done to get to this point because of le Ca ...more

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Feb 12, 2015 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: espionage, film-only, british-literature, fiction-20th-century, read-2015

From IDMb:
Called out of retirement to settle the affairs of a friend, Smiley finds his old organization, the Circus, so overwhelmed by political considerations that it doesn't want to know what happened. He begins to follow up the clues of his friends past days, discovering that the clues lead to a high person in the Russian Secret service, and a secret important enough to kill for. Smiley continues to put together the pieces a step ahead or a step behind the Russian killers.

A movie was made bas ...more

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Jul 05, 2008 Maureen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: espionage, novel

By the time I reached the end of this book, I cared so deeply for the characters whom John LeCarre had created that I could not believe it was over. I immediately started reading it again. This is definitely a book not to be read out of sequence, because the deeper nuances of the characters will be lost without having read the earlier books. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it.

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Mar 19, 2017 Nigeyb rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

'Smiley's People' is wonderful. Having been a little disappointed in the previous book 'The Honourable Schoolboy' (George Smiley #6) (1977), I am delighted to report that 'Smiley's People' is a return to peak Smiley.

My experience is that the more Smiley appears, the better the book, and so it is with 'Smiley's People’ which is about 90% Smiley.

'Smiley's People' is also the final part of the Karla trilogy. Smiley, now in his twilight years, displays his customary thorough, cerebral, unrelenting ...more

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May 05, 2018 Douglas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-books, fiction-adult

This was stunning - quite possibly a perfect novel. It would almost be an insult to describe it as a great example of its genre, for le Carre is such a splendid writer that he elevates his tales of espionage to the level of true literature. While other of his works exhibit the slight flaw (in the case of Tinker, Tailor it was more than slight) of an overly-complex plot, here le Carre keeps things just simple enough that the reader can keep up without too much difficulty. The "tradecraft" is stil ...more

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Oct 26, 2011 Scotchneat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, top-10-ish, outcasts

Just re-read this one after many years. I forgot how awesome this book is. Le Carre was at the top of his game.

First, there's Smiley, his heavy-lidded contemplation of what makes people tick. Then there's his people--the lamplighters, the mothers, the housekeepers and the wranglers.

The lead-up to the big catch is perfectly done. It's funny, and suspenseful and gives you a thrill without big shoot-em-ups or special effects.

Maria Ostrakova is a wonderfully drawn character who carries the early p ...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Darwin8u rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011

"He looked across the river into the darkness again, and an unholy vertigo seized him as the very evil he had fought against seemed to reach out and possess him and claim him despite his striving, calling him a traitor also; mocking him, yet at the same time applauding his betrayal. On Karla has descended the curse of Smiley's compassion; on Smiley the curse of Karla's fanaticism. I have destroyed him with the weapons I abhorred, and they are his. We have crossed each other's frontiers, we are t ...more

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Jun 13, 2016 Bradley West rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, thrillers

I've read a couple hundred spy novels, and this is my all-time favorite. Maybe it's because of the build up from the predecessors, "Tinker, Tailor" and, to a lesser extent, "The Honourable Schoolboy" but actually it's because le Carre is at the top of his game. He masterfully introduces the bit players via other bit players one instrument at a time until the orchestra is roaring away.

By this late date, George Smiley (operating as "Max") and Alec Guinness were interchangeable in both le Carre's ...more

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Jan 04, 2012 Michael rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A stunning work, even better than the excellent Tinker, Tailor.

Smiley's intelligence is portraid in the cracks in between action. The progress of his investigation is subtle; this isn't anything like a modern spy thriller. No car chases, no galavanting around the world.

Although this is a book that's ostensibly about the cold war, its themes still resonate. How far is too far when it comes to pursuing enemies? What really differentiates us?

I don't want to say too much, but I can't recommend thi ...more

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Aug 15, 2018 Wanda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: espionage, summer-of-spies, read-in-2018, z-1001-books, used-books

***2018 Summer of Spies***

In the spy genre, if James Bond is a boxing match, then George Smiley is a chess game. Lots of planning ahead, knowing your opponent, and biding your time to make the right move. Smiley and Karla match wits again, but George has a new advantage—Karla can no longer manipulate him via his wife.

Fans of fist fights and gun battles may find this boring. People like myself, who have spent many years researching and working within libraries and archives, will find ourselve ...more

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About John le Carré

John le Carré

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John le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England), was an English author of espionage novels. Le Carré had resided in St Buryan, Cornwall, Great Britain, for more than 40 years, where he owned a mile of cliff close to Land's End. ...more

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“[Smiley contemplates graffiti:]'Punk is destructive. Society does not need it.' The assertion caused him a moment's indecision. 'Oh, but society does,' he wanted to reply; 'society is an association of minorities.” — 10 likes

“In Lacon's world, direct questions were the height of bad taste, but direct answers were worse.” — 9 likes

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Smiley's People

(George Smiley #7)

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