Travis’s Comments (group member since Jan 16, 2013)

Travis’s comments from the Readering Group group.

seems like this dude is handling the apocalypse in the same manner that I would. copious amounts of whiskey.

It will be tough for me to enter the book without any pretense as I have seen the movie. From what I have read, the main character in the book is not a military superscientist like in the movie, so if anything it will be much more difficult for him to find a cure for what ails the vampires. Given that they are vampires and not zombies in the first place makes one think that the book will differ greatly from the film.

No I have one. Let's make it the next book. it's been sitting in my kindle for months.

I guess that makes it my turn. Have you read I am Legend?

I definitely enjoyed the first half. I am just sort of lost on the third part

Why do they exist?

Oh, I thought you were making commentary on my inherent fear of confrontation that leads to sniveling fits in the fetal position.

Now i do. Heeeeyyy...

Well, I would guess that taking off would only land him in an equally shit situation. Why trade a familiar painful existence for an unfamiliar one? At least in this one, he has half a family and one or two sporadic friendships. However, I do agree that he could always pipe up and say "dad, fuck this place. you sold your paintings, so let's move to the suburbs," but I would bet Abraham is too urbanite and self absorbed to take heed.

I don't know who that is yet.

Interesting so far, and I like the premise. Optimism is high.

eating an entire sleeve of saltines with nothing to wash it down. It doesn't taste bad, but it is very dry and takes effort. I have enjoyed it, but I don't know if I will read anything else by LeCarre at this point. What part is everyone currently reading?

Gary Oldman. solid.

haha that's just what I gleaned from watching the movie several times.

I will do my best to explain what is happening as I see it. A lot of what I remember is from the movie, as I have not finished the book yet.




SPOILERS BELOW




To answer your question, they tried to identify the mole using Jim Prideaux in Budapest. He was supposed to transmit the identity upon finding out, but it turns out to be a setup and he is shot instead. (This is what caused Control and Smiley to be pushed out of the service) Control knows Smiley is not the mole, since he was in Germany at the time of the Budapest mishap. This is part of why they choose Smiley to smoke out the mole.

Smiley sets out to learn more about the Witchcraft program, which feeds information to their source (Merlin) in Russian Intelligence. They restrict knowledge of this source only to Bland, Alleline, Esterhase, and Haydon. The situation goes SNAFU because instead of gaining information from the source in Russia, the mole is leaking Britain's own sensitive information through the source to Moscow. In order to protect their source, Alleline and Esterhase start sacking everyone involved with Witchcraft that might know the identity of the source. Connie Sachs tells Alleline that palyakov is Russian military and is promptly dismissed. Esterhase tries to kill "Tinker Tailor" and tells Guillam that Tarr has been turned.

Smiley (who knows the truth about Tarr and has learned the location of the safehouse) sends Tarr to Paris in order to force the mole into action, knowing that the mole will try to contact Palyakov when Tarr shows up. Tarr breaks into the British Intelligence Office in Paris and sends a message to Circus detailing the truth about Budapest. This causes Circus to call a meeting with the four uppermost men in the service. Three show up, but






MOLE AND ENDING REVEALED BELOW












Haydon instead goes to Paris to try to get a message to KARLA to have Tarr killed. He is met at the safehouse by Smiley and Guillam, revealing him as the mole. They are going to have him deported, but Jim Prideaux comes out of retirement to blow his head off. Alleline gets run from Circus and Smiley is made the head of the organization.

Whew. That could be inaccurate in places, but I think it is mostly correct.

This is a book that will definitely require several readings in order to completely follow. leCarre doesn't really map out his storyline for the reader to follow easily. Rather, he seems to write like a single stage rocket. Once you ignite, you just go until it's over, and if you can't keep up, it's your own fault. That said, I am having trouble keeping up. The movie kind of helps. I saw it before ever having an inkling to read the book, and it was sort of confusing as well.

There is definitely a mole, and it is definitely a bad thing.

Apart from being very british in style, I have found it to be pretty interesting so far. Having seen the movie, I think it may be easier for me to piece things together so far.

Nice. It seems like every book we read, we can find for free somewhere online. I dig it.

It is by definition, a serial in that it has a central character that appears in other novels a la James Bond, however, like Bond, I believe the books are episodic in nature and can be read with relative ease as solitary works or in conjunction with each other.

In order to try and drum up some more conversation, I have made the group public. Anyone can now join and comment.I would like people who haven't read to refrain from commenting and I suppose if that becomes an issue we can always change settings again. Hopefully we can have livelier discussions in the future because I enjoy them thoroughly. even discussions about books that aren't in the interest wheelhouse of some members make for good discussion. Thanks guys.