A Perfect Spy in Espionage Aficionados

Apr 13, 2016 Joni Dee rated it it was amazing

Possibly the best spy thriller ever written!
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A PERFECT SPY is by far the best le Carré Novel, possibly the best spy thriller ever written. This masterpiece tells the story of Magnus Pym the boy along with Magnus Pym the grown man, both entangled in a world of deceit and shadows.
While the boy grows up with a con-artist father, Pym has a dark secret that is yet to be revealed. All that is apparent is that he has disappeared from the face of the planet.. or has he ? ...more

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Feb 24, 2019 Ravi Raj rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Le Carré takes us through the life of a superstar spy. The attention to detail brought about in the novel to any event or an occasion that can shape the way a person views, inherits and later tries to alter the world is breath taking to the reader.

The novel moves randomly through various stages in the life of Pym. Le Carré puts us all in the front seat to experience how a person’s father has to power to crush and destroy the soul of his very son even without realising. Le Carré unconvincingly d Le Carré takes us through the life of a superstar spy. The attention to detail brought about in the novel to any event or an occasion that can shape the way a person views, inherits and later tries to alter the world is breath taking to the reader.

The novel moves randomly through various stages in the life of Pym. Le Carré puts us all in the front seat to experience how a person’s father has to power to crush and destroy the soul of his very son even without realising. Le Carré unconvincingly draws instances where Pym’s father is both his best friend and the one who torments him. Le Carré beautifully laced the novel with the personality of Pym’s father and how that personality had imprisoned Pym. These crude events forces a boy to search for fatherly figure and adopt one, two actually. We get to see the relation of a boy with his father and with two prominent men who shaped him.

The novel starts with how one of the father figure influences Pym’s rise in the service and his allegiance to his people, but later slowly shifts towards other events which makes us think who the actual father figure is and where does the allegiance of Pym lie. Pym also had the added advantage of his father. A very colourful person who knows his way around the world and we witness Pym slowly becoming his father which scares him as he may imprison his son the way Pym’s father imprisoned him.

When reading, I could not help but draw parallels of this with Kim Philby. Had similar events in his life made him one of the most popular spy we ever know.

This book is a very heavy read and I sure am looking forward for a re read. In the mean time, I shall linger in the aftermath of Le Carré’s stunning work. I idolise the Smiley series, loved the Drummer girl. But should admit A Perfect Spy is a far more comprehensive espionage work as it doesn’t focus on the mission or accomplishment of a spy, but rather on the psyche of the very person who strives to accomplish that mission and finds his balance in that dangerous world. ...more

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