The Honourable Schoolboy in Espionage Aficionados

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

Shelves: favorites, thrillers

After Tinker, Tailor, le Carre's fans waited many years for the follow-up The Honourable Schoolboy. When I first read the book 35 (!) years ago I recall being a little disappointed that the book wasn't more Smiley-centric, but in retrospect le Carre's shift in focus from treachery within the Circus to the exotic East was what the series needed lest it choke on its own incestuous fog.

The Hong Kong of the early 1970s in the book wasn't very different from the Hong Kong I encountered in the early 1 After Tinker, Tailor, le Carre's fans waited many years for the follow-up The Honourable Schoolboy. When I first read the book 35 (!) years ago I recall being a little disappointed that the book wasn't more Smiley-centric, but in retrospect le Carre's shift in focus from treachery within the Circus to the exotic East was what the series needed lest it choke on its own incestuous fog.

The Hong Kong of the early 1970s in the book wasn't very different from the Hong Kong I encountered in the early 1980s. Many, many fewer skyscrapers than today and much less prosperity, but the same feverish pace, crowding and squalor (outside Central) persisted. Le Carre's eye for Hong Kong is spot on, while his caricatures of journalist Richard Hughes as Old Craw and the Foreign Correspondents Club are gems. No one does atmosphere like le Carre, and that's further evident when the author takes us to Cambodia-under-fire at the end of the Vietnam war, then up country to northern Thailand where Westerby is on the trail of Ricardo, an absent aviator and romantic rival.

Meanwhile, le Carre unfolds the principal espionage plot beautifully. There's a gold seam out of Indochina, then the whiff of Karla and, perhaps, a mainland KGB spy who is seeking to escape China. Smiley's and Connie's scenes are strongly written, with the gradual unveiling of the mole leaving me whipping through the side stories in order to get back to the latest information on the deep penetration agent.

Jerry's infatuation with Lizzie struck one of the only discordant notes. Le Carre invested a lot of effort fleshing out Jerry's character, and considerable time on Lizzie's, too. Lizzie's actions rang true, while Westerby always seemed a bit off (even the second and third time through the book). So the ending wasn't wholly satisfying, but that mild disappointment wasn't enough to reduce the rating.

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I've read two of le Carre's novels three times, Smiley's People for its virtuosity, and The Honourable Schoolboy for setting and plot. So rather than nitpick, I'll conclude by saying that it's a great spy novel, a fantastic tour of Indochina and Hong Kong, and a pretty good character analysis of an unhappy middle-aged spy trying to do the right thing. ...more

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