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From the Bookshelf of SSG: Spy/Spec-Ops Group…

The Looking Glass War (George Smiley, #4)

John Le Carré

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Jun 22, 2012 Feliks rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre-thrillers

If John Le Carre had wished to write romance novels for his career; he would have written the best of his era. If he had wished to write swashbucklers, he would have written the best of his era. If he had wished to write adventure tales, etc etc etc. My point is: he is that kind of writer. Happily, he started his career in public service--intelligence--and Fortuitously for the world's readers, he pursued a career writing an ensuing legacy of espionage novels. And those are the best of his era.

B If John Le Carre had wished to write romance novels for his career; he would have written the best of his era. If he had wished to write swashbucklers, he would have written the best of his era. If he had wished to write adventure tales, etc etc etc. My point is: he is that kind of writer. Happily, he started his career in public service--intelligence--and Fortuitously for the world's readers, he pursued a career writing an ensuing legacy of espionage novels. And those are the best of his era.

But this hardly describes his talent. It describes his accomplishment but not the richness, the tone, the tenor. "The Looking Glass War" demonstrates what his aim was: human relationships. Le Carre first and foremost wrote smashing damn good works of human psychology. These books of his ...vibrate with our common condition. They're much more about "people" than they are about "spies". They bulge with the unsung in life; the hidden 'stuff' going on in all our skulls; they seep with awkward conversations, lost reconciliations, and people trying to regain familiarity with each other.

Can you imagine--writing during a period when the world was gaga for James Bond and exploding industrial bases--John Le Carre setting himself down to pen these soft-spoken, resonant, feeling, psyche-driven studies and getting them published? Offering the world these weak, clumsy, fumbling bureaucrats and ex-soldiers and lackeys; toads; flunkies; departmental figureheads and cowards; and calling them spies? He turned the genre on its head and every novel like this one gave the head another spin.

He wrote wonderfully realistic fiction; character-based literature. "Looking Glass War" is one of the sturdiest; one of the least well-known; one of the most unforgettable, one of the most tugging-at-your-sternum. Even, years later. Its hard to forget clumsy Fred Leiser and 'the Department' trying to maintain themselves alongside the rise of MI5 and MI6. This is the kind of book Le Carre was capable of producing at any given year during his heyday. Marvelous and penetrating; part of the George Smiley legend; part of an overall arc of great writing in our time. Read it.

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Oct 12, 2016 Patrick Schultheis rated it liked it

Good, but does not approach his best

2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 10, 2019 Zare rated it it was amazing

Shelves: intelligence, thrillers, thriller, special-ops, spies, john-le-carre

I enjoy le Carre's novels for a single thing - his portrayal of intelligence agencies and spies is rather unique (or maybe was, I do not know if there are other authors writing spy novels in similar way). They are all shown as civil servants, part of the mighty bureaucratic machine who risk their lives (at least some of them) but in general live rather dull or maybe better said every-day lives with a little rush of adrenaline when action kicks in. They are all expendable (operations more than ot ...more

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Feb 18, 2015 Peter rated it it was ok

Shelves: spy

It was so out of date and slow.

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Jul 26, 2011 Peter Medley rated it really liked it

Sep 13, 2011 KOMET marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: john-le-carre, mass-market-paperbacks, fiction-espionage-thriller

Feb 25, 2012 Sterling Gate Books rated it liked it

Feb 06, 2013 Darren rated it it was amazing

Apr 18, 2013 James Piper marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: 3-fiction, 9-epub, 4-novel, 2-elib, 1-e-book, 5-espionage

Apr 23, 2013 Bobbie rated it really liked it

Aug 18, 2013 Bob rated it liked it

Sep 13, 2013 Brian Bern rated it it was ok

Shelves: espionage

Mar 31, 2014 Kenny McGinnis marked it as unread

Shelves: my-library

Dec 28, 2014 Kathy rated it it was amazing

Dec 30, 2014 BC marked it as to-read

Jan 10, 2015 Andy Ward added it · review of another edition

Aug 15, 2015 Norris Battin rated it it was amazing

Mar 11, 2016 Mónica marked it as to-read

Jul 17, 2016 Matt Fulton rated it really liked it

Jan 10, 2017 LadyTechie marked it as to-read

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Sep 11, 2017 CEC added it

Sep 18, 2017 ☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ marked it as to-read

3 likes · Like

Dec 02, 2018 Mike Penlington marked it as to-read

Oct 30, 2019 Mark marked it as to-read

Jun 15, 2020 Paula Gatwood rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Nov 17, 2020 Molly marked it as to-read

Shelves: internet-archive, next-in-queue

1 like · Like

Nov 03, 2021 Doubledf99.99 rated it really liked it

Shelves: spy-espionage-thriller

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