The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (George Smiley, #3) in The Complete Idiots Guide to the Ultimate Reading List

Nov 05, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary, crime, mystery, literary-fiction, fiction, novels, suspense, ultimate-reading-list, before-i-die, popular-fiction

The book gets off to a gripping and suspenseful start. At the height of the Cold War around 1962, veteran British operative Alec Leamas waits for one of his agents to cross the East German border. He can only watch as the man is gunned down before his eyes within feet of making it across. With that death, the East Germans have succeeded in unraveling his entire network.

Brought back to England, Leamas is convinced to do one more job. He's dangled as bait, presented as apparently broken and bitter The book gets off to a gripping and suspenseful start. At the height of the Cold War around 1962, veteran British operative Alec Leamas waits for one of his agents to cross the East German border. He can only watch as the man is gunned down before his eyes within feet of making it across. With that death, the East Germans have succeeded in unraveling his entire network.

Brought back to England, Leamas is convinced to do one more job. He's dangled as bait, presented as apparently broken and bitter, in the hopes their communist adversaries will entice him to defect and swallow what he has to tell them.

I've been reading a recommendation list for suspense novels, including several spy thrillers, and I've read a couple of dozen, leaving Le Carre for almost last precisely because so many have told me his works are among the best. If The Spy Who Came In from the Cold is any evidence, I'd say that's right. Along with Alan Furst (Night Soldiers) and Eric Ambler (A Coffin for Dimitrios) Le Carre is both the most plausible in his depiction of espionage and among the strongest in a literary sense. It's not surprising he'd be credible. Along with Ian Fleming of the James Bond novels, he's one of the few such writers who can claim actual experience--he worked in British Intelligence for years, and in his introduction he tells of how he saw the Berlin Wall go up.

Alec is no James Bond though--and I like him the more for it. This isn't some escapist male fantasy where being a secret agent allows you to indulge in gorgeous women on your arm as you gamble high stakes at casinos and consume caviar and champagne. Alec is around fifty years old, disillusioned and close to burnt out even before this mission. The woman he gets involved with, Liz Gold, is no glamorous Bond girl, but a hopelessly naive idealist whose very innocence points up the ruthlessness of the game as played by both sides. This is much more intricately plotted than any of the other espionage fiction I read. Seeming plot holes close up and become plot points and there's enough twists and turns to satisfy a fan of Christie. Don't expect a black and white morality or characters or a happy rainbow at the end though. ...more

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Oct 06, 2011 Christian Dibblee rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

Read in one day. Really good plot line that delved deep into the sentiments of the time against the Soviet bloc. From my generation, it's difficult to fully understand the political nature of the time, but the book is concise enough to convey the frenetic nature of the spy life. The climax of the book was also fantastic in the courtroom. I would have liked a little more character development but it's refreshing to read a spy novel about a middle-aged drunk who falls for a Party member and ends u ...more

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