Oct 6th John Le Carre - What did you think?

[[deleted user]]

Comment on your choices here as soon as you like - but please hide any spoilers

[[deleted user]]

I'll be digging out my well read copy of Smileys People soon Yay! And a Perfect Spy is on it's way. I love my 2nd hand copy of Smileys People - it was originally purchased in Russia and contains a London-Moscow plane ticket. :0)

[Hilary]

Wow Lee, that's a very appropriate read for a Russia/UK trip.

[Laurel]

Cool!
I've only read The Constant Gardener by him so want to read at least one of the Smiley books - was going for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy but apparently this isn't the first one, he's first introduced in Call for the Dead. So will try and find it in the library. Do you think it matters if I read them in order or not?

[Hilary]

I think the first one I read was Tinker, tailor and then Smileys people. I read The Spy Who came in from the Cold a long time after and didn't enjoy it any the less. I think the only ones that benefit from being read in order are the ones that involve Karla as that is an evolving relationship. After reading your post I looked up le Carre's website and discovered just how many I'd missed! I need to back track, dear me more additions to the To Buy list!

[Laurel]

Thanks Hilary - glad they don't necessarily have to be read in order...the library is more likely to have a copy of Tinker Taylor than 'Call for the Dead'.

[[deleted user]]

Just finished Smileys People. It took me a long time to get around to reading any John Le Carre - I'd got the idea that he wrote very macho James Bondish books.
In fact George Smiley has more in common with Miss Marple than James Bond, and John Le Carre's Smiley books are fascinating but melancholy tales from a much more realistic, totally unglamorous world of espionage. He is very much in the tradition of Graham Greene.

[Laurel]

Sounds good Lee!
I couldn't get a copy of any of the Smiley books but I did pick up The Looking Glass War which looks interesting. It did kinda put me in mind of Graham Greene from the description so looking forward to it!

[Hilary]

Nearly finished a perfect spy and tempted to post because of your remark about Smiley being melancholy. I've never identified that before but you are absolutely right and I think its a trait in all his books but is the overwhelming characteristic of A Perfect Spy. All of his characters are flawed to a greater or lesser degree. I'm going to think about this again when I finish the book. You've set my mind going, Lee!

[[deleted user]]

Good stuff - A Perfect Spy is waiting patiently for me to start after Effi Briest and The Testament of Mary.

[Hilary]

A Perfect Spy is the story of a man, tragically flawed, who is desperate to be loved. This is not the standard "spy story" but more a character study of Magnus Pym,, who is deputy head of Station in Vienna running networks of agents. The story opens with Pym doing a disappearing act and the story shifts from the present to the past as Pym describes the life that brought him to his current situation.

At the same time, in the present, we learn he is "under a cloud" and the British and the Americans are desperate to find him.

Pym is,I think, le Carre's, most developed character and this novel his most complex. I find it desperately sad and although I love le Carre's other more traditional spy novels, I think this is his most rewarding to read.

[[deleted user]]

Looking forward to it Hilary though I think, after Smileys People, and Effi Briest I need to cheer my self up with some Pickwick first!

[[deleted user]]

Help- John Le Carre overload. A Perfect Spy looks excellent - but can't read it at the moment -it's making me depressed and I'm feeling bullied by Jack Brotherton!
It's going to have to back into the TBR mountain for a while I'm afraid :0(

[Ellie]

I got hold of a copy of a Perfect Spy yesterday, it was on the shelves of donated books we sell to raise money for the Samaritans. Looking forward to reading it but must admit time is running away from me at the moment.

[Hilary]

It may be my favourite le Carre but I have to admit it's not a bundle of laughs!

[Joy]

I'm new to John Le Carre and picked up two at the library yesterday. I've just finished Call for the Dead but I'm afraid I wasn't all that keen. I thought it had a decent plot, but it read as more of a detective mystery than a spy thriller and the 'clues' were reviewed far too often. The tone was also rather remote and I didn't feel engaged with the characters.
The other one I've borrowed is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

[Hilary]

I've never read Call for the Dead but love Tinker, Tailor. I'll be. Dry interested in what you make of it joy

[[deleted user]]

A few of the Le Carre novels I've read have detective elements to them - particularly Smileys People - it starts off with Smiley hunting for a piece of evidence - the only problem is - he doesn't know what the object is or what it is intended to prove! Smiley has to do some detective work in Tinker Taylor too.
I haven't read many Spy novels but perhaps The Spy Whom Came in from the Cold is more purely of that genre?