The Spy Who Came In from the Cold question

I think you have to remember when this was written and take it in that context: The Cold War, McCarthyism and a great deal of paranoia on behalf of governments which had just wprked yogether to defeat fascism. The ex-spy is burned out and tired of being lied to. The girl is still very niave about communism (don't we all know and old commumist from the 30s if we are a certain age?). They find each other, perform their tasks and then get punished for it. She for her niavete and he for being jaded. In other words, governments can never br trusted. This is a common theme in LeCarre. Idealism gets polluted once idealists join the bureaucracy. Except for Smiley who is the exception who proves the rule.

Simon wrote: "Have you ever reached the end of a book, put it down and asked, What on earth was that about?!

My own most baffling book is John le Carre's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. I have read it severa..."

Yes, Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day"...

I read somewhere that this is one of the 100 books every man should read (or some such list). So I read it, expecting it not to be a James Bond type spy novel, but more like a Len Deighton, "Funeral in Berlin" type chess match. And it was neither. I can't see what the fuss is all about. Although Janet's comments above certainly shed some light on it, but not enough for me to revisit Le Carre.

I have to go with Feliks with this one. The man is disillusioned by his empty life. He has arrived at the conclusion that all his efforts were for a cause that cared nothing for him. The woman was his everything and when she was killed at the WALL he had nothing to live for.

For anyone caught up with the East vs. West drama of the cold war at the time, early 60's, this novel was a breath of fresh air.

I too didnt have any difficulties figuring this one out, maybe because I covered the CIA as a journalist and studied the book in writing a Berlin-based spy thriller of my own. I saw the common LeCarre theme that the Circus or Control or whoever runs things regards the players in the field as ultimately expendable in the cause of winning against the Evil Empire. And vice versa. When the antihero of the novel finally sees what a pawn he was in the long game, he takes a very anti-Smiley approach to say the least. Once a careerist, he has had enough. He comes in from the Cold War.

Certainly not this one. 'Spy Who' is quite lucid. I'm shocked that anyone finds it too dense.

There's occasional books which are difficult for me but only if the content describes something like mathematics, economics, or science. Thos're my weak subjects.

I read a lot of philosophy and history--often as dry and as tedious as can be--but usually find it thrilling. Literature and fiction can occasionally fail me if its boring (like melodrama, or dull family sagas) but they're never over-my-head.

Books like 'Origin of the Species' (Darwin) or 'Creative Evolution' (Bergson) are painstakingly detailed; and that's what makes them a struggle. Re-reading any particular paragraph however, usually brings to light its meaning.