February 2021 Group Read (spoiler thread): Agent Running in the Field, by John LeCarre

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

spoiler thread for Le Carre's Agent Running in the Field.

[Woman Reading]

I'm at the 57% mark and I finally feel a slight uptick in the plotline. There’s been such a slow buildup. It's given me time to entertain wild plot ideas such as connecting Ed with Christopher Wylie of Cambridge Analytica and wondering whether Nat's daughter is connected to his work in the UK.

[Woman Reading]

I stayed up late to finish this because the last third was too enticing to delay.

From the little comments inserted early on, I know that the narrative is Nat's account in the fall. The plotline actually ended in early August, at the latest.

Review to come but I was disappointed by the ending. How is that in any way realistic? Are they to live on Nat & Prue's money? How are any of them to escape the consequences of their actions?

[Woman Reading]

I would like to hear other people's take on the last several chapters. I found the ending unsatisfactory. It's too abrupt and open-ended.

In ch.17 Nat's meeting with Bryn - has Nat really been fired? Bryn wants Nat to turn Ed into a double agent and run him. Prue later tells him that Ed deserves his due process in court and is initially opposed to Nat's acceptance of Bryn's assignment.

What do others believe is Nat's motivation for the final chapter?

I keep thinking that the ending is unrealistic. Surely the Office will investigate and find out about Prue and Nat's participation. Won't they be stuck bearing the consequences?


Side comment - does Nat even deserve such a loyal partner as Prue?

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

I think Nat is anti-Brexit and anti-Trump because they are Nazi-like. Supporters appear to not be simply Nationalists, they seem to be haters of anything and anyone not White Western Males.

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

I interpreted Prue and Nat as a power couple of sorts. Marriages are built on all kinds of strengths and weaknesses, all kinds of goals. Two highly educated professionals dedicated to being like a power couple supportive of each of their professional careers first in this lives will not have a strong importance on sexual monogamy. It is just how it is with most professional couples. It is their partnership in joint goals which glues their relationship together, not sex. I’ve seen a lot of these couples.

In this book, it appears professional goals and careers are what is important to Prue and Nat - given their jobs, obviously their careers and goals are about furthering democratic ideals, so that is number one on their marriage. Lots of political couples, scientists, CEO upper-level management or employees of NGO’s have marriages like this, especially if both of them travel a lot here and there.

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

I think Nat and Prue worked out a way to save Ed and Florence because they believed in their ideals, if not their methodology.

[Woman Reading]

It was pretty clear to me that Nat views himself as European by virtue of his mother's side and his childhood experiences; so yes, he's anti Brexit. I got the impression that he viewed Trump as the worst president the US has ever gotten, but that it was a clinically-detached opinion. So his opinions are in keeping with Ed's but not held with the same amount of condemnation or virulence.

But I wasn't so clear as to what tipped him over the edge to engineer an exfiltration that made him complicit with Ed's treachery. Remember that as a spy, Nat is cynical and pretty comfortable with moral ambiguity. Part of the motivation was being Ed's only friend. Part of it was perhaps his overnight experience of being grilled by his chers collegues and then being managed by Bryn (ex "don't tell Prue").

I didn't get why Nat had comforted himself with the thought that "he's his own man" and that Bryn needed him more than vice versa. Am I to take it that he's above the law because he's been essentially fired (ie since he's been "gated" and that his only job is to turn Ed)? How does being unemployed give you immunity? That's why the ending seemed unrealistic and thus unsatisfying. Doesn't it seem likely that Ed and Florence are in for an extended exile that isn't free from the threat of extradition?

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

I think Nat thinks his bosses must do what they must do, but Nat doesn't have to anymore because he has been gated. He likes Ed and Florence and he agrees with them politically. Ed foolishly believes the Russian spy is a German spy, so he is making an error which would horrify him, plus he is doing something which will put him in prison if he refuses to be a double agent. Nat doesn't think Ed would agree to be a double agent, and Nat doesn't want Ed to go to prison, so yeah, he is deciding to act above the law.

Nat has little respect for the fake democracy of Trump/Johnson, and Nat knows there are two sets of laws - one for the masses, and no laws for the leaders.

I think Nat believes Florence, with her intelligence and training, will do what she needs to do to make Ed and Florence disappear. I think Nat and Prue are prepared for the consequences of helping Ed and Florence.

I agree the book ends too abruptly. Nat and Prue know a lot of things, I suppose, that they could threaten Nat's bosses with, and I suppose they are relying on that to save them from an open trial, idk.

All four are democracy patriots, not nation patriots. Ideology rules their hearts.

[Woman Reading]

Hmm, thanks for your insights, aPriL.