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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
"Guillam was exhausted. Forty is a difficult age at which to stay awake, he decided. At twenty or sixty the body knows what it's about, but forty is an adolescence where one sleeps to grow up or to stay young."
"I honestly do wonder, without wishing to be morbid, how I reached this present pass. So far as I can ever remember of my youth, I chose the secret road because it seemed to lead straightest and furthest toward my country's goal. The enemy those days was someone we could point at and read about in the papers. Today all I know is that I have learned to interpret the whole of life in terms of conspiracy. That is the sword I have lived by, and as I look around me now, I see it is the sword I shall die by as well. These people terrify me, but I am one of them. If they stab me in the back, then at least that is the judgment of my peers."
"He [Westerby] needed time, and in the event he helped himself to more than a week. Even now, he needed that long to bring himself to the point, because Jerry at heart was a soldier and voted with his feet. _In the beginning was the deed_, Smiley liked to say to him, in his failed-priest mood, quoting from Goethe. For Jerry that simple statement had become a pillar of his uncomplicated philosophy. What a man thinks is his own business. What matters is what he does."
One day, thought Guillam, as he continued listening, one of two things will happen to George. He'll cease to care or the paradox will kill him. If he ceases to care, he'll be half the operator he is. If he doesn't, that little chest will blow up from the struggle of trying to find the explanation for what we do. Smiley himself, in a disastrous off-the-record chat to senior officers, had put the names to his dilemma, and Guillam with some embarrassment remembered them to this day. To be _inhuman in defence of our humanity_, he had said, _harsh in defence of compassion_. To be _single-minded in defence of our disparity_. They had filed out in a veritable ferment of protest; why didn't George just do the job and shut up instead of taking his faith out and polishing it in public till the flaws showed? Connie had even murmured a Russian aphorism in Guillam's ear, which she insisted on attributing to Karla. "There'll be no war, will there, Peter darling?" she had said reassuringly, squeezing his hand as he led her along the corridor. "But in the struggle for peace no a single stone will be left standing, bless the old fox."
"I honestly do wonder, without wishing to be morbid, how I reached this present pass. So far as I can ever remember of my youth, I chose the secret road because it seemed to lead straightest and furthest toward my country's goal. The enemy those days was someone we could point at and read about in the papers. Today all I know is that I have learned to interpret the whole of life in terms of conspiracy. That is the sword I have lived by, and as I look around me now, I see it is the sword I shall die by as well. These people terrify me, but I am one of them. If they stab me in the back, then at least that is the judgment of my peers."
"He [Westerby] needed time, and in the event he helped himself to more than a week. Even now, he needed that long to bring himself to the point, because Jerry at heart was a soldier and voted with his feet. _In the beginning was the deed_, Smiley liked to say to him, in his failed-priest mood, quoting from Goethe. For Jerry that simple statement had become a pillar of his uncomplicated philosophy. What a man thinks is his own business. What matters is what he does."
One day, thought Guillam, as he continued listening, one of two things will happen to George. He'll cease to care or the paradox will kill him. If he ceases to care, he'll be half the operator he is. If he doesn't, that little chest will blow up from the struggle of trying to find the explanation for what we do. Smiley himself, in a disastrous off-the-record chat to senior officers, had put the names to his dilemma, and Guillam with some embarrassment remembered them to this day. To be _inhuman in defence of our humanity_, he had said, _harsh in defence of compassion_. To be _single-minded in defence of our disparity_. They had filed out in a veritable ferment of protest; why didn't George just do the job and shut up instead of taking his faith out and polishing it in public till the flaws showed? Connie had even murmured a Russian aphorism in Guillam's ear, which she insisted on attributing to Karla. "There'll be no war, will there, Peter darling?" she had said reassuringly, squeezing his hand as he led her along the corridor. "But in the struggle for peace no a single stone will be left standing, bless the old fox."
A great story about personal loyalties (or the search for them) verses strategic loyalties that is chunky in the middle and has an ending that is 20% corny. Otherwise a solid part of the Karla Trilogy.
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Second book in the exciting Karla trilogy, following Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in which the damage done by the mole that had infiltrated the circus needs to be assessed and Smiley pits his wits against his arch nemesis Karla. thanks a million to NetGalley for the arc/audiobook - the narrator is a dream!
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A good read, although shouldn't really be considered part of the Karla Trilogy. And very racist in parts, highlighting the rapacious thuggishness of Britain's ruling elite.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
le carré is an incredible stylist. i would read him write about anything, but this is a good subject: thrilling, varied, not something i’ve read much of. the case chases itself across south east asia, and it’s a really interesting window into the withering and replacement of colonial control there, would pair well with the quiet american, which le carré consciously calls back to. slow and dense, but never not exciting too.