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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
A fast paced spy novel with a typical le Carre dark ending. This novel was way easier to read than "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"--le Carre takes the time to describe unfamiliar terms and people (vs. looking up terms like a lamplighter and continuously referencing who tf Toby Esterhase is!).
This novel is stylistically a lot different from his previous ones. It reads like Fleming and Jerry Westerby has some striking similarities to Bond. Maybe that was part of le Carre's stick though and the ending is on point with his usual MO of turning the stereotypical spy novel on its head.
I feel like this book doesn't get a lot of love in comparison with his other works or other novels in the Karla canon, but I thought it was a fun novel that was fun to read and understand.
This novel is stylistically a lot different from his previous ones. It reads like Fleming and Jerry Westerby has some striking similarities to Bond. Maybe that was part of le Carre's stick though and the ending is on point with his usual MO of turning the stereotypical spy novel on its head.
I feel like this book doesn't get a lot of love in comparison with his other works or other novels in the Karla canon, but I thought it was a fun novel that was fun to read and understand.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
With all the spy jargon, British idioms and Asian geographical and cultural references, it's amazing I understood this book, let alone enjoyed it. But enjoy it I did. The characters alone are worth the price of admission. The compelling plot and intrigue put it over the top and the occasional jab at the "Cousins" is icing on the cake.
Guillam was exhausted. Forty is a difficult age at which to stay awake, he decided. At twenty or at sixty the body knows what it’s about, but forty is an adolescence where one sleeps to grow up or to stay young.
Since girlhood, nothing seemed to have happened to her face beyond a steady fading of its hopes.
Guillam was exhausted. Forty is a difficult age at which to stay awake, he decided. At twenty or at sixty the body knows what it’s about, but forty is an adolescence where one sleeps to grow up or to stay young.
Since girlhood, nothing seemed to have happened to her face beyond a steady fading of its hopes.
slow-paced
It was very hard to concentrate on anything other than the plethora of racial slurs, stereotypes, and blithely accepted colonial attitudes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Colonisation
Moderate: Misogyny
Meticulously Detailed. Painfully so, at times. Takes the 'brooding spy thriller' to an entirely different level.
I like how le Carré plays in the background of his novels. It's a lot of rereading, but there is a sense of an order just out of reach, which I suppose is perfect for a spy novel.
This is one of those about psychology, and it is a good book, but there is something ineffable missing in it. It bothers me that I can't tell what it is at all because I like le Carré a great deal. He is a wonderful writer. So this bothers me. Maybe it is the immenseness of the book and the thematic payoff? I don't quite know. That's close enough for now.
Regardless, it is superb writing. Wonderful characters. Inventive and fun. A good read.
This is one of those about psychology, and it is a good book, but there is something ineffable missing in it. It bothers me that I can't tell what it is at all because I like le Carré a great deal. He is a wonderful writer. So this bothers me. Maybe it is the immenseness of the book and the thematic payoff? I don't quite know. That's close enough for now.
Regardless, it is superb writing. Wonderful characters. Inventive and fun. A good read.
I've never felt the need to apologize for preferring Le Carre's more recent novels to his cold war classics; The Honorable Schoolboy is the best of both worlds, and cements my belief that he was at his best when exploring the world beyond Moscow.
In an earlier discussion, I once mentioned that Le Carre writes two plots: Good guy gets crushed, and good guy barely avoids getting crushed. This is usually not resolved until the final few pages, and this book is no exception. But does anybody read him for the plots? I should think not. I read him in order to meet and really get to know new people, people who generally live much more interesting lives than the office managers, software developers and grocery clerks who make up my everyday social circle.
The enigmatic, outwardly calm but inwardly stressed legend George Smiley is in the driver's seat of an espionage operation involving a wealthy Hong Kong businessman and his shadowy relations to mainland China. Flavor is added by setting the story in the waning days of the American involvement in the Vietnam War (or, as they prefer to call it, the American war). A new character, Jerry Westerby, for reasons of his own, is not fully sold on the goals of the operation, and further complexity arises from the Americans' attempts to intervene. At the time the book was written, Hong Kong was still a British territory and so Smiley has some leverage to stave the Americans off.
All of this leads to plenty of palace intrigues in London and Washington, D.C., a struggle that is conveyed with impressive insight and understanding. But the heart of this book is really the bar of the Foreign Correspondents' Club, realistically located fourteen floors up in a Hong Kong highrise, fourteen floors above the "mud-brown sweat of building dust and smuts from the chimney stacks of Kowloon." This is where Jerry Westerby, putative journalist and actual spy, hangs out with his fellows, the vividly-described Craw, Rocker, California Luke and the Dwarf.
A common complaint against Le Carre is that he writes women poorly, which I agree with -- to an extent. I would argue that he has little interest in people who don't lead double lives, male or female, and reserves his awesome descriptive powers for people who are hiding something. Which, in this book, encompasses nearly everyone we meet, with the notable exception of the beautiful blonde Brit Elizabeth (though her parents, in a short scene painful to read, are well-rendered).
I don't think I've ever read a truly convincing description of Hong Kong, though Le Carre does as well as anybody else. To be fair, his focus is on the more rarified top-of-the-hill British section, which I have never visited. But the infernal heat and humidity, the mildew-blackened concrete highrises are still there, just as he described them. Another of the pleasures of this book (for me) is that a lot of it took place on boats, a place where we have not yet ventured in Smiley's books.
This book is a really enjoyable escape from reality for several hours. It's Le Carre's first attempt to expand his world beyond Eastern vs. Western Europe, a direction that comes into full bloom later in his career, and which provides his best writing. In my opinion, this is the best of the seven or eight books in which George Smiley plays a role.
In an earlier discussion, I once mentioned that Le Carre writes two plots: Good guy gets crushed, and good guy barely avoids getting crushed. This is usually not resolved until the final few pages, and this book is no exception. But does anybody read him for the plots? I should think not. I read him in order to meet and really get to know new people, people who generally live much more interesting lives than the office managers, software developers and grocery clerks who make up my everyday social circle.
The enigmatic, outwardly calm but inwardly stressed legend George Smiley is in the driver's seat of an espionage operation involving a wealthy Hong Kong businessman and his shadowy relations to mainland China. Flavor is added by setting the story in the waning days of the American involvement in the Vietnam War (or, as they prefer to call it, the American war). A new character, Jerry Westerby, for reasons of his own, is not fully sold on the goals of the operation, and further complexity arises from the Americans' attempts to intervene. At the time the book was written, Hong Kong was still a British territory and so Smiley has some leverage to stave the Americans off.
All of this leads to plenty of palace intrigues in London and Washington, D.C., a struggle that is conveyed with impressive insight and understanding. But the heart of this book is really the bar of the Foreign Correspondents' Club, realistically located fourteen floors up in a Hong Kong highrise, fourteen floors above the "mud-brown sweat of building dust and smuts from the chimney stacks of Kowloon." This is where Jerry Westerby, putative journalist and actual spy, hangs out with his fellows, the vividly-described Craw, Rocker, California Luke and the Dwarf.
A common complaint against Le Carre is that he writes women poorly, which I agree with -- to an extent. I would argue that he has little interest in people who don't lead double lives, male or female, and reserves his awesome descriptive powers for people who are hiding something. Which, in this book, encompasses nearly everyone we meet, with the notable exception of the beautiful blonde Brit Elizabeth (though her parents, in a short scene painful to read, are well-rendered).
I don't think I've ever read a truly convincing description of Hong Kong, though Le Carre does as well as anybody else. To be fair, his focus is on the more rarified top-of-the-hill British section, which I have never visited. But the infernal heat and humidity, the mildew-blackened concrete highrises are still there, just as he described them. Another of the pleasures of this book (for me) is that a lot of it took place on boats, a place where we have not yet ventured in Smiley's books.
This book is a really enjoyable escape from reality for several hours. It's Le Carre's first attempt to expand his world beyond Eastern vs. Western Europe, a direction that comes into full bloom later in his career, and which provides his best writing. In my opinion, this is the best of the seven or eight books in which George Smiley plays a role.
this one was a struggle for me. I felt it to convoluted, and maybe I didn't understand it fully, and maybe that's my fault, but it has to shoulder some of that blame. I honestly thought about quitting at 93%.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Honourable Schoolboy takes place after "the fall", the discovery of the mole inside British Intelligence that formed the main plot of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It's the second book in The Karla Trilogy. Written in the late 1970s, it also does not age well. The racism, sexism, and stereotyping is pervasive.
It's the slowest of slow burns, as are all of the Le Carre novels I've read to date, but that is, in part, because of his detailed prose. While the derogatory language was disturbing, I can't help but still appreciate the skill with which Le Carre crafts his intricate plots. The book also brings back some of my favorite characters from earlier novels, most especially Connie, aka The Circus's Mother Russia. I adore Connie almost as much as I love George Smiley. She's super smart and sassy, and I just love her. Honestly, I would reread this again, just to spend more time with Connie. I also enjoyed the setting in Hong Kong and descriptions of the sights and sounds of that region, even if it was colored by gross stereotyping.
It's the slowest of slow burns, as are all of the Le Carre novels I've read to date, but that is, in part, because of his detailed prose. While the derogatory language was disturbing, I can't help but still appreciate the skill with which Le Carre crafts his intricate plots. The book also brings back some of my favorite characters from earlier novels, most especially Connie, aka The Circus's Mother Russia. I adore Connie almost as much as I love George Smiley. She's super smart and sassy, and I just love her. Honestly, I would reread this again, just to spend more time with Connie. I also enjoyed the setting in Hong Kong and descriptions of the sights and sounds of that region, even if it was colored by gross stereotyping.