You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
2 stars - didn't finish. Tedious and way too much detail. Got through third of the book. Disappointing that the first one is really good and this one takes forever to start.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Various characters, various views
A romp through end of colonialism, and some wars
And yet, watching trees grow would be as interesting.
A romp through end of colonialism, and some wars
And yet, watching trees grow would be as interesting.
NOTE: This review is partly a copy and paste of reviews I did for the other two books in the "Karla Trilogy", Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People.
I tend to connect with writers rather than genres. I hardly ever read things that could be described as espionage thrillers except that I have read a lot of le Carré. But saying that le Carré writes spy books is kind of like saying Catch-22 is a book about airplanes. le Carré uses the tense, high stakes setting of espionage and geopolitics to examine the ambiguities and complexities of the human condition.
The Honourable Schoolboy is the second book of the "Karla Trilogy". The nine books in which George Smiley is an important character are not a series as a whole, but within that set, the "Karla Trilogy" is.
The "Karla Trilogy" can sit beside any great literary series and George Smiley beside any character.
This book took a while to settle in, but was a compulsive read once it did. The opening teeters on the edge of being imitation Waugh (from Scoop). For me, it probably would have been better at 500 pages than 600, but that is not to say it is bad. Far from it.
If your idea of spy books is simple good guy/bad guy, us versus them, lots of cool gear and high speed James Bond style action, you might find le Carré slow paced and politically questionable. If you understand the world as a complex and often ambiguous place, you might really vibe with le Carré and the Karla Trilogy is a good place to start with him, partly because the first book in the series is so well known in movie and TV adaptation forms. It doesn't hurt any that the writing itself is superb, often beautiful.
The Karla Trilogy titles in series order are:
Tinker, Tailor , Soldier Spy
The Honourable Schoolboy (Brit spelling)
Smiley's People
The BBC limited series adaptations of books 1 & 3 in the trilogy with Alec Guinness portraying George Smiley are both first rate. The more recent feature adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy with Gary Oldman as Smiley is well made with excellent performances and a well considered score my Alexander Desplat, but is so condensed that if you have not read the book, it could be confusing.
I tend to connect with writers rather than genres. I hardly ever read things that could be described as espionage thrillers except that I have read a lot of le Carré. But saying that le Carré writes spy books is kind of like saying Catch-22 is a book about airplanes. le Carré uses the tense, high stakes setting of espionage and geopolitics to examine the ambiguities and complexities of the human condition.
The Honourable Schoolboy is the second book of the "Karla Trilogy". The nine books in which George Smiley is an important character are not a series as a whole, but within that set, the "Karla Trilogy" is.
The "Karla Trilogy" can sit beside any great literary series and George Smiley beside any character.
This book took a while to settle in, but was a compulsive read once it did. The opening teeters on the edge of being imitation Waugh (from Scoop). For me, it probably would have been better at 500 pages than 600, but that is not to say it is bad. Far from it.
If your idea of spy books is simple good guy/bad guy, us versus them, lots of cool gear and high speed James Bond style action, you might find le Carré slow paced and politically questionable. If you understand the world as a complex and often ambiguous place, you might really vibe with le Carré and the Karla Trilogy is a good place to start with him, partly because the first book in the series is so well known in movie and TV adaptation forms. It doesn't hurt any that the writing itself is superb, often beautiful.
The Karla Trilogy titles in series order are:
Tinker, Tailor , Soldier Spy
The Honourable Schoolboy (Brit spelling)
Smiley's People
The BBC limited series adaptations of books 1 & 3 in the trilogy with Alec Guinness portraying George Smiley are both first rate. The more recent feature adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy with Gary Oldman as Smiley is well made with excellent performances and a well considered score my Alexander Desplat, but is so condensed that if you have not read the book, it could be confusing.
Le Carre's second entry into the Karla trilogy reads very different from his first (Tinker Tailor). Overall the novel is quite long and filled with social commentary. Here more than the previous entry, the narrative focuses on characters rather than story; the plot is actually fairly simple compared to Tinker Tailor, the pages filled with reflections on the dwindling American presence in SE Asia and the nature of the covert operations/spy games.
As James Ellroy would later do in White Jazz, the novel focuses primarily on a proxy character--Jerry Westerby--caught between the two titans driving the narrative (here, Smiley and Karla). This means the characters once central to Tinker Tailor take a backseat, which should be noted for anyone going into this expecting a typical sequel. And finally, the writing gives the impression that all these events are being recollected by some unidentified narrator, with whimsical phrasing and aside commentary adding flavor during periods in which the plot does not advance particularly fast.
As James Ellroy would later do in White Jazz, the novel focuses primarily on a proxy character--Jerry Westerby--caught between the two titans driving the narrative (here, Smiley and Karla). This means the characters once central to Tinker Tailor take a backseat, which should be noted for anyone going into this expecting a typical sequel. And finally, the writing gives the impression that all these events are being recollected by some unidentified narrator, with whimsical phrasing and aside commentary adding flavor during periods in which the plot does not advance particularly fast.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-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
Great read. The first couple of chapters were so sumptuous and amusing I could just read one and happily go to sleep. You'd hardly guess Le Carre is a spy novelist. He's really just a great novelist (to paraphrase one reviewer). This story moves between quite times in Southeast Asia and downtime (for spies) in London. I love how the story comes together. Intricate but worth the trouble. And a history less thrown in.
I was expecting it to be really well written and have great characters, I was not expecting it to be so funny.
It was fine, a Le Carré book so I liked it but much slower than Tinker, Tailor
I only vaguely remember the first book in this trilogy, [b:Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy|10073506|Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy|John le Carré|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349070201s/10073506.jpg|2491780], and I thought it confusing. I also found this sequel confusing and that last bit about Jerry Westerby annoyed the heck out of me so I can't say that I enjoyed this one at all. The Hong Kong setting fascinated me but that's about it. I still do not understand The Circus and whatever/however the hierarchy is set up. I don’t know if I’d read the final book in the trilogy even though the ending of this book sort of made me curious about what’s George Smiley will get into next.