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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
I've been an instant fan of Le Carre since the first book of his I picked up, but this was a particular treat. Darker than the last few Smiley books, I enjoyed the treatment of the interplay between spycraft, nostalgia, vanity, and how even within the profession such human drives will blind its practitioners to the dangers of the work. What I enjoy, and no doubt what has always drawn readers to his work, is how personal he makes his stories. The characters participate on a international stage, but the story feels intimate and small, the details sacred to only the actors in the scenes. That I'm so invested in the characters makes the meticulously crafted suspense that much more powerful. I also enjoy how real the characters feel, while still being worth rooting for. No one is ridiculously heroic, but there are heroes nonetheless. Smilely, that magificently boring little man, chief among them, as he should be. My only complaint is there wasn't enough of him. Hence I'm looking very forward to Tinker Tailor.
medium-paced
I disliked this book more than 'A Murder of Quality', but at least there's spycraft. Smiley is a footnote in the story, and this feels like le Carre was trying to do the opposite of what we are used to. I wasn't feeling it, though the ending felt earned.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Lordy. You're plopped into the midst of nostalgic good ol' boys' incompetence from page one, and it never improves.
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Another masterpiece from the Master spy writer. It's sad and sordid and specific and totally gripping.
The horror of the ending and it's cold logic is perfect and inevitable, logical and tragic, it is what makes LeCarre more than just a thriller writer.
The horror of the ending and it's cold logic is perfect and inevitable, logical and tragic, it is what makes LeCarre more than just a thriller writer.
The Circus vs. The Department
Review of the Pan Books paperback edition (1979) of the 1965 original
I re-read The Looking Glass War due to the recent passing of novelist John le Carré (penname of David Cornwell) (October 19, 1931 – December 12, 2020). His passing brought back memories of my first reading his Cold War novels in the 1970s. Those were probably the first books of somewhat 'serious' writing that I had ever read, after developing an early love of reading with detective and science fiction novels in my teenage years. I had saved all of those paperbacks as well, so it seemed like a good time for some retrospective re-reads.
The Looking Glass War, as may be deduced from its title, is really about the rivalry between the Circus (Carré's nickname for MI-6 the British Secret Intelligence Service) and the Department (Carré's nickname for what appears to be a fictional version of the war time British Special Operations Executive) which here has carried on in a reduced format unlike its real-life counterpart which wrapped up operations in 1946.
The Department has an unconfirmed report that the Soviet Union has placed rocket missiles in East Germany in a move not unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It sees this as an opportunity to increase its profile and doesn't share the intelligence with the Circus or the Americans. Instead it reactivates a war time agent who is now 20 years past his prime and provides him with antiquated equipment to investigate further. It all comes undone, with Control, the unnamed head of the Circus likely helping orchestrate the downfall behind the scenes. Good old George Smiley is sent in to pick up the pieces.
The Looking Glass War comes across as more cynical than its predecessor The Spy Who Came In From the Cold with the likely failure of the mission being telegraphed early and often by the self-deluded characters of the Department. The overall message of the lack of cooperation between agencies leading to catastrophic intelligence failures is one that still holds true throughout time though.
Trivia and Link
The Looking Glass War was adapted into a 1970 film directed & written by Frank Pierson. Only a German language trailer appears to be currently available on YouTube.
Review of the Pan Books paperback edition (1979) of the 1965 original
I re-read The Looking Glass War due to the recent passing of novelist John le Carré (penname of David Cornwell) (October 19, 1931 – December 12, 2020). His passing brought back memories of my first reading his Cold War novels in the 1970s. Those were probably the first books of somewhat 'serious' writing that I had ever read, after developing an early love of reading with detective and science fiction novels in my teenage years. I had saved all of those paperbacks as well, so it seemed like a good time for some retrospective re-reads.
The Looking Glass War, as may be deduced from its title, is really about the rivalry between the Circus (Carré's nickname for MI-6 the British Secret Intelligence Service) and the Department (Carré's nickname for what appears to be a fictional version of the war time British Special Operations Executive) which here has carried on in a reduced format unlike its real-life counterpart which wrapped up operations in 1946.
The Department has an unconfirmed report that the Soviet Union has placed rocket missiles in East Germany in a move not unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It sees this as an opportunity to increase its profile and doesn't share the intelligence with the Circus or the Americans. Instead it reactivates a war time agent who is now 20 years past his prime and provides him with antiquated equipment to investigate further. It all comes undone, with Control, the unnamed head of the Circus likely helping orchestrate the downfall behind the scenes. Good old George Smiley is sent in to pick up the pieces.
The Looking Glass War comes across as more cynical than its predecessor The Spy Who Came In From the Cold with the likely failure of the mission being telegraphed early and often by the self-deluded characters of the Department. The overall message of the lack of cooperation between agencies leading to catastrophic intelligence failures is one that still holds true throughout time though.
Trivia and Link
The Looking Glass War was adapted into a 1970 film directed & written by Frank Pierson. Only a German language trailer appears to be currently available on YouTube.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
When I moved abroad from my homeland of the UK, I was surprised to discover that some there still harboured the colonial notion that things in the UK functioned professionally and in good order. They need to read more Le Carré; he’s always a master at exposing the cruel incompetence of the British establishment, and this is one of the most stark examples of that. The incompetence is funny when it isn’t costly; this is, all told, another masterful Le Carré novel, hard to forget and hard to look away from.
Again, le Carré impresses with a tale that presents a starker reality of the "spy game" as an extension of the same petty bureaucratic struggles between middle management intent on maintaining their pathetic little fiefdoms against the tide of necessity and common sense.
A depressing, bleak work that makes its point with the tremendous, crushing inevitability of the denouement.
A depressing, bleak work that makes its point with the tremendous, crushing inevitability of the denouement.