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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
This novel fell victim to me being distracted and taking much longer than I should have to finish it. Therefore my attention waned throughout the book and it never really enthralled me the way 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' did. Perhaps the section where Avery travels to recover John's body early in the novel felt too obtuse or forced, I'm not really sure.
It's le Carre so it's well written, for the most part well characterised and has a harsh and pretty great ending. It just didn;t grab me the way I wanted it to.
It's le Carre so it's well written, for the most part well characterised and has a harsh and pretty great ending. It just didn;t grab me the way I wanted it to.
LeCarre excels at bringing the human condition into his work, and nowhere is it more evident than in these pages. An wartime bureaucratic agency is gradually dwindling away until it is provided with information that the Russians are arming missiles on the East German border. Without resources to track down the intelligence, the agency relies upon a former spy behind the Iron Curtain to act as their agent. They constantly have to llie to him so that he will not discover how close to defunct the agency really is. The Circus, the agency that Control and George Smiley and a host of other characters from LeCarre books both written and yet-to-be, get in on the action. As the story unfolds, there are ethical decisions which await, and in the end, the conflict between loyalty to the agent and loyalty to the agency take center stage.
I think this was LeCarre's fourth book. It is more of a character study than an action thriller. That being said, one of the characters being studied is history, and another is government. This book has earned a place of honor for the moral dilemmas it presents to the reader.
I think this was LeCarre's fourth book. It is more of a character study than an action thriller. That being said, one of the characters being studied is history, and another is government. This book has earned a place of honor for the moral dilemmas it presents to the reader.
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
If the Brexit vote were a novel....
The Looking Glass War is bleak as watered down rationed orange juice (a luxury starter), and as brutal as the concrete slabs of 60s architecture that still tear at the skyline.
A perfect portrait of post war Britain: deeply divided by class, bereft of optimism and ability, and clinging to the vainglorious past. Honestly, the Cold War has nothing on interagency territorial disputes.
The Looking Glass War is bleak as watered down rationed orange juice (a luxury starter), and as brutal as the concrete slabs of 60s architecture that still tear at the skyline.
A perfect portrait of post war Britain: deeply divided by class, bereft of optimism and ability, and clinging to the vainglorious past. Honestly, the Cold War has nothing on interagency territorial disputes.
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was honestly the first Le Carre book I didn't enjoy at all. It was very slow, very boring and I know that it was a satire, but it was done in a very mean spirited way and that I didn't appreciate in my fiction. As uppity as that sounds, that's how I felt. Having grown up being bombarded by Capitalist and Communist propaganda and having lived in both spheres, I wasn't amused at all.
I think too, I might take a break from Le Carre for awhile and revisit this one at a later time. Maybe I'll change my mind.
I think too, I might take a break from Le Carre for awhile and revisit this one at a later time. Maybe I'll change my mind.
While the rebuke of bureaucratic squabbling and in-fighting is especially timely in today's world, the spy part of the novel suffers a bit. Yes, it was good to see an example of spies failing - not in a funny way but in a deadly way - but the book is probably 60 pages too long. Had it run the length of the earlier novels, it might've had a bit more of an impact... but as it was, it was just sort of 'eh'.
It does, I must say, featuring a particularly striking (in a series of particularly striking) cover by Matt Taylor. Damn, that man does good work.
A bit more review-y type stuff at RB: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-G1
It does, I must say, featuring a particularly striking (in a series of particularly striking) cover by Matt Taylor. Damn, that man does good work.
A bit more review-y type stuff at RB: http://wp.me/pGVzJ-G1
This book is ok if you like cold war era spy drama. Makes you think about the nature of espionage, what is and is not known and who reacts to it and how, and what to do when something is not what it seems or goes wrong.
This book's mainly interesting because of the differences between the Department and the Circus you get to see. It feels more like people playing at being spies than say Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy does, which gives it a feeling of dread around the whole operation. Overall the characters are all fairly unpleasant so I felt fairly apathetic about what happened to them though.
It is worth reading for the small scenes with Smiley and Control as well, especially for the views of them from characters outside of the Circus. Smiley's always underestimated, which must be part of what he's aiming for. It's always difficult to tell with him how much is genuine and how much is calculated.
It is worth reading for the small scenes with Smiley and Control as well, especially for the views of them from characters outside of the Circus. Smiley's always underestimated, which must be part of what he's aiming for. It's always difficult to tell with him how much is genuine and how much is calculated.