Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The ending is a litte abrupt but I think on reflection, it adds to the overall story
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Like the darker twin of spy who came home from cold. LeCarre apparently wrote it in response to the positive reception of Spy and Alec Leamas. Early half is a little too concerned with the minutae of Spy work, but the latter half has some interesting character work.
Smiley's relationship with Control is also questioned more here, since it seems C betrays the Department. A pretty effective satire of intelligence work and the ways people convince themselves they're doing more than shuffling papers around. On the manager side, the men are all venal with failing personal lives; there's a focus on the cost af being in a business of manipulation. Also a lot about the lost glory of the war time period. Avery and Leiser's tragedy, especially the last scene, were very good.
Think its a weak entry in the Smiley works, but is perhaps more honest. The stakes aren't life changing or huge, it seems like it was all for naught. All that really happens in the end is a bunch of paper shufflers grab drinks at a club and someone seeking glory days dies. More tragic, more real.
Better to think about than to read. Harder to misread than the other LeCarre books, which I think is why its less popular.
Smiley's relationship with Control is also questioned more here, since it seems C betrays the Department. A pretty effective satire of intelligence work and the ways people convince themselves they're doing more than shuffling papers around. On the manager side, the men are all venal with failing personal lives; there's a focus on the cost af being in a business of manipulation. Also a lot about the lost glory of the war time period. Avery and Leiser's tragedy, especially the last scene, were very good.
Think its a weak entry in the Smiley works, but is perhaps more honest. The stakes aren't life changing or huge, it seems like it was all for naught. All that really happens in the end is a bunch of paper shufflers grab drinks at a club and someone seeking glory days dies. More tragic, more real.
Better to think about than to read. Harder to misread than the other LeCarre books, which I think is why its less popular.
Betrayal. Pride. Jealousy. Ego. These are a few of the themes in The Looking Glass War, a competent spy thriller. While not his best work, this novel sets up his Karla series under Smiley. Smiley makes a small appearance in this novel. But the book belongs to Avery, a young member of The Department who is encouraged to bond with their returned spy trainee. Avery's age and experience humanizes him against his fellow colleagues. He has yet to be jaded but this experience will shatter his illusions.
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Looking Glass War is like reading the feeling when your car begins to skid. Coming off of the success of the Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Le Carre wanted to showcase a failure. From the very beginning, when a basic exchange of information is failed, you, the reader, a wannabe spy thanks to reading his earlier works, know that something has gone horribly awry. And it keeps happening. The Department is staffed with men who know their time has passed: they are surpassed by the expertise of the Circus and Smiley's men. Cognizant of this, they leap at the chance to make themselves useful to Britain once more, because "while they might be cynical of the qualities of one another, contemptuous of their own hierarchical preoccupations, their faith in the Department burned in some separate chapel and they called it patriotism."
As they rope a former agent into their scheme, it becomes a love story. Avery, the young agent in a crew of old hands, is told to mislead and delude their recruit into thinking that the Department is much more competent than its shabby, sordid reality. Leiser, their operative, essentially falls for the world Avery spins. Le Carre's choice to make their relationship as charged as it is is one I will be thinking about for a while: it looks terrifyingly like love. When Avery begins to doubt his mission and the way he is deceiving Leiser, an old hand tells him "love is whatever you can still betray." And like every Le Carre, the emphasis is on destruction and the ways intent falls short of reality: you knew from the first fucked-up handover that this was never, ever going to turn out well.
At the end, Leiser begs for a token from Avery before he sets off. Avery gives him a photograph of a dead operative's child and pretends it is his own. Thus no person is left untouched by the corrosive deceit: even complete innocents are shuttled into roles according to a higher design. It's nauseating, it's claustrophobic, and it's Le Carre at his best.
As they rope a former agent into their scheme, it becomes a love story. Avery, the young agent in a crew of old hands, is told to mislead and delude their recruit into thinking that the Department is much more competent than its shabby, sordid reality. Leiser, their operative, essentially falls for the world Avery spins. Le Carre's choice to make their relationship as charged as it is is one I will be thinking about for a while: it looks terrifyingly like love. When Avery begins to doubt his mission and the way he is deceiving Leiser, an old hand tells him "love is whatever you can still betray." And like every Le Carre, the emphasis is on destruction and the ways intent falls short of reality: you knew from the first fucked-up handover that this was never, ever going to turn out well.
At the end, Leiser begs for a token from Avery before he sets off. Avery gives him a photograph of a dead operative's child and pretends it is his own. Thus no person is left untouched by the corrosive deceit: even complete innocents are shuttled into roles according to a higher design. It's nauseating, it's claustrophobic, and it's Le Carre at his best.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Not my favorite so far of the smiley/le carre books, but still enjoyable