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nickdablin's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this Cold War espionage thriller. The writing style and narrative voice are great - sophisticated yet easy to read. The first person narrator has a cynical wit and penchant for amusing comparisons that brings to mind Raymond Chandler, but there's a gentler English subtlety to the sarcasm that makes it drily hilarious a lot of the time. The plot is somewhat hard to follow, in that the author doesn't wait for you to catch up. Bewildering events happen but our hero moves on to the next chapter without stopping for anything like a straightforward explanation. In this sense it feels very real, almost like a slice-of-life of someone doing the dull grunt work of espionage, like a more realistic James Bond - there's similar globe-trotting and clandestine plots, but the main character feels much more human, and the veiled threats and shadowy conspiracies actual feel threatening. The final payoff of the mystery verges a little too close to ridiculous to be truly satisfying, and the pacing takes a hit at the end as everything is wrapped up in a clunky expositional bow, but it ends up as a minor part of the experience, and the main character is interesting enough to be worth going along for the ride anyway. As you might expect from a book this old, there is a little bit of casual sexism and racism to squint past, but it's not too bad on that front.
All in all, an exciting and mostly grounded spy thriller that I thought falls slightly short of greatness but is a very enjoyable read nonetheless.
All in all, an exciting and mostly grounded spy thriller that I thought falls slightly short of greatness but is a very enjoyable read nonetheless.
cathodg's review against another edition
3.0
Published in 1962 The Ipcress File is the first introduction to Len Deighton’s British Spy. In the book he remains nameless but he was later christened Harry Palmer for the films starring Michael Caine. Deighton took an interesting approach to his writing, the whole book is a report to the Minister of Defence and as such has references and notes supplementing the core story.
The novel begins with the reassignment of our protagonist from Military Intelligence to a small civilian unit headed up by a man called Dalby. His first case is a missing British scientist, the latest of eight top priority personnel to disappear in a space of six weeks. Their main suspect is a man codenamed Jay an intelligence broker believed to be working for the Soviets. The missing scientist is tracked and a successful rescue mission executed. As the investigation into Jay continues a safe house is raided, although abandoned a tape recording of distorted human voices is discovered. Taking him away from the Jay investigation Dalby requests our protagonist joins him on a trip to observe an American nuclear weapons test in the Pacific. Whilst there our protagonist learns there are suspicions that he is in fact a Soviet Spy, trusting in the wrong people he finds himself held and interrogated by the Americans before being handed over to the Hungarians.
Can he escape the Hungarian holding cell? Who was the real spy at the American test base? What was the significance of the voice recording? How deep into British government does the treachery go?
I could answer these questions but it would ruin the story so I’m going to leave my plot summary at that.
A huge commercial success when published The Ipcress File is often mentioned as one of the best spy novels of all time and whilst I do not disagree with that statement I must warn readers that this is a book that will require your full attention. Similar to when I read John Le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Solider Spy I found myself having to re-read sections to ensure I fully understood what was taking place. This is not a book to pick up if there are distractions or if you can’t commit a decent amount of time. There is a lot of mystery and subterfuge within the book and I have to admit to getting a little lost at times. But it is a credit to the characters and storyline that despite getting lost I wanted to continue and was happy to go back and clarify points to ensure I had a general idea of what was going on. That said, I can completely understand how what I found enticing and mysterious another reader might find obtuse and just give up.
Without giving away the ending I have to say it was a little disappointing. After such a complex plot I felt that things were tidied up far too quickly without a real fight. And no matter how good the bulk of the book was if you’re left feeling a little deflated it becomes difficult to rave about.
The novel begins with the reassignment of our protagonist from Military Intelligence to a small civilian unit headed up by a man called Dalby. His first case is a missing British scientist, the latest of eight top priority personnel to disappear in a space of six weeks. Their main suspect is a man codenamed Jay an intelligence broker believed to be working for the Soviets. The missing scientist is tracked and a successful rescue mission executed. As the investigation into Jay continues a safe house is raided, although abandoned a tape recording of distorted human voices is discovered. Taking him away from the Jay investigation Dalby requests our protagonist joins him on a trip to observe an American nuclear weapons test in the Pacific. Whilst there our protagonist learns there are suspicions that he is in fact a Soviet Spy, trusting in the wrong people he finds himself held and interrogated by the Americans before being handed over to the Hungarians.
Can he escape the Hungarian holding cell? Who was the real spy at the American test base? What was the significance of the voice recording? How deep into British government does the treachery go?
I could answer these questions but it would ruin the story so I’m going to leave my plot summary at that.
A huge commercial success when published The Ipcress File is often mentioned as one of the best spy novels of all time and whilst I do not disagree with that statement I must warn readers that this is a book that will require your full attention. Similar to when I read John Le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Solider Spy I found myself having to re-read sections to ensure I fully understood what was taking place. This is not a book to pick up if there are distractions or if you can’t commit a decent amount of time. There is a lot of mystery and subterfuge within the book and I have to admit to getting a little lost at times. But it is a credit to the characters and storyline that despite getting lost I wanted to continue and was happy to go back and clarify points to ensure I had a general idea of what was going on. That said, I can completely understand how what I found enticing and mysterious another reader might find obtuse and just give up.
Without giving away the ending I have to say it was a little disappointing. After such a complex plot I felt that things were tidied up far too quickly without a real fight. And no matter how good the bulk of the book was if you’re left feeling a little deflated it becomes difficult to rave about.
tomfairfax's review against another edition
4.0
Entertaining read, different to the film in many ways. The writer has a lovely style of understated humour and subtlety when slipping in cliffhanger endings and reveals. A couple of points seemed inconsistent and a final chapter of exposition at the end rang a little hollow, but well worth the investment in time.
ja_hopkins's review against another edition
4.0
When a scientist is kidnapped, our narrator, working for British intelligence is tasked with investigating. We are taken through the streets of London, then to the Middle East, the Pacific and finally back to London as our man digs deeper, and uncovers a more worrying plot.
This is widely regarded as a classic of the genre, and surprisingly it is Len Deighton’s first novel. The gritty writing is enjoyable. The underlying chip on our leads shoulder is evident in the class warfare between him and his bosses. The locations are detailed, the activities described in detail – occasionally perhaps too much. I enjoyed the book, although there are a few sections that are a bit hard going. Given it is quite short, I wonder if it needed a bit of filler to get published. Even so, it’s a good story and I will be looking for more of his works on Kindle.
This is widely regarded as a classic of the genre, and surprisingly it is Len Deighton’s first novel. The gritty writing is enjoyable. The underlying chip on our leads shoulder is evident in the class warfare between him and his bosses. The locations are detailed, the activities described in detail – occasionally perhaps too much. I enjoyed the book, although there are a few sections that are a bit hard going. Given it is quite short, I wonder if it needed a bit of filler to get published. Even so, it’s a good story and I will be looking for more of his works on Kindle.
paul_cornelius's review against another edition
5.0
I see some reviews claim that The IPCRESS File is a "classic" of its genre, the spy thriller. I'm not so sure that I agree, simply because it is one of the best examples I have yet seen of a work that captures the essential flavor and atmosphere of its times, the very few years of the late 50s and very early 60s. Unlike a "classic," it seems only identifiable with its era. For if ever there was a "beatnik" spy novel, this is it. And it's a masterpiece of its form, with a subversive comic rhythm and challenge to authority hitherto unimaginable in polite establishment precincts of power. At least this is all true from the Americanization part of the equation adopted by Deighton, the jazz themes, the detached and humorous and sudden shifting of the narrative, and the "beat" of the wordplay. Oh, and, yes, the continual allusions to popular culture of the time (try asking a millennial about Steve Reeves). The fact is, it's so very easy to imagine someone in a coffee shop, wearing sandals and a turtleneck, along with a goatee, and a set of bongo drums in their lap, reading along about British spies on a South Pacific atoll watching for the test of an American neutron bomb.
Comedy on one end, then. But then there is the flip side to the cultural imprint, the far more thoroughly British one. A great deal of the humor and sadness of the novel goes hand in hand with exposing the inefficient, often doltish ways of the British elite, and the suspicion naturally directed towards someone of The IPCRESS Files' unnamed protagonist's background, from the ranks who came from a market town in Lancashire. There is more than an echo of the Angry Young Man in this novel. In fact, it sometimes seems as if Alan Sillitoe's Arthur Seaton had somehow graduated from the bicycle factory to Military Intelligence, bringing his mocking, individualistic attitude with him, always avowing, "Don't let the bastards grind you down."
So I guess that these two sides, the two cultural contexts, give the novel its final form, a work of tragicomedy. And there is nothing more difficult to pull off than tragicomedy. Deighton does it. The sort of funky anti-establishment humor of the American beat generation, especially with the word choices and the (almost) elliptical storytelling. And the drab sadness of some hidebound British traditions, which are their own worst enemy. The IPCRESS File is a snapshot of a brief moment in history, Bikini Atoll, Steve Reeves--Herculeeze, Burgess and Maclean, the Rosenbergs, and right when we were all about to be brainwashed.
Comedy on one end, then. But then there is the flip side to the cultural imprint, the far more thoroughly British one. A great deal of the humor and sadness of the novel goes hand in hand with exposing the inefficient, often doltish ways of the British elite, and the suspicion naturally directed towards someone of The IPCRESS Files' unnamed protagonist's background, from the ranks who came from a market town in Lancashire. There is more than an echo of the Angry Young Man in this novel. In fact, it sometimes seems as if Alan Sillitoe's Arthur Seaton had somehow graduated from the bicycle factory to Military Intelligence, bringing his mocking, individualistic attitude with him, always avowing, "Don't let the bastards grind you down."
So I guess that these two sides, the two cultural contexts, give the novel its final form, a work of tragicomedy. And there is nothing more difficult to pull off than tragicomedy. Deighton does it. The sort of funky anti-establishment humor of the American beat generation, especially with the word choices and the (almost) elliptical storytelling. And the drab sadness of some hidebound British traditions, which are their own worst enemy. The IPCRESS File is a snapshot of a brief moment in history, Bikini Atoll, Steve Reeves--Herculeeze, Burgess and Maclean, the Rosenbergs, and right when we were all about to be brainwashed.
paulataua's review against another edition
3.0
‘The Ipcress File’ is certainly a child of its time. It’s a thriller with a working class protagonist caught between the home establishment and the communist enemy. Lightly comic and heavily anti-authoritarian, it is certainly an entertaining read even if I never really knew what was going on at any point in the novel. I was surprised to find out that Kingsley Amis summed up my feelings in a letter to Phillip Larkin in 1985, “Actually Deighton’s quite good if you stop worrying about what’s going on”.