Take a photo of a barcode or cover
roblucasstevens 's review for:
The Looking Glass War: The Smiley Collection
by John le Carré
Written apparently out of spite because of how The Spy Who Came in From The Cold was interpreted (ie as a tragedy and not a farce) LeCarré leaves no room for doubt in this one, spelling out the unlikable incompetence of every single character, leaving no one to root for, and no mystery to solve. The one exception is Smiley who haunts the edges of the book and sporadically appears, the first time the weight of his character (from stories before and since) unbalances the story and the end he appears essentially as a deus ex machina to tie the plot up.
It’s not entirely without merit, and it’s certainly something to read a book so annoyed with British nostalgia for WW2 that was written in 1965, and there are sections that are crisply written page turners. But it’s certainly the weakest LeCarré I’ve read to date
It’s not entirely without merit, and it’s certainly something to read a book so annoyed with British nostalgia for WW2 that was written in 1965, and there are sections that are crisply written page turners. But it’s certainly the weakest LeCarré I’ve read to date