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A review by beagley
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré
3.0
Yep. He's good.
I don't read a lot of spy novels and figured I should branch out. TTSS was also made into a Gary Oldman movie recently, and I like Gary Oldman so figured I'd see it eventually. Better read the book.
Le Carre does an almost "true omniscient" narrator, swapping through multiple viewpoints rapidly, sometimes giving little clear reason for why he chose one or the other. He does tremendously cool characterization, particularly when in the mind of a more subtle and thoughtful character observing or interacting with a more blunt personality type. Guillam and Inspector Mendel become sort of important later in the book, and I have a very blurry picture of them, compared to how well I see and enjoy the main character. Smiley is wonderful to walk around with.
Characters, names, and background stuff spits at you fast and furious, so you have to just read and hope that eventually who-is-who will sort itself out in your brain, and eventually it does. But a lot of the people mentioned are unimportant. You have to read for the joy of the mood and progress, you have to accept that you might not understand EVERYTHING in the end and just enjoy the writing and the tension... you could follow the mystery and all the characters too, IF you made your own chart or graph for all of them. As Smiley is a reoccurring character in Le Carre's work, I wonder if my problem is I didn't read the earlier works.
There is a hidden masterpiece in this book, trying to get out. The stuff about the main character's wife, how his entire journey is an attempt to understand himself and his relationships... it doesn't quite come together for me, but almost. Le Carre does another really wonderful untold story between the lines as relates Jim Prideaux and the mole... hints at all sorts of intriguing ideas without quite coming out and saying it. Very satisfying.
I don't read a lot of spy novels and figured I should branch out. TTSS was also made into a Gary Oldman movie recently, and I like Gary Oldman so figured I'd see it eventually. Better read the book.
Le Carre does an almost "true omniscient" narrator, swapping through multiple viewpoints rapidly, sometimes giving little clear reason for why he chose one or the other. He does tremendously cool characterization, particularly when in the mind of a more subtle and thoughtful character observing or interacting with a more blunt personality type. Guillam and Inspector Mendel become sort of important later in the book, and I have a very blurry picture of them, compared to how well I see and enjoy the main character. Smiley is wonderful to walk around with.
Characters, names, and background stuff spits at you fast and furious, so you have to just read and hope that eventually who-is-who will sort itself out in your brain, and eventually it does. But a lot of the people mentioned are unimportant. You have to read for the joy of the mood and progress, you have to accept that you might not understand EVERYTHING in the end and just enjoy the writing and the tension... you could follow the mystery and all the characters too, IF you made your own chart or graph for all of them. As Smiley is a reoccurring character in Le Carre's work, I wonder if my problem is I didn't read the earlier works.
There is a hidden masterpiece in this book, trying to get out. The stuff about the main character's wife, how his entire journey is an attempt to understand himself and his relationships... it doesn't quite come together for me, but almost. Le Carre does another really wonderful untold story between the lines as relates Jim Prideaux and the mole... hints at all sorts of intriguing ideas without quite coming out and saying it. Very satisfying.