A review by tyelperinquar
The Looking Glass War by John le Carré

mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The first half of this book is rather slow, but once Fred Leiser is introduced, the story becomes much more enjoyable. There’s a lot of interaction between the main characters, and the feelings that Leiser and John Avery develop for each other were really compelling to me. The relationship between these two is what makes the latter half of the book most interesting, in my opinion. (It’s so homoerotic?? I swear straight men write some of the gayest things.)
There’s a lot of description of the nitty gritty of espionage tradecraft, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s something I enjoyed. Like le Carré’s other books, this story is more focused on tradecraft and technique than action.
Le Carré also did a great job of letting certain themes echo throughout the book: love, faith in one’s duty, guilt, friendship, trust, futility. The latter portion of the book really made my heart ache at times.
I do think that the beginning half of the book could have been cut down, but ultimately I felt the latter half made up for the stagnation of the first. I would have appreciated a bit more of a concrete ending, because that’s just the type of ending I prefer in a book, but my hope is that the cliffhanger will be resolved in upcoming books.
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