lbossino 's review for:

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré

2.0

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I went into this book not knowing much about the storyline, after the first few chapters I was ready to chalk it down as a classic spy novel: nothing life changing but an enjoyable read. However, towards the end I really turned off it. I thought Le Carre’s writing of Liz 
was one of the most pitiful depictions of a female character I’ve ever read. I didn’t find her character that painful for most of the book (I know it’s of the time and genre so I wasn’t particularly expecting it to pass the Bechdel test with flying colours) but

the scenes outside the courthouse and when Liz and Leamas are in the car genuinely made me scoff out loud.

Again, I know it’s a spy novel from the 60s so I wasn’t expecting strong female characters, but I also just didn’t find style that engaging. The long sections of dialogue describing events from the past and names of locations or people wasn’t engaging. It was like hearing the story second hand without any of the tension or action, to me this was a missed opportunity. 

Liz was also not the only character that made me roll my eyes. I personally prefer books with lovable or complex characters where you can see bits of yourself reflected on the page. Leamas was unlikeable and shallow, Mundt the quintessential evil Nazi, and Fiedler.. I actually quite liked his part, specifically when he’s probing to understand Leamas’ motivations and describing his own philosophy. If there had been more of that probing analysis maybe it would have been redeeming.

Credit where credit is due though, if you’re not in it for deep characters then I can’t deny it was a clever story of double bluffing and unexpected twists.