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A review by pezski
Berliinin Peli by Len Deighton
4.0
Deighton is considered one of the triumvirate of great British espionage novelists, along with [a:Ian Fleming|2565|Ian Fleming|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1364532740p2/2565.jpg] and [a:John le Carré|1411964|John le Carré|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1234571122p2/1411964.jpg] and, like le Carre, someone who portrayed spycraft and the Cold War in realistic detail. While I was familiar with the adaptations of his books - the Harry Palmer films, beginning with [b:The Ipcress File|171624|The Ipcress File (Secret File, #1)|Len Deighton|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1295903974s/171624.jpg|2155765] and starring Michael Caine, and several TV miniseries in the 80s - I’d never read him. The screen versions may be partly to blame; I came to reading espionage and thrillers quite late and perhaps the dour, slow, subdued 70s movies and 80s TV left a lasting impression that these weren’t going to be my kind of books.
This first novel in the Game, Set and Match trilogy - and, indeed, in the further trilogies Hook, Line & Sinker and Faith, Hope and Charity (I think the titling structure may have put me off a well) - features Bernard Samson, a middle aged MI6 agent. He considers his field days behind him and, while an expert on Berlin (he grew up there as his father was a highly placed officer there after WWII), he feels he has settled in the middle level, held back by his lack of a university education, while those around him are all Oxbridge types (and one upper-class American), with high-powered connections. However, when it comes to light that their best information source in East Berlin may have been compromised, Samson is the only choice to go into the divided city - and, despite his protestations to the contrary - is happy to do so due to his protectiveness toward the network he helped set up and his love of the city in which he had so many formative experiences.
In many ways, my expectations were correct. This is not an action thriller. It is a slow, subdued book full of dialogue rather than gunfights and car chases. The only shooting occurs off-stage as though this is Greek tragedy. At times Samson is reminiscent of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe; tinged with weary cynicism hiding his moral core, occasional biting wit and a willingness to follow the evidence wherever it leads. Deighton uses the dialogue superbly to build scenes and relationships as well as plot, using the conversations to show us and never as info dump or exposition.
Being closer to le Carre than Fleming, it would be easy for Deighton to suffer by comparison; while many of the characters are well-drawn, some are flat (particularly the few women, with the exception of Lisl, Bernard’s old landlady in Berlin). He plots well and there are moments of exquisite tension - indeed, the writing is generally very good. It may have helped that I grew up in this period so it was familiar to me, but I was completely transported back there - without anything being too painfully early 80s, with the exception one character dressing in white jeans and a gold medallion.
Definitely in the same league as le Carre, even if he isn’t a Glasgow club.
This first novel in the Game, Set and Match trilogy - and, indeed, in the further trilogies Hook, Line & Sinker and Faith, Hope and Charity (I think the titling structure may have put me off a well) - features Bernard Samson, a middle aged MI6 agent. He considers his field days behind him and, while an expert on Berlin (he grew up there as his father was a highly placed officer there after WWII), he feels he has settled in the middle level, held back by his lack of a university education, while those around him are all Oxbridge types (and one upper-class American), with high-powered connections. However, when it comes to light that their best information source in East Berlin may have been compromised, Samson is the only choice to go into the divided city - and, despite his protestations to the contrary - is happy to do so due to his protectiveness toward the network he helped set up and his love of the city in which he had so many formative experiences.
In many ways, my expectations were correct. This is not an action thriller. It is a slow, subdued book full of dialogue rather than gunfights and car chases. The only shooting occurs off-stage as though this is Greek tragedy. At times Samson is reminiscent of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe; tinged with weary cynicism hiding his moral core, occasional biting wit and a willingness to follow the evidence wherever it leads. Deighton uses the dialogue superbly to build scenes and relationships as well as plot, using the conversations to show us and never as info dump or exposition.
Being closer to le Carre than Fleming, it would be easy for Deighton to suffer by comparison; while many of the characters are well-drawn, some are flat (particularly the few women, with the exception of Lisl, Bernard’s old landlady in Berlin). He plots well and there are moments of exquisite tension - indeed, the writing is generally very good. It may have helped that I grew up in this period so it was familiar to me, but I was completely transported back there - without anything being too painfully early 80s, with the exception one character dressing in white jeans and a gold medallion.
Definitely in the same league as le Carre, even if he isn’t a Glasgow club.