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Title: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre ISBN: 0-7434-5790-0 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.41 (32 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Gripping Espionage Thriller - 1st In Smiley /Karla Trilogy
Comment: "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" has been called the best espionage novel ever written. John Le Carre's cynical and spellbinding spy thrillers are so unique because they are based on a wide knowledge of international espionage. Le Carre, (pen name for David John Moore Cornwell), acquired this knowledge firsthand during his years as an operations agent for the British M15. Kim Philby, the infamous mole, actually gave Le Carre's name to the Soviets long before he defected. The author's professional experience and his tremendous talent as a master storyteller and superb writer make this book one of the best novels I have read in the genre.
"Tinker, Tailor..." is the first in what has come to be called LeCarré's "Karla (or Smiley) Trilogy", in which English spy George Smiley is pitted against the Soviet spymaster Karla. Written during the Cold War, it is a portrait of that time, with its paranoid and morally ambiguous view of global politics.
A botched espionage operation in Czechoslovakia causes "Control," (Head of British Intelligence), and his associates to be discredited. "Control," already ill and aging quickly, dies soon after this debacle. George Smiley, his able lieutenant, is retired in disgrace. The two are succeeded by four "young turks," all highly ambitious men from Intelligence who had been trained by "Control" and Smiley. Months later, a maverick Far Eastern agent turns up in London with a story suggesting there is a mole (a deeply concealed double agent) in the Circus (Intelligence HQ). Smiley is called out of retirement to investigate the possibility that a Soviet mole has penetrated the very top levels of the British Secret Service. The "Tinker, Tailor..." nursery rhyme of the title refers to the codewords for the four prime suspects - the four men now running the Service. Smiley's job is to find the double agent. However the entire Intelligence network is so suspect that he must operate entirely without its resources, for fear of alerting the mole. Therefore he must operate undercover from his own people. This novel has more in common with the guessing-game puzzle of a great whodunit than with the typical action-packed spy thriller. Smiley gradually pieces together the story by analyzing files, interrogating witnesses and scouring his own memory and those of other retired Intelligence personnel, until he finally unmasks the traitor at the heart of the Circus.
This is not a simple, easy to read book. There is personal and public betrayal along with the treason of an unknown colleague. Smiley's beautiful, upperclass wife has been unfaithful with at least one of his associates, adding stress to his urgent, high-pressured assignment. Although Le Carre's novels are well-written and convincing, they can be very complicated - and this book is an example of one of his more complex endeavors. The storyline is not linear, and contains many subplots. Much is left for the reader to puzzle out, at least until the end. Just like the spies, themselves, the reader only observes the outward actions of the characters, and must piece together the facts without the assistance of an omniscient narrator. Some may find that it is difficult to get started with this novel, and once started, even harder to see where one is going. The effort to stay with Le Carre is well worth it though. A big part of the fun is working out the puzzle along with George Smiley.
An FYI: The other two books in the series are "The Honourable Schoolboy," and "Smiley's People." ENJOY!!
JANA
Rating: 5
Summary: Le Carré can't be beat!
Comment: I'm a longtime Le Carré fan, but I realized recently that it had been nearly two decades since I read what is undoubtedly his best work -- the Smiley trilogy. Based loosely on the Kim Philby debacle, this one is about the realization that a Soviet mole has been busy for many years in the Circus -- the headquarters of the British espionage service -- and the recently sacked George Smiley, a victim himself of the mole's machinations, is secretly brought in by a reluctant Whitehall to identify the culprit and clean house. It's the old problem: Who will spy on the spies? Le Carré is a master of the telling detail, even with minor supporting characters, and all the inhabitants of this novel are vividly realized. This isn't a James Bond yarn, either, as the "action" is mostly in the form of reading files, interviewing agents, and hard thinking. And Smiley, fat, middleaged, and in secret agonies over his wife's habitual infidelity, turns out to possess unexpectedly heroic stature. This novel, and the two that follow, make up the best spy story ever written in English.
Rating: 5
Summary: The First Of His Fabulous Spy Chronicle Trilogy!
Comment: Like most of the best-selling works emanating from the unchallenged master of the intelligent spy thriller John LeCarre, this is in reality a fictional but absorbing treatise on the hidden and conflicted corners of the human heart, the many ways in which our own natures feed into and extend the darker impulse of a society bent on pursuing the secrets and treachery that ever lurks for the unsuspecting victim. Here, in the first of three best-selling novels tracing the pilgrim's progress of George Smiley, the intrepid and unlikely hero of the post-industrial Western world, LeCarre initiates his marvelously convoluted narrative tracing the continuing history of the Smiley chronicles, a spell-binding and endlessly intricate treatise detailing the perfidy, moral compromises, and treachery of the world of British intelligence.
In "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", once-cashiered intelligence expert George Smiley is called unofficially out of retirement to vet the suspects of passing British intelligence to the Russians by way of a deep-rooted mole with the Circus, the trade-name for British Intelligence. Once engaged, Smiley's ministrations are thrust toward unraveling the morass of conflicting evidence and false leads into a tapestry of meaningful clues. Much of the upper hierarchy within the Circus constitute the list of most likely suspects, so George has to proceed carefully, cautiously, and yet deliberately toward the truth, whatever it may be.
Given Smiley's past association and personal relationships with each of the protagonists, including one who cuckolded him by having a fling with George's now estranged wife, keeping the investigation on its deadly track is a delicate trick with many wild yet plausible and ingenious twists and turns. It is also the first of the several steps he must take to exact his revenge against the legendary Karla, the Chief of the Soviet Covert Espionage Bureau. So, as the he and his chosen covert investigation team begins to unravel the many points of light this careful sifting of signs through tradecraft, there is a number of levels of intelligence, motives, and intents all operating at once, and these LeCarre mines superbly in exploring the impulses rational and otherwise, that propel such urges.
The plot, as usual, is ingenious, intricate, and horrific in its human toll, played out against a landscape of the far-flung persons and places across the European landscape, from London to Berne to Deep inside the former Soviet Union. Once again LeCarre takes us on a cautious yet beautifully choreographed adventure into the heart of darkness of ourselves, and we shouldn't be surprised to find some scar tissue and broken bones as we descend deeper into the tortuous caverns we keep hidden in our subconscious realms. LeCarre is nothing if not a superb chronicler of the ways in which our own natures become a battle ground for the struggle between good and evil, the good we can be for others, and the evil we do to them and ourselves by subscribing to ideologies, almost any ideology, that finally forces us to choose between our values and our duty. This is a marvelous book, an entertaining read, and a stunning example of the sophistication, complexity, and sheer intelligence of the author in detailing the subterranean world of international espionage. Enjoy!
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Title: Smiley's People by John le Carre ISBN: 0671042769 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Honourable Schoolboy by John le Carre ISBN: 0671042742 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carre ISBN: 0743442539 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Looking Glass War by John Le Carre ISBN: 0743431707 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: A Perfect Spy by John le Carre ISBN: 0671042750 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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