Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (George Smiley, #5) (Karla Trilogy, #1) (The Smiley Collection)

by John le Carre

The enduring novel by one of our greatest storytellers.

George Smiley, who is a troubled man of infinite compassion, is also a single-mindedly ruthless adversary as a spy.

The scene which he enters is a Cold War landscape of moles and lamplighters, scalp-hunters and pavement artists, where men are turned, burned or bought for stock. Smiley's mission is to catch a Moscow Centre mole burrowed thirty years deep into the Circus itself.

• ISBN10: 0340993766
• ISBN13: 9780340993767
• Publish Date: 26 November 2009 (first published December 1975)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Imprint: Sceptre
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[clq]

This was an odd one for me. I went into Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with very high expectations, and unfortunately they weren't met. It's hard to pinpoint what I think was wrong with it. The book is hard to follow at times, yes, but no more so than a bunch of other books. It tells a complicated story in a very straight-forward way, without dropping many hints as to what parts are especially important, but again, that is a style of story-telling that can work very well. Relative to other books I found this one to be "hard work", but I generally don't mind that at all if they payoff was a great story, which this undoubtedly is. For me it just wasn't a great read.

I think the problem is that the book didn't make me feel anything, and it didn't even seem to try. Significant moments which could have been the source of suspense, emotion, or both were simply recounted as if they were the minutes of a committee-meeting. This is obviously an intentional style, but for me it didn't really work. A thing I did like was the way the characters, and their relation to each other, was built up mainly through implications and dialogue rather being explicitly spelled out. It gave a satisfying feeling of a painting gradually appearing. And, again, the story is interesting. Interesting enough to have the potential to be really exciting and thrilling. To me it just wasn't.

However, this is probably one of those books I will find myself thinking about for a while, and that's something.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is my second John le Carré novel, the first being The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (which I may need to read again). I remember never really feeling the need to go out and read some more, which would have been a huge mistake. My reasoning for reading Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was mainly came from the need to have the book read before seeing the movie adaption. John le Carré does a great job writing complex spy plots, but sometimes it gets too confusing and makes it hard to keep up.

The story follows George Smiley (le Carré’s most famous protagonist), a retired intelligence officer working for MI6 (often referred to as “The Circus”) on a quest to discover a mole within the organisation. The characters in the book are so well written, I had to admire the way they all seem so secretive and full of mystery. This is what I expect from a spy novel and John le Carré does a brilliant job in handling them on paper. There is a fine line in how to handle characters like this; too much one way they feel over the top and cheesy and too much the other the mystery will be gone.

The complexity of a novel like this does cause a bit of an issue but in the end isn’t that what you really want? With the twists and turns, you are left never really sure what everyone’s motivations are. John le Carré has a way of under developing characters but never in a way you are annoyed by it; the idea is to keep so much of someone’s character a mystery, with inconsistences that it makes them feel like a real spy. It’s an interesting technique, one that wouldn’t work in most other genres.

Have to give John le Carré credit for the way he builds atmosphere, in a complex plot with numerous characters he still manages to bring a glimpse of London life. Not being to London before, I couldn’t tell you how realistic his depiction is but it feels real. Another thing he does really well is dialogue, nothing feels forced or fake; it all feels seamless and natural.

Now the movie adaptation of this film was particularly interesting. Having read the book beforehand, I really enjoyed it. I had an idea of what was going on, but my wife didn’t, she struggled with the plot. Personally I think overly complex plots make for better spy movies and books, but I think it really helped to have read the book before seeing this adaptation. It was a faithful and enjoyable movie full of all you expect from the book and Benedict Cumberbatch with bad hair.

I’m not going to rush out and read a John le Carré novel anytime soon, but I will come back to him at a later date. I did enjoy this novel; I just feel that the complexity makes it a very difficult book to read. I will have to take my time with his novels, but I’m excited to see what happens in his other books. I’m not sure where to start, do I just read a recommendation, start at the start of the series or just check out his latest book?

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/01/30/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-by-john-le-carre/