John le Carré’s search for a vocation
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
I visited a friend and spotted a significant fraction of the le Carré novels on the top of his bookshelf. He seemed to know more about this than a regular interested reader about recruiting. I asked if he had been recruited, and he answered "If you have a lot of languages, you will get a phone call." He was deep into Bengal and several other Indian languages.
I think they are spectacular.
This perspective reinforces a suspicion I've had since reading "The Spy who came in from the Cold" scratch the surface of moral ambiguity and you get the same old liberal propaganda, just the protestant work ethic version.
I think it's more that he offers an inside perspective during one of the one of the most renowned espionage defections of the 20th century than his ability as an author although I did enjoy his books.
On re-reading old Dilbert with an eye towards modern Scott Adams, I find it harder to enjoy, but more time with Stross, e.g., on https://www.antipope.org/charlie, just makes me enjoy the Laundry Files more.
Much more realistic of course, but reality is likely more trivial.
Like the case about Kim Philby, the famous spy le Carré wrote about in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy". The book is way more complex and the characters engage in way more sophisticated double plays and schemes, than in reality, where they make quite trivial and dumb misstakes all the time.
I doubt that. I suspect that his writing is quite close to reality. For supporting evidence see The Red Sparrow trilogy by Matthews. The first novel opens with a 14 hour walk across Moscow to be sure that there is nobody on his tail. Just to have a short meeting with his source.
Or read "The Targeter" by Nada Bakos, an actual spy, who was targeting terrorists. The reality, in fact is more complex, long, and boring than any le Carré novel, let alone the (what I think of pulp) thrillers about James Bond.
"The first novel opens with a 14 hour walk across Moscow to be sure that there is nobody on his tail. Just to have a short meeting with his source."
But yes, that is realistic. What I said what is not quite realistic in the books, are the levels of schemes and their complexity in the books. In reality they are usually not that complex because reality is boring and humans act dumb too much, it is just not worth build up 5 layers of conspiracy, when one idiot messes up at the 2 layer (just read about Kim Philby). This is where Cornwell took artistic liberty to spice up things, which is allright and I enjoy the books, but my point is, there are not gods at work in the agencies.
I wouldn't expect such an article to show the fabric and detail of the life of anyone, let alone a double agent.
The two works are not comparable.
Yes, that's why I wrote it like that.
The book by Carre has explicitely Kim Philby as historic model. Yet in the books, the ploys are way more complex and the traitor is catched, because of advanced reasoning and schemes by Smiley, with Karla as the mastermind opponent.
In reality, it was just dumb misstakes, after dumb misstakes. (and I also read the autobiography of Kim Philby btw.)
And the details are not important, when the big facts are what they are.
But you are free to keep your opinion of course.
Of course nowadays there's pervasive video surveillance combinable with facial recognition. I wonder what this does to the trad spy biz. In China, for example.
He writes characters SO well. They're really interesting and complicated, and the complications matter. Barley in The Russia House and his handler… there's just a lot going on, and when he throws a twist at you it's justified and supported and rings true. He's very, very good.
I'm an habitual reader, I read tens of novels every year, quite used to reading.
A dozen times over 8 years. Certainly more frequent than usual for a literary figure but probably not excessive?
> In “A Private Spy,” a new volume of his letters gathered by his son Tim Cornwell, le Carré corresponds with an eclectic array of recipients
There's a new book about him so this is a review basically.