Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (George Smiley, #5; Karla … (2024)

I'm one of many people who think that Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is the greatest espionage novel of all time. Let's take the obvious things first. Unlike most examples of this genre, it's extremely well-written. Also, having worked in espionage himself, le Carré is able to get the atmosphere right. It feels 100% authentic, and you see that spying is like most other jobs. The greater part of it is routine and office intrigues, though every now and then something unexpected and dramatic happens.

So, even if there were nothing more to it, I'd still say that this book was very good. What makes it great is that the author isn't content with giving you a realistic account of what it's like to be a spy. He's gone much further than that, and written a book that's not just about espionage, which most people never come into contact with, but about betrayal, which we see all the time.

The thing about betrayal is that you're generally aware that it's happening before you know how, or why, or who. Things used to be good, and now they're not, and you know that even if you do figure out what's happened you'll never be able to put it right. At best, you'll be able to cut your losses, and move on. In TTSS, the main character, George Smiley, is being betrayed in two different ways. First, it's gradually become clear that there is a mole in his department. It can only be someone at the very highest level. One of his most trusted colleagues, someone he has worked with for years, and shared things with, and treated as a friend, is actually working for the Russians. They have it narrowed down to four people. He has to find out which one it is, and do what's necessary. And, at the same time, he's also realized that his wife is sleeping around. He can't really prove anything, and they never talk about it. But he knows that too.

I can imagine any number of clumsy, over-obvious ways to link up these threads. Le Carré does it with a very light touch. You see these two things happening, and every now and then there is an echo of correspondence. He wants you to be a spy too, and put together the little bits of evidence until you reach a conclusion. It's a book that completely transcends the genre, and shows how a writer who has enough talent can achieve stunning results in any medium. Strongly recommended to anyone who's ever been betrayed, or themselves betrayed a person they're close to. Which, unfortunately, is most of us.

"The suspicious black car did not follow me home. How am I supposed to maintain this level of paranoia with this level of incompetence?" Tweet from jkeeten's defunct Twitter account.

"I don't smoke but I always travel w/ a Zippo lighter in case I have to light a beautiful woman's cigarette or the wick of a Molotov co*cktail." Another tweet from jkeeten's defunct Twitter account.

The British Secret Service, resembling a corporation that has suffered sagging profits, has reshuffled key players, ousted others, and in the process forced George Smiley into retirement. Smiley, in his twilight years, could have easily decided to take up gardening or researching an interesting point of history, but he has wife problems. Ann has left him, leaving him to cover her missing presence with little lies and subterfuge. Given his past he is quite good at it. He is somewhat surprised to discover how much he misses her given the problems she continues to create for him. He has spent a lifetime controlling his emotions, but she is quite good at making him suffer.

"Putting on the hall light, he stooped and peered through his post. One "account rendered" from his tailor for a suit he had not ordered but that he suspected was one of those presently adorning Ann's lover; one bill from a garage in Henley for her petrol (what, pray, were they doing in Henley); one letter from the bank regarding a local cashing facility in favour of the Lady Ann Smiley at a branch of the Midland Bank of Immingham.
And what the devil, he demanded of this document are they doing in Immingham?Who ever had a love affair in Immingham, for goodness' sake? Where was Immingham?"

He is of course angry. What person wants to see the results of their spouses affair through a series of bills or in today's world credit card receipts? Smiley talks tough.

"And if Ann wanted to return--well, he would show her the door."

But when he is honest with himself.

"Or not show her the door, according to--well, how much she wanted to return."

With almost a sigh of relief, Smiley is summoned to interrogate an agent that has stumbled upon bit of intelligence hinting at the existence of a deep cover mole in the service (so much for retirement). This begins a cat and mouse game showing Smiley at his best sifting through incomplete files, weighing the validity of whispers, and chasing a ghost agent back into the Circus. Smiley is some what of an enigma to work with. One of his loyal followers Peter Guillam gives us some insight.

"He spoke as if you followed his reasoning, as if you were inside his mind all the time."

Smiley is really fighting a war on two fronts with his enemies within the service and with the subterfuge of the Karla organization. All players would like Smiley off the board.

This novel is almost as complex as a Russian novel. There are a lot of names to assimilate early, don't despair, they start to sort themselves out as the plot advances. There is a lot of spy jargon. Babysitters, coat trailing, honey-pot, housekeepers, janitors, lamplighters, lotus eaters, mailfist jobs, pavement artists, reptile fund, scalphunters, shoemakers, and wranglers to name a few. You will come away feeling like you have a working knowledge of what it would really be like to be a spy. John Le Carre is the grand master of spy craft in my opinion, and there simply isn't a better example of his skillful plotting than this book.

Read the book then watch the movie and if you want more watch the mini-series. If you are like me it might take all three just to feel like you have found every gem, and every clue that Le Carre so liberally sprinkled through this historical work of fiction. There are two more books in the Karla series...The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. I for one plan to follow Smiley every step of the way.

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A few months ago a stylish looking British adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was released in theaters and I was intrigued. But I knew better. Movies are for smart people. If I had to constantly nudge my wife during Superbad to ask questions like, “so who is that guy again?” and “wait, is she the same one from before?” then I had to admit that seeing this movie would only serve to make me feel very confused and intellectually inadequate. I do better with books. Books explain things. Books are for people who need a little, uh, help in the hand-holding department. So like any other self-respecting moron, I decided to read the book instead (or at least, before seeing the movie)—that way I could have everything explained to me nice, nice.

But I was duped.

When my friend asked me to go with him to see Tinker Tailor, I told him it was not possible. I explained my reasoning while he nodded agreeably, accepting my oddities without judgment. But then he said, “I think you’ll find this to be an exception to your rule. In this particular case, you’re going to want to have seen this movie before reading the book. Trust me.” What. A Freaking. Liar.

As soon as those last two words were uttered, warning bells should have gone off in my head. But I took him at his word and went to see a movie with the most convoluted plot I’d ever tried to absorb. 120 minutes later I had a raging migraine.

I now understood the lengths to which someone would go in order to have a companion at the movies. I suppose I can’t begrudge a man that small favor, and I was not entirely the worse for wear—800 mg of ibuprofen and a good night’s sleep restored my faculties wonderfully. And that’s when I decided to read the book.

John le Carré’s novel retains all the plot complexity of the movie and then some, but it is delivered in such a way that is digestible. Even though I knew the fate of Colin Firth’s character, my pulse still raced at the novel’s climax. The author opens up a world of secrets, lies, espionage, and scandal that are somewhat missing from my everyday life, but seem to be more or less commonplace in a Europe engulfed in the Cold War. Mistrust and paranoia run as naturally as snowfall in New England. I am generally very glad to have read this book despite having done so after seeing the movie.

Espionage is a continuation of war carried on with other means… Clandestine battles, psychological combats… Known just to the chosen few… Or the damned few.
As far as I know John le Carré was the first who told that the spying isn’t a simple cloak and dagger intrigue but a very complex secret psychological game in which the opponents quite often don’t even know each other…

He bought children’s toys, a scarf, some cigarettes, and tried on shoes. He guessed his watchers were still waiting for his clandestine contact. He stole a fur hat and a white plastic raincoat and a carrier bag to put them in. He loitered at the men’s department long enough to confirm that two women who formed the forward pair were still behind him but reluctant to come too close. He guessed they had signalled for men to take over, and were waiting. In the men’s lavatory he moved very fast. He pulled the white raincoat over his overcoat, stuffed the carrier bag into the pocket, and put on the fur hat. He abandoned his remaining parcels, then ran like a madman down the emergency staircase, smashed open a fire door, pelted down an alley, strolled up another, which was one-way, stuffed the white raincoat into the carrier bag, sauntered into another store, which was just closing, and there bought a black raincoat to replace the white one. Using the departing shoppers for cover, he squeezed into a crowded tram, stayed aboard till the last stop but one, walked for an hour, and made the fallback with Max to the minute.

"After a lifetime of living by his wits and his considerable memory, he had given himself full time to the profession of forgetting."

Over the past couple of months, George Smiley has earned the distinction of my favorite spy. Not because he is handsome, sexy, charismatic or daring but rather because he is all too human. He’s the real deal, and no one could write a genuine character like him as well as the master, John le Carré.

"Small, podgy, and at best middle-aged, he was by appearance one of London’s meek who do not inherit the earth. His legs were short, his gait anything but agile, his dress costly, ill-fitting, and extremely wet."

How on earth does a guy like this get saddled with the onerous task of uncovering a Russian-planted mole at the highest level of the British Secret Service? Because he is brilliant and honorable, that’s how! There are many layers to George Smiley, and I am thoroughly enjoying the unpeeling of each one as I delve more and more into these novels. Smiley teams up with Peter Guillam, a younger agent who is further removed from the upper echelon of the service, partly due to a botched operation and partly as a result of his prior association with Smiley. The guys at the top have been very deliberately remaking the organization to their own advantage. Anyone with a loyalty to the former chief, or those that hovered too close to the truth, have been quietly relocated to lesser positions or simply dismissed. The organization is being carefully refashioned to the mole’s purpose. I was further pleased to become further acquainted with the somewhat eccentric Mendel, a former police inspector whom was introduced to us in le Carré’s novel Call for the Dead.

Naturally, a huge theme in this novel is that of betrayal. George Smiley grapples with this not only in his professional life but also his private life. His sincere interior conflict further illuminates the real character of the man. I can’t help but feel sympathy for Smiley, and admire his courage to examine his own principles.

"It worried him that he felt so bankrupt; that whatever intellectual or philosophical precepts he clung to broke down entirely now that he was faced with the human situation."

One thing I have come to expect from le Carré is that I need to be a bit more savvy with my spy lingo. If there were a little glossary of the terms in the back of the book, I would be off and running with the story straight from the get-go. In reality, it takes me a little bit to settle in and really understand what is happening. It’s okay though, I get there eventually, and any earlier confusion is worth the payoff! I’m not very successful with my own personal psychological analysis of the characters, but I consider myself in good hands with the author who was once a secret service agent himself. I was once again fully invested with each character, and the plot took me down a twisty, furtive and thrilling path that I wouldn’t mind riding once more!

This book is the first in the Karla trilogy – Karla being the working-name counterpart to Smiley in the Russian Intelligence agency. If all goes as planned, I will be reading the second one next month. If you have any interest in reading an authentic espionage thriller, then I highly recommend this or any of le Carré’s books. They really do deliver. I can’t forget to mention the movie adaptation – expertly cast with Gary Oldman as Smiley and highly entertaining!

"Like an actor, he had a sense of approaching anti-climax before the curtain went up, a sense of great things dwindling to a small, mean end; as death itself seemed small and mean to him after the struggles of his life."

IL REBUS DELLA TALPA

Sette episodi da 50’ con Alec Guinnes/Smiley per la BBC andati in onda nel 1979.

Ecco un Le Carré paradigmatico, secondo me se non il suo romanzo migliore, molto vicino.
Il perfetto esempio del suo mondo di spie, con i loro giochi, perché di questo si tratta, un gioco, anche se spesso c’è gente che ci lascia la pelle.
Trama complicatissima al limite dell’arzigogolo a seguire la mente folle e deviata di questi assurdi personaggi chiamati spie. La sensazione di non capire nulla è parte del piacere della lettura, come essere trasportati in un mondo magico, oltre lo specchio di Alice.

Esiste spia più lontana dai canoni di George Smiley? L’opposto della spia guerriero eroe alla James Bond (ma non toccatemi Sean Connery, o Daniel Craig! Non toccatemi neppure Pierce Brosnan, attore sopraffino, ma quei film erano modesti. Gli altri non esistono, non sono neppure degni di menzione). L’opposto del conquistatore di prede femminili: Smiley è fisicamente poco attraente, grigio, malinconico, tradito dalla moglie. Ma che mente sopraffina, diabolica, suadente.
George Smiley interpretato da Alec Guinness, uno dei più grandi attori della storia, camaleonte come nessun altro, nell’ottima miniserie BBC (1979), l’immagine vivente dell’incapacità di azione fisica, impossibile immaginarlo sferrare un pugno o impegnarsi in un corpo a corpo: al massimo potrebbe dare un iroso buffetto.
Smiley è il capolavoro di Le Carré, e questo degli otto romanzi in cui compare, è probabilmente il migliore. Poi, probabilmente, il personaggio era diventato più celebre del suo creatore, e Le Carré l’ha mandato in pensione.

Da Alec Guinness a Gary Oldman, dalla tv al cinema, Smiley cambia interprete.

Guerra Fredda in corso (il libro è del 1974), Le Carré toglie al mestiere di spia ogni glamour, ogni martini agitato e non mescolato. E si inventa una serie di termini che sono entrati nella storia del genere: i lampionai, cioè i responsabili della sorveglianza – i cacciatori di testa, ovvero gli incaricati dei lavori sporchi – i calzolai, ossia gli specialisti in documenti falsi.
Il titolo originale si rifa a una filastrocca inglese per bambini: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor, sono il Calderaio, il Soldato, il Sarto, il Marinaio, i soprannomi di quattro personaggi del romanzo.

L’Inghilterra ha una solida tradizione di spionaggio, di spie passate al soldo del nemico (i Cambridge Five, cinque brillanti studenti di buona famiglia tra cui forse Kim Philby è il più noto).

Il grande rivale, il capo delle spie nemiche, dal nome indimenticabile e azzeccatissimo, Karla (qui inizia la trilogia dedicata alla lotta tra Smiley e Karla: seguiranno The Honourable Schoolboy – L’onorevole scolaro e Smiley’s People - Tutti gli uomini di Smiley). È davvero un nemico o potrebbero essere amici, come Rick e Louis, il capitano Renault, nell’ultima leggendaria inquadratura di Casablanca? Si ammirano, si stimano: uno è l’alter ego dell’altro, rappresenta quello che l’altro vorrebbe essere? Come ha fatto Smiley a non capire l’importanza di Karla quando lo aveva in mano a Delhi, come ha fatto a lasciarlo andare, senza accorgersi che il rivale gli sottraeva l’accendino con le sue iniziali regalatogli da sua moglie Anne?

Nel 2011 è uscito il magnifico film omonimo diretto dal regista svedese Tomas Alfredson (che aveva già ottimamente diretto Lasciami entrare) dove Smiley è interpretato dall’eccellente Gary Oldman, e poi Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds. Un film che ho visto e rivisto e ogni tanto riguardo su youtube il finale, la ronde di situazioni che si concludono legate insieme dalla canzone “La mer” di Charles Trenet, qui in un’interpretazione live da brividi di Julio Iglesias.

I freely admit that I am not smart enough to appreciate this book.

The whole thing was way too convoluted for me. First I was in one character's head, then another, then back to the first. Then there was a third character who mostly made cameo appearances and was clearly unimportant, but we spend time in his head too. As if that's not confusing enough, different people narrate different parts of the story as master spy George Smiley (highly distracting name, I must say) interviews different players who describe their experiences to him. Sometimes we're flashing back to George's memories; sometimes we're learning what George is reading in the archives in the present day although it feels like it might be a flashback. Eventually this all ties together, but I lacked the patience or motivation to understand how or why. The absence of a character about whom I cared even a little only added to my increasing disengagement from and disenchantment with the book. I spent most of the book wanting to quit but persevering in the hope that I would eventually get why this was a great book. Eventually I ended up finishing it just to be sure I wasn't missing something. But it seems I was.

Apparently this is a classic and much-imitated spy novel. Maybe this isn't the genre for me then.

Spy novels may be best consumed in large gulps by me. There is no question that John Le Carré is a brilliant writer, and his plots are peppered with surprise spirals throughout each novel.

The one difficulty I had with this book was in the beginning, and it was my own difficulty. I had to quickly re-acquaint myself with British idiom, with spy jargon, distinguish between those two ‘languages’, and process many new players and how they related to characters I already knew from the previous 4 books in this series.

Since I wasn’t very good at it, the beginning part of this book went slowly for me. Not the book’s internal pacing, of which John Le Carré is a master, but my own. Trying to keep up to the book while deciphering everything I needed to know was a challenge.

Once I got a handle on the languages and the cast of characters, I was able to get on board this spy train and what a great ride it was! Control knew there was a mole somewhere in the upper echelon, and he knew it was one of five people and their code names were assigned from the ‘Tinker, Tailor’ children’s rhyme.

George Smiley (Beggarman) was one of the five. However, after Control died and there was a changing of the guard regarding running their Operations (including George Smiley’s dismissal from service), the mole now had to be one of the remaining four. George Smiley’s assignment is to find out who that person is.

Once I had grasped all the background information, this book flew by in a series of fascinating ‘interviews’, action sequences, and other events that all played a role in drawing George Smiley closer to his quarry. In the end, this was a very enjoyable and satisfying read. I am also looking forward to the next book in the series as there are likely to be many more changes for George Smiley to sort through and contribute to.

Whenever I think of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I inevitably think of love: love that grants fortitude, love that clouds judgment, love that scars the soul and roots the heart. Although it is my experience of the book that guides me, it perhaps also has to do with the 1979 BBC miniseries, with the way Alec Guinness appears stolid and wounded, like an animal to the slaughter hit in the head with a hammer, with each inevitable mention of his wife’s beauty, each smirking hint at her chain of adulteries.

Of course the book is about many other things besides love: it is about the mysterious nature of allegiances and the way they change over time; about social class as an inescapable system of markers and man’s bathetic attempts to emphasize or erase them; about how the look of a system subtly changes when it begins to betray itself; about how the illusions which make a man vulnerable also help him survive.

Still, though, the book is about love: George’s love for Ann of course, but Roach’s love for his teacher too, Jim’s love for Bill Haydon, Bill’s love for himself, the outsider Percy’s love for the insider's power, barren Connie’s love for all her “boys.” Yes, on this much Karla and Smiley may agree: it is “last illusion of the illusionless man,” love.

Above all the other loves in the book, though, there is one love who binds closest to herself those whom she betrays, the compromised goddess who requires devotion most particularly from her disillusioned devotees. Smiley, true to Ann, is true to her as well: Brittania, old England herself.

Read this classic espionage novel by John le Carre long ago. Loved it so much I listened to it on audio, reacquainting myself with the characters and a brilliant, compulsive espionage story. Such a joy to experience once again.

When I think of this book I think of looking down upon the humid, crowded streets of Montreal from our elevated vantage point on a Greyhound bus, in 1992!

We were going home to the Ottawa Valley - and to my own George Smileys at the Department of Delegating and Disappearing the following day - one pleasant Sunday, after a fun weekend with family.

A chill went through my bones as I hoped the dreaded Karla had disappeared for good, remembering the hoops and barrels he had put me through at work!

Now was a time of looking back and summing up, with the Wall destroyed and the Spooks at rest.

So I thoroughly enjoyed the drive from Rigaud into Ontario the Good. There was a lift in the Summer breeze carrying us home.

I told my wife about the calibre of le Carre's writing, but she was, I think, back then immersed in a new Northomb novel.

Anyway, spooks bored her. Shop talk is all it was.

I know, I know, I thought, opening Tinker once again beside her. But, oh, the places you go!
***

The smile on my face was short-lived. Soon we would learn that our Circus was about to disappear forever.

Those who delegated, then disappeared, were to be awarded plump retirement nest eggs.

And us drones?

We would hafta do more with less.

Do you know, because I then tried to make miracles out of monopoly money I have never finished the George Smiley series, having been fried to toast in that non-existent circus.

Burnt out, though, I learned to cool my jets.

And relax.

Even after the sinister Karla Junior ascended to dominance over that Other Northern Power, by hook or by crook (mostly by crook).
***

Of course, much rebuilding was now necessary.

Now, belatedly, Delegate and Disappear is hastily being re-assembled.

The disappearing delegators are back.

Nice play, Shakespeare - but will it prove too late - and are the new Karlas of the World unstoppable in the New Cyberwar?

I'm going to state the obvious and say John le Carré is a really good writer.

This was my first le Carré novel, and I can see why he's considered such a master of the spy genre. The story itself was thrilling, but what I most appreciated were his thoughtful descriptions. The writing was so insightful that it was easy to become invested in the fate of the characters.

A quick plot summary: George Smiley is a retired British spy. He was forced out during a reorganization of the Circus, a nickname for the intelligence service. One day he's approached and asked to discreetly investigate a mole in the agency, someone who's been giving state secrets to Russia. George sets to work, getting help from some trusted colleagues. It was exciting watching George uncover the mole. Even though I knew the ending because I had seen the movie, it was still thrilling. Now that's good writing.

But this wasn't just a book about finding a double agent — no, this was book about friendship, love and loyalty. It's about having a purpose in life. And it's about betrayal.

They shared no harmony. They had lost all calmness in one another's company; they were a mystery to each other, and the most banal conversation could take strange, uncontrollable directions.

Besides Smiley, my favorite character in the book was young Bill Roach, a student at a prep school. Roach is a good watcher, and quietly observes things others don't notice. For example, Roach observes some odd behavior by the school's new teacher, Jim Prideaux, which suggests he has some secrets. Here's an (abbreviated) early exchange between Jim and Bill that first showed me how well le Carré could write his characters:

"What are you good at, Bill?"

"I don't know, sir," said Roach woodenly.

"Got to be good at something, surely; everyone is. How about football? Are you good at football, Bill?"

"No, sir," said Roach.

"What's your best thing, then?"

Now this was an unfortunate question to ask of Roach just then, for it occupied most of his waking hours. Indeed he had recently come to doubt whether he had any purpose on earth at all. In work and play he considered himself seriously inadequate; even the daily routine of the school, such as making his bed and tidying his clothes, seemed to be beyond his reach. Also he lacked piety: old Mrs. Thursgood had told him so; he screwed up his face too much at chapel. He blamed himself for the break-up of his parents' marriage, which he should have seen coming and taken steps to prevent.

Damn, that's a good introduction of a character. Rereading it, it's no wonder my heart went out to young Bill so early in the book. Speaking of strong introductions, check out this one for Smiley:

Unlike Jim Prideaux, Mr. George Smiley was not naturally equipped for hurrying in the rain, least of all at dead of night. Indeed, he might have been the final form for which Bill Roach was the prototype. Small, podgy, and at best middle-aged, he was by appearance one of London's meek who do not inherit the earth. His legs were short, his gait anything but agile, his dress costly, ill-fitting, and extremely wet. His overcoat, which had a hint of widowhood about it, was of that black loose weave which is designed to retain moisture. Either the sleeves were too long or his arms were too short, for, as with Roach, when he wore his mackintosh, the cuffs all but concealed the fingers. For reasons of vanity he wore no hat, believing rightly that hats made him ridiculous.

My one criticism of the writing is that the reader has to quickly adapt to the spy jargon, much of it made up by le Carré. I thought it was interesting he was inspired to write this novel because of Kim Philby, a real-life double agent. I recently read Ben Macintyre's book on Philby, A Spy Among Friends, which made me keen to read Tinker, Tailor. And now I want to read the rest of the George Smiley series.

John le Carré is such a popular writer that I hardly need to say this, but I highly recommend this novel to anyone who likes spy thrillers.

Favorite Quotes
"He imagined that, like himself, Jim had had a great attachment that had failed him and that he longed to replace. But here Bill Roach's speculation met a dead end: he had no idea how adults loved each other."

"He would set up as a mild eccentric, discursive, withdrawn, but possessing one or two lovable habits such as muttering to himself as he bumbled along pavements. Out of date, perhaps, but who wasn't these days? Out of date, but loyal to his own time. At a certain moment, after all, every man chooses: will he go forward, will he go back? There was nothing dishonourable in not being blown about by every little modern wind. Better to have worth, to entrench, to be an oak of one's own generation."

"There are always a dozen reasons for doing nothing ... There is only one reason for doing something. And that's because you want to."

"There are old men who go back to Oxford and find their youth beckoning to them from the stones. Smiley was not one of them."

"He was of that pre-war set that seemed to have vanished for good, which managed to be disreputable and high-minded at the same time."

"I have a theory which I suspect is rather immoral ... Each of us has only a quantum of compassion. That if we lavish our concern on every stray cat, we never get to the centre of things."

"Sitting is such an eloquent business; any actor will tell you that. We sit according to our natures. We sprawl and straddle, we rest like boxers between rounds, we fidget, perch, cross and uncross our legs, lose patience, lose endurance."

"If there's one thing that distinguishes a good watcher from a bad one... it's the gentle art of doing damn all convincingly."

"Survival, as Jim Prideaux liked to recall, is an infinite capacity for suspicion."

"He wondered whether there was any love between human beings that did not rest upon some sort of self-delusion."

John Le Carre

Lots of people whose taste I respect love John le Carré. Call me lowbrow, I don't get it and probably never will. I find his books to be slow and plodding because the action has always already taken place. You learn about what happened in retrospect through vague spy dialogue between stuffy old men. Tons of characters pop in and out without ever being introduced or explained. The plots are ambiguous and hard to follow. The writing seems purposely convoluted and obscure to confuse the reader about everything so it all seems much more mysterious than it actually is. If you feel the same, you are not alone, there are others like us out there!!

I didn't understand half of what I just read, and yet I loved it all the same!

In John le Carré's (real name David Cornwell) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a British intelligence service known as the Circus has been compromised by a mole, a supposed Soviet double agent. Former agent George Smiley is called back from retirement to ferret him out.

This is more of a psychological suspense novel than an action-filled James Bond spy thriller. Smiley is getting up there in years and though he's conversant with a handgun, he's not about to go galavanting about blasting up the countryside. The whole novel is much more sedate than you might expect when you think of "spy thriller". And yet in ways, this book is undeniably thrilling!

Here, I think this passage from Wikipedia explains it better:

Most of Cornwell's novels are spy stories set during the Cold War (1945–91) and feature Circus agents as unheroic political functionaries aware of the moral ambiguity of their work and engaged in psychological more than physical drama.[21] Cornwell's books emphasise the fallibility of Western democracy and of the secret services protecting it, often implying the possibility of East-West moral equivalence.[21] Moreover, they experience little of the violence typically encountered in action thrillers and have very little recourse to gadgets. Much of the conflict is internal, rather than external and visible.

When you read a book like this, you get the distinct impression that the author has lived this life. Frankly, it was quite clear to me that John le Carré worked in the secret service. You can't whip out that kind of jargon and insight with only a casual acquaintance with the topic. I've read a few spy novels before and this makes them look childish in comparison.

The writing itself is topnotch. The character crafting, the stage setting, and the nuance of plot all come off so seamlessly. If there was a little more action, it wouldn't go amiss, but lack of action aside, Le Carré pens books that are an absolute pleasure to read.

Who can spy on the spies ?

We are at the heart of British Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. For the initiated the Circus. Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy it’s the look at the firm from the inside. Author himself worked there for many years and thanks to it I have no problems with his credibility. We get to know world of intelligence, its structure, jargon. Babysitters, lamplighters , ferrets, shoemakers, scalphunters . Sounds really crazy.

Intelligence work it is not guns and fast cars and agents themselves look more like tired office workers. It is tedious, painstaking and endless digging in the archives, reading hundreds of reports to pick out this only one information, it’s patiently investigation of every new lead. It’s an experience of solidarity and friendship but also the bitterness of defeat and betrayal.

We are in the middle of cold war and here nothing is what it seems. And people from MI6 have to struggle not only with outside threat but most off all with enemy in own ranks. Because in the Circus there is a mole spying for Russian.

LeCarre has populated agency with well drawn, diverse characters. George Smiley, apparently slowcoach but in fact fiendishly intelligent and patient, charming Haydon, Prideux - a patriot and a soldier, Toby Esterhaze - a toady, Percy Alleline - fishy careerist, Tarr – young tearaway, loyal Guillam and the boss, Control.

Don’t listen if others say that it was boring or unattractive. Believe me, there was more action than in any thriller and observing the investigation and set a trap was more exciting than any pursuit. Well, I’ve always preferred brainy guys than muscleman with a gun.

And don’t feel yourself too comfortably . Though cold war had ended, though we were witnesses how Berlin Wall collapsed world didn’t change that much. There is a really thin line between us and them . Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that LeCarre is a philosopher or something. But after reading some disquieting thoughts hatching up in your head. So, welcome to the Circus.

A classic spy novel set during the Cold War which makes a terrific read and which is a symbol of spy wars. This audiobook, read by Simon Vance, brings back the characters whose names have been known to Le Carre's fans for fifty years. I enjoyed the time spent with Smiley and other players although I have read this book at least three times. The anticipation and war of nerves were still present!
Many thanks to John Le Carre, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for a free audiobook in exchnage for my honest review.*
- the audiobook by Dreamscape Media has not been added at the time of the review

In that moment Guillam felt not merely betrayed; but orphaned. His suspicions, his resentments for so long turned outwards on the real world - on his women, his attempted loves - now swung upon the Circus and the failed magic which had formed his faith.

This time around I was especially fascinated by Smiley: his impotency in relation to a serially unfaithful wife, and his unnerving bond with Karla that makes them mirror reflections of each other. Is it precisely his continued love for Ann that is both Smiley's weakness and his moral strength in a world driven by less salubrious motives?

A bleak, moody and cynical book.

----------------------------------------------------
Le Carré's world is perhaps as far from the glamorous cosmos of James Bond and his followers as it's possible to be. There is bureaucracy instead of wild flights of individualism, brown cardboard files instead of new-fangled gadgets, and gloomy offices in places like Acton and Brixton. Yet, for all that, the labyrinthine plot grips relentlessly - even on a re-read or for those of us who know who the mole is. It's a testament, then, to le Carré's craft that this is about more, so much more, than simply a race towards that final revelation.

Be prepared, I'd say, to not know what's going on at the start - and trust le Carré to pull it all together, in all its complexity, by the end. Ultimately, this is a book which is bleak, filled with lonely, wounded, betrayed sometimes mean, greedy and egotistical characters. There's little to uplift - but gosh, this is gripping! And as part one of the Karla trilogy, it sets out the terms upon which Smiley and his Russian counterpart will continue to cross swords.

the spy who came in looking for the traitor

Even if you’ve seen the film the novel is extraordinarily worthwhile. It can be quite slow in the first half but picks up rapidly from there. Like The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Tinker Tailor transcends its genre. It’s far more than a spy story. Though you always get the feeling of authenticity with Le Carré, that this is the way the spy game is played. And it’s hard ball. But it’s also a story of human life and it’s written well, very well.

As much as I liked The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and The Perfect Spy, I believe this to be even better. The intricate plotting, the level of depth and intelligence, the characters, the atmosphere and suspense, the twists and turns, go way way beyond your average espionage thriller. When I say thriller though, it's more a case of old pipe and slippers with a drop of brandy as the pacing is anything but high-octane - and it's all the better for it. If it's car chases, explosions, and exotic locales 007 style you're after, then look elsewhere. If you like the idea of a spy novel reading more like a drawn-out game of chess, don't mind London feeling like it was dumped somewhere in the Eastern Bloc, have a thing for men in grey macs, and wish you could be a fly on the wall when it comes to office politics and bureaucracy, then this is one of the greatest in the genre. I'd also say it doesn't even matter whether one has seen either film or TV series in terms of knowing who the mole is. It's worth it for the writing alone.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is not my type of book. I never read stuff like this. I don’t like contemporaries (unless there are vampires or witches in them) and I rarely read mysteries. I loved the movie though (I’m a big Gary Oldman fan) so I thought what the heck, I’ll read the book. After all, it’s not really a contemporary…at least not anymore. The action takes place during the early seventies. So here I am.

First off, I have to say Le Carre writes with amazing detail. These guys aren’t like regular characters. They’re like real people with complex motives, their own dialect, and little nuances that are personal to them. I got to know them, slowly, intuitively, especially since Le Carre never tells you what you should think of them or explains them. He just lets the reader develop their own opinion. You get to know everybody though dialogue and body language -- little tidbits like how someone sits down on a child’s swing set. It’s excellent!

That’s not to say it wasn’t disorienting though. At first I felt like I had started a new job. I'm meeting all these new people, there are new rules, and there’s a whole new work lingo I have to learn. I was a bit lost at first, trying to keep track of names and figure out what people were saying (especially since I’m not a Brit.) There are so many characters, and no one can be cataloged in a nice neat box. To my surprise though, this sense of confusion actually made me pay closer attention. I loved being just thrown in there. I do believe it hit me on a deeper level too since I dreamed about this book. :D

Were the characters likable? Yes and no. I liked Smiley a lot, but I would hate to work with him. He’s too tight-lipped and ruthless. You’d never know where you’d stand with him. He’s also waaay too observant, looking for everyone’s weaknesses. It was great being inside his head though. You can tell he unnerves people. That’s why so many people take a certain glee in telling him his wife is sleeping with someone else. They want to needle him.

The other characters were great too. Percy is a worm. Jim is tragic and compelling. I couldn’t stand Bill. I thought Ricky was a hoot, even though he’s an ass. As you can see, I definitely had an opinion about everybody.

Of course, all these different motives and dynamics make the book seem strangely complicated, yet the story is simple. There’s a mole in the secret service which has made everyone paranoid, and George Smiley is trying to lure him out and trap him. There are a lot of mind games.

This brings me to the part of the book though, which I think was lacking. There’s not much suspense. Maybe if I hadn’t seen the movie, I would have been more curious to find out who the mole was, but I don’t think that’s it. I think the lack of action and danger made this a somewhat dry read. I would have never finished it if I hadn’t seen the movie. The beginning is slow. And while yes there are conversations and confrontations that are dynamic and thrilling, not much happens. That’s why I knocked a star.

On the whole though, I’m very much impressed. Le Carre is a great writer. I want to read Smiley’s People because I’ve heard it’s even better than this book. I’m curious to see how George traps Karla, and I’d love to spend some more time in Smiley’s astute and clever brain.

”I like you to have doubts,” he said. “It tells me where you stand. But don’t make a cult of them or you’ll be a bore.”

Impossible to think how anyone could live the life of one of John le Carre’s cold war spies and not be assaulted by doubt day and night. Still, they must all be entertaining just the right amount, because none of these characters is a bore. Nobody does spy thriller quite as well as John le Carre, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is John le Carre at his best.

Of course, there are the usual elements of a spy novel. The Russians are pitted against the Western world and, in this particular case, there is a mole within the Circus that is wreaking havoc on the entire system. Although he has been ousted from the service, George Smiley is called in to sort through the detritus and unravel the gordian knot, and the strands seem to run in all directions right up to the end. Ah, but there is so much more than that.

George Smiley is such a unique character. Like Sherlock Holmes, he has a personae all his own; unlike Holmes, he is an unassuming, all too human, observer of humanity. While most people, particularly those at the Circus, are scrambling to reach the top and be in control, Smiley seems to accept the role of power thrust upon him rather reluctantly.

He was aware of a modest sense of approaching conquest. He had been driven a long way, he had sailed backwards and forwards. Tomorrow, if he was lucky, he might spot land; a peaceful little desert island, for instance. Somewhere Karla had never heard of. Just for him and Ann.

I believe it makes him more likeable that his dreams are as unlikely to come true as any we might dream ourselves. He sees into the hearts of other people, a deft listener who understands what is going on beneath the surface; but he is often blind to himself, and aren’t we all.

This is a novel about spies, but it is also a novel about intrigue, friendship, deception, idol worship, and betrayal. Betrayal in all its forms, betrayal of country, of friendship, of love, of innocence, and of trust. Perhaps men in this line of work should not expect better, but we come to understand that these men are the “lovely boys” who came into this darkness after fighting a war on the side of morality and when still charged with the ideals of that war and their youth. The men they become bear almost no resemblance to the boys they were, and the reality of what they have become is heartbreaking.

This was not my first reading of this remarkable book, and I find it lost none of its luster during all those years it was collecting dust on my bookshelf.

4.5 ☆

Survival...is an infinite capacity for suspicion.

Smiley had been abruptly pensioned off one year earlier from his post as second-in-command to Control at the British Secret Service. In the year leading up to his departure, trouble had been brewing.

The Circus was in the doldrums and there was loose talk of scraping the existing outfit entirely and starting elsewhere with a new one. ... Product had slumped; more and more of it had turned out to be suspect. In the places where it mattered, Control's hand was none too strong.

"I refuse to bequeath my life's work to a parade horse. I'm too vain to be flattered, too old to be ambitious, and I'm ugly as a crab. Percy's quite the other way and there are enough with men in Whitehall to prefer his sort to mine."

I had read The Spy Who Came In From the Cold on my honeymoon in Paris, and I remember liking it, but not rushing out to get more Le Carre. Well, now I'm going to rush out to get more Le Carre.

I didn't give this five stars because it was a touch slow to get moving. I think if I'd just been able to focus a little more, I would've been into the plot faster. Le Carre has this ability to make every character a mystery. So much is withheld from the reader, and yet the characters are fascinating. I think what put me off about the beginning of the book is that I became very interested in Jim Prideaux, then had to shift gears to Smiley. Eventually, I got into the Smiley stuff, but at first, I just kept waiting for Prideaux to come back, and he didn't for a good long while.

The way Le Carre describes the "secret world" of intelligence work is just incomparable. The details, the jargon (which, in the introduction, he reveals he mostly made up! Incredible!), it's so engrossing, I can't think of a reading experience that approximates it. Except maybe p*rn.

My personal favorite scene in the story is when Peter Guillam steals the Operation Testify file from the Circus archives. That the archives of Britain's intelligence service are located on a street of shops, next to a coffee shop, and marked as a teacher's entrance for a school or something like that. Not guarded, in the traditional sense, no big barriers around it. Just a door that you'd never notice. Unless of course you'd been told to notice it. That's the essence of Le Carre, and precisely what makes this book so damn great.

UPDATE 1-18-18 ... For espionage thrillers, this is as good as it gets. The setting is the Cold War, and both the Britain and Russia are tired but still engaging in lethal combat by spy. One central theme that I did not appreciate before this re-read is that the primary conflict, even when Le Carre tells the story from a British POV, is not between British spies and the Russians, but between Russia and America, with British spies taking sides, not always as expected. The conflict between personal and patriotic motives plays out dramatically in each of the major characters.

I can't close without a word of pity for poor Smiley, whose wife has apparently become a promiscuous tramp. Was this transition described in one of the other Smiley books? In any case, it is extraordinary for the lead character to suffer this fate.

UPDATE 12-25-17 ... reading again ... for my course at Oxford this summer ... British spies in fact and fiction ... there is always something new in this magnificent book

I just re-read this after many years. It is still terrific. I think everything I can think of to say has already been said in the many fine reviews others have already offered.

TINKER,
TAILOR,
SOLDIER,
SAILOR,
RICH MAN,
POOR MAN,
BEGGAR MAN,
THIEF.

Small children's fortune-telling rhyme used when counting cherry stones, waistcoat buttons, daisy petals, or the seeds of the Timothy grass.

And so begins the explosive espionage spy novel by John le Carre, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy taking place at the height of the Cold War and featuring George Smiley. This is the first book of The Karla Trilogy. John le Carre being a former spy and part of Britain's legendary MI5 and MI6, retired from working in espionage to devote himself to writing full-time after the runaway best seller, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. And as such, le Carre is a master at his trade. George Smiley is not ready to retire from the Circus just yet, particularly after a would-be defector tells a shocking tale that a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British intelligence. George Smiley recognizes the signature of his old Moscow nemesis, Karla. With his ragtag group, George Smiley puts into motion a very sophisticated trap for Karla, regarded as the most cunning at the Moscow Centre, so much so that even his name is not a name that Russians understand.

"A mole is a deep-penetration agent so called because he burrows deep into the fabric of Western imperialism, in this case an Englishman. Moles are very precious to the Centre because of the many years it takes to place them, often fifteen or twenty. Most of the English moles were recruited by Karla before the war and came from the higher bourgeoisie, even aristocrats and nobles who were disgusted with their origins, and became secretly fanatic, much more fanatic that their working-class English comrades, who are slothful."

"Yet legends were made and Karla was one of them. Even his age was a mystery. Most likely Karla was not his real name. Decades of his life were not accounted for, and probably never would be, since the people he worked with had a way of dying off or keeping their mouths shut."

When Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was published in 1974, it had relevance as there was in fact, a British spy who defected to Russia after years of spying in the top echelons of the British Intelligence, Kim Philby. And as such, this book is a page-turner and doesn't disappoint. I am looking forward to reading the two final books in The Karla Trilogy.

First off, I understand that Tinker Tailor is a spy novel, and that Le Carre obviously wanted to achieve a certain effect appropriate to the genre, and to keep everything "realistic." But it was jargon-y to a fault, and in keeping its audience as in the dark as its protagonist, it succeeded too well.

Furthermore, its characters never spoke the way they were described - it was always "'could you pass the tea please, that's a boy,' he shouted furiously." And about 95% of the book is written in past perfect tense, which I had had (!) about enough of after two chapters.

So someone needs to tell me how the Smiley books got so popular. Are the rest better?

Am mai citit câteva cărți scrise de spioni care s-au transformat în scriitori de bestsellere - amintesc aici de cele mai cunoscute, Dr. No al lui Ian Fleming și Ziua Șacalului de Forsyth -, dar problema generală cu majoritatea e că autorii lor sunt spioni, nu scriitori, și dacă poveștile sunt interesante în sinea lor, executarea lasă mult de dorit: de la limbajul simplist, la personajele de carton, la misoginismul cras (de James Bond vorbesc aici, lejer cel mai libidinos mascul de care am dat vreodată în literatura modernă), la felul în care intrigile destul de faine (deși simpliste) sunt date la schimb pentru scene de acțiune adesea lipsite de tensiune, la finaluri grăbite și nememorabile.

Le Carre nu are însă problema asta. Slow-burner-ul ăsta e absolut fenomenal în atmosfera pe care o creează, nu e doar o poveste cu spioni, e povestea cu spioni.

Intriga, bazată pe cazul real (în care a fost implicat inclusiv le Carre) al spionului englez Kim Philby transformat în cârtiță rusească în timpul Războiului Rece, se desfășoară lent, parcă în timp real, și oferă cititorului mici revelații din loc în loc, astfel că până spre final știi tot, mai puțin răspunsul la întrebarea „care dintre cei mai sus puși ofițeri ai serviciilor secrete engleze e cârtița?”, care-i un fel de singularitate în mijlocul unei găuri negre, pur și simplu nu-l poți anticipa înainte să treci de event horizon.

Cum ziceam, le Carre nu se grăbește, nu dă caracterizarea personajelor și țeserea atmosferei excelente pe senzații ieftine și trecătoarea, totul pare (și chiar este) tridimensional, se simte dedicarea cu care a scris cartea și răbdarea cu care făurește universul spionajului anglo-rusesc. Totul pare foarte autentic, și probabil și e, tot așa cum polițiștii zic că filajele reale sunt extrem de plictisitoare, tot așa și jocul ăsta de-a șoarecele și pisica se desfășoară lent, implică multă muncă detectivistică, care probabil e foarte lipsită de evenimente mărețe, nu avem parte de împușcături și urmăriri pe tot globul, majoritatea timpului oamenii stau la masă și vorbesc sau povestesc evenimente trecute, și totul e filtrat prin mintea pesonajului principal, care trebuie să îmbine piesele în așa fel încât să îi dea la final o imagine corectă.

Pentru cine nu știe, există și un serial (pe care nu l-am văzut, dar am auzit că e excelent) și un film făcute după carte. Filmul, în buna tradiție a filmelor, oferă varianta mai simplificată a lucrurilor, reduce conversațiile de pe pagini întregi la schimburi mai esențiale și permută câteva scene (probabil pentru o mai bună înțelegere a situației destul de complicate de către auditoriu), deși nu omite niciun punct de cotitură, totul e acolo, dar mai direct, și l-am văzut de vreo 4 ori, e probabil cel mai bun film de gen pe care l-am văzut vreodată. Evident, îl ajută faptul că e jucat de cei mai buni 10 actori englezi ai ultimilor 30 de ani.

Anyway, dacă n-ați citit nicio carte cu spioni până acum, și vreți una, doar una, atunci v-o recomand pe asta.

با وعده‌ی جنایی جاسوسی سراغش رفتم اما اون چیزی که فکر می‌کردم نبود، بیشتر یه مستند از سازمان‌های جاسوسی و اصطلاحای عجیب و غریب این سازمان‌ها بود، داستان‌های درهم و برهمی که به نظرم فقط برای این نوته شده بودن که اون اصطلاحات سازمانی رو نشون بدن، از کل داستان فقط خط داستانی جیم پریدو و بیل روچ برام جالب بود.
به نظرم طوری نیست که بشه این کتاب رو به هرکسی پیشنهاد کرد، اگر مستند جاسوسی دوست دارید ممکنه این کتاب براتون جالب باشه، در غیر اینصورت با احتیاط سراغ برید.

I remember that when I read this (and the other Karla novels) years ago, I ripped through them to the detriment of my understanding of all the twists and turns of the plot. So although I enjoyed them immensely, when I was all finished (and even during the reading) I felt confused about what story le Carre had actually told.

So a couple years ago I watched (Netflix) the BBC adaptation of the books with Alec Guinness. Again, I enjoyed it no end, but while the 7 hour condensation of the story had to have a much simplified plot, I again felt (during and after) that I wasn't fully comprehending the story.

These experiences I think say something about the problems I have always had with short term memory. I am left with the question, do I read the books again, with extra attention, or note-taking, or whatever, to see if I can finally comprehend the entire magnificent labyrinth that le Carre has constructed in these books? I would love to, but life is short, especially at my age. It's hard not to conclude that time would be better spent (even more enjoyably?) reading things that I've never read, or rereading some of the books that I have both enjoyed as much as the Karla novels, and been able to get more out of. (See my favs-read-more-than-once shelf.)

This is, after all, a spy novel, not

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Oft billed as the "anti-Ian Flemming," John Le Carre inverts all the typical trappings of the spy-thriller: in place of the handsome, gadget-happy g-man we're given a sacked, middle-aged cuckold whose attention to detail and intellectual virtuosity quietly derail Moscow Central's invisible vise-grip on the Circus.

Note that "quietly," as the tension here is all cerebral, the violence and spectacle off-stage, and the stakes themselves, though no less dire than the fate of the world, are entirely ideological.

The Cold War assurance of mutual destruction provides the British imagination with a field of conflict perfectly tailored to the restriction of overt or "hot" action (Smiley's also impotent), which is then carefully sublimated through elaborately mannered, gentlemanly games of intelligence and subterfuge.

Himself a former blown secret agent for MI6, Le Carre writes with all the authority and flare one would expect from a once genuine article, though without all the lurid technical gun-fetishism of a Tom Clancy or Ian Flemming. A great deal of the prose is composed of contextually self-evident turns of phrase that seems to have bucked a number of readers at this site--while not jargon, this writing style suggests a world behind the world more interested in demonstrating, rather than explaining, itself.