John Le Carré (1931-2020)

I first became aware of John Le Carré in the summer of 1975 when I spent a few months in Israel. Someone gave me a copy of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (TTSS) to read and I found it very intriguing. True, there was a fair amount of the book that I found difficult to digest, spy novels not being a genre that I was familiar with at the time, but the general style and level of invention was engrossing. When I returned home, I presumably bought my own copy and began reading it until deeper understanding descended upon me. I hate to think how many times I have read this book since, or how much time I have devoted to developing a complete understanding (not to say that the time was wasted, but rather enjoyable).

The next Le Carré book that I read was the atypical "Naive and Sentimental Lover"; I don't recall now how I found out about this book but I remember reading it on the way to Winter Activities (as we called the winter Habonim camp) in 1976 where I was to spend a week cooking [I think that I saw a copy at a newsagents in the railway station]. For some reason, I travelled there alone which makes me wonder now what I was doing in the days previous to that journey. Anyway, the book had me scratching my head as it was completely different to TTSS. I doubt that I have read this book the whole way through more than two or three times.

Getting back on track, the next Le Carré book was "The honourable schoolboy", which I purchased at Heathrow Airport on the way to my first trip to America in August 1978. This book accompanied me on all of my travels for the next three weeks, even when it wasn't necessarily suitable reading. I have gone through this book several times and found parts of it - especially Jerry's covering of the South Asian wars - hard going. I still don't completely understand the hidden message of the ending.

I emigrated a few weeks after returning from America, so from here on my sources became somewhat limited. I picked up some of the earlier books in a second hand book shop in Rehovot that I frequented at the time, including the infamous "Spy who came in from the cold" (TSWCIFTC), which I didn't appreciate sufficiently at the time. I'm still not sure whether the point of "The looking glass war" was an attempt by the Circus to get rid of its competitors. The books prior to TTSS are set in the 1960s (if not earlier) and so seem to take place in an alternative universe: so many things have changed since then (I mean things like social levels, restaurants, bars, etc) that I find it hard to relate to these books. TSWCIFTC is much better than the other two books and displays the tortured story line development that TTSS has (nothing is what it seems to be on the surface).

I recall that my Israeli newspaper of the time published a few advance chapters of "Smiley's People" (in Hebrew) so I was familiar with some of the background to the story and didn't find it as complicated as its predecessors. This book is definitely simpler than TTSS.

From hereon, I would buy each book as it appeared; most of them I read once or twice without engaging with them, but there are two standout books from this period, "The little drummer girl" and "The night manager". Both of these I have read many times, both of these have been converted into TV series and I have commented several times on them. What amazes me about these two books is the amount of invention that occurs; they are such rich books, not only in terms of their literary style but also the events that are described and the thinking that created those events. 

That said, there has always seemed to be one false note about TLDG: when did planning this operation begin? The book starts with a bombing in West Germany that is supposed to be the initial event, but the whole story of Charlie at the weekend seminars took place at least a year previously. Was it really Michel who spoke at one seminar or a plant? The time line of events prior to the bombing seems a bit woolly to me (maybe it's my lack of understanding).

In recent years, there was the autobiographical "Pigeon Tunnel" and the biography that I read six months ago. In recent years, there were the intriguing "Legacy of spies" (classic Le Carré that has to be read after TSWCIFTC) along with the less classic "Agent running in the field".

Apart from the exquisite planning, what I have always liked about these books is the rich writing style. There will be no more but there is plenty enough to satisfy everybody. I see that I have written about JLC only 15 times over the past 14 years, but I can assure any reader that JLC is one of my favourite authors, along with David Lodge and Robert Silverberg. All three have stopped writing, but all three possess invention along with an eloquent writing style, so that reading their books is always a pleasure.

[Edit] Grrrh! How could I forget "A perfect spy"? Especially since it's so autobiographical. I also enjoy "The Russia house", but to be honest, I prefer the film to the book in this case.