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The honourable review
Dec. 13th, 2011 11:52 amHi,
So the new movie adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is coming out this week and the buzz is pretty positive. I'd already read the book (so...I know who dunnit), but I decided that it would be fun to read a bit more LeCarre, so I picked up the sequel The Honourable Schoolboy.
The book starts off right on the heels of it's predecessor with George Smiley at the head of a shattered British intelligence service. A mole planted by the Soviet spymaster "Karla" has left everything in shambles. To rebuild the reputation of the service, Smiley cleans house and tries to uncover other Karla schemes. This leads to the discovery of a steady transfer of large sums of cash ($25,000 per month! oh, right, it's set in 1972) to Hong Kong.
Smiley recruits some agents and sends them out to figure out what's going on and how it can be turned to his advantage. His chief weapon in this is Jerry Westerby, journalist and high-class boob which coveres for his other activities.
The book is...well...difficult in places. Mostly in that Jerry makes some decisions that are certainly possible, but not probable given everything we're told about him. His actions are meant to capture a lot of the moral quandaries that any spy would probably face, but his resolution doesn't seem to be quite correct.
In other respects though, this is a fun book. I especially enjoy how Smiley and the rest of his inner circle aren't dashing James Bond types, they're just very boring, unattractive civil servants, who have a very sharp mind buried under their shabby exteriors. There's also some discussion of the "special relationship" between the US and UK and how very lop-sided it can be from time to time. As good as Tinker, Tailor? No, but it was an interesting read nonetheless.
later
Tom
So the new movie adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is coming out this week and the buzz is pretty positive. I'd already read the book (so...I know who dunnit), but I decided that it would be fun to read a bit more LeCarre, so I picked up the sequel The Honourable Schoolboy.
The book starts off right on the heels of it's predecessor with George Smiley at the head of a shattered British intelligence service. A mole planted by the Soviet spymaster "Karla" has left everything in shambles. To rebuild the reputation of the service, Smiley cleans house and tries to uncover other Karla schemes. This leads to the discovery of a steady transfer of large sums of cash ($25,000 per month! oh, right, it's set in 1972) to Hong Kong.
Smiley recruits some agents and sends them out to figure out what's going on and how it can be turned to his advantage. His chief weapon in this is Jerry Westerby, journalist and high-class boob which coveres for his other activities.
The book is...well...difficult in places. Mostly in that Jerry makes some decisions that are certainly possible, but not probable given everything we're told about him. His actions are meant to capture a lot of the moral quandaries that any spy would probably face, but his resolution doesn't seem to be quite correct.
In other respects though, this is a fun book. I especially enjoy how Smiley and the rest of his inner circle aren't dashing James Bond types, they're just very boring, unattractive civil servants, who have a very sharp mind buried under their shabby exteriors. There's also some discussion of the "special relationship" between the US and UK and how very lop-sided it can be from time to time. As good as Tinker, Tailor? No, but it was an interesting read nonetheless.
later
Tom
