When I think of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy I think of looking down upon the humid, crowded streets of Montreal from our elevated vantage point on a Greyhound bus, back 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...

"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. If you're looking for authentic spy novels, le Carré is your man."...

I tend to devour spy novels in one sitting, and there's no doubt that John le Carré is a master storyteller. His plots are full of unexpected twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very end.My only struggle with "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" was at the start, and it was entirely on my end. I had to quickly immerse myself in British slang, get familiar with spy jargon, distinguish between the two, and keep track of a bunch of new characters and how they connected to the ones I already kn...

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 my experience of the book 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 about to be slaughtered, hit in the head with a hammer, with each inevitable mention of his wife’s beauty, each smirking hint at her chain of adulteri...

Espionage is a continuation of war carried on by other means… Clandestine battles, psychological combat… Known only to the chosen few… Or the damned few.As far as I know, John le Carré was the first to reveal that 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 clande...

I'll freely admit it: I'm just not clever enough to fully appreciate *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy* by John le Carré. Honestly, the whole thing was way too convoluted for me. I was constantly getting lost. One minute I'm inside one character's head, then another, then suddenly back to the first. And then there's this *third* character who mostly pops up for cameos and feels totally unimportant, but we still spend time in his head too. As if that wasn't confusing enough, different people narrate di...

THE MOLE'S PUZZLESeven 50-minute episodes with Alec Guinness as Smiley, aired on the BBC in 1979.This is quintessential John le Carré, in my opinion, if not his best novel, it's very close. The perfect example of his world of spies, with their games – because that's what it is, a game, even if people often die playing it. A plot so intricate it borders on convoluted, following the mad and twisted minds of these absurd characters called spies. The feeling of not understanding anything is part of ...

"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 cocktail." Another tweet from jkeeten's defunct Twitter account.The British Secret Service, resembling a corporation that has suffered sagging profits, has reshuffled key players, ouste...

A few months back, they released a slick British film adaptation of *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy* in theaters, and I was definitely curious. But I know my limits. Movies are for smart folks. If I'm constantly elbowing my wife during *Superbad* to ask, "Wait, who's that guy again?" and "Hold on, is she the same one from earlier?" then I have to admit that seeing this movie would just leave me feeling confused and intellectually inadequate. I do much better with books. Books explain things. Books ar...

I'm one of many who believe that *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy* is the greatest spy novel ever written. Let's start with the obvious strengths. Unlike most books in this genre, John le Carré's writing is superb. Plus, having been a spy himself, le Carré nails the atmosphere. It feels 100% authentic, showing that spying is like any other job. Most of it is routine and office politics, with occasional moments of unexpected drama.Even if that were all there was to it, I'd still consider this book exce...