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 ...

"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 ...

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...

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 adul...

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 c...

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 playe...

IL REBUS DELLA TALPASette 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 ...

"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 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. Book...

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....