Call number
MYST CAR
Collection
Genres
Series
Publication
Penguin Books (2013), Edition: Reprint, 240 pages
Description
A veteran spy wants to "come in from the cold" to retirement. He undertakes one last assignment in which he pretends defection and provides the enemy with sufficient evidence to label their leader a double agent.
Subjects
Media reviews
Lecturalia
En este clásico, el autor recrea un mundo jamás conocido antes en la novela de suspense. Con los conocimientos acumulados durante sus años en el servicio de inteligencia británica, le Carré saca a la luz los interiores un tanto turbios del espionaje internacional de la mano de Alec Leamas, un
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agente británico durante los primeros años de la guerra fría en Berlín. Leamas es responsable de mantener a sus agentes dobles protegidos y con vida, pero los alemanes del Este empiezan a matarlos, por lo que su superior, Control, le pide que vuelva a Londres no para echarle del cuerpo sino para encargarle una misión un tanto complicada. Con esta novela clásica de suspense, le Carré cambió las reglas del juego. Esta es la historia de un último encargo que recae sobre un agente que desea desesperadamente retirarse de su carrera de espionaje. Show Less
The best spy story I have ever read," says Graham Greene, and I am not too far from agreeing with him. Whether "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" is better than Eric Ambler's "Epitaph for a Spy" or Somerset Maugham's "Ashenden" or Mr. Greene's own "The Confidential Agent" is inconsequential. What
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matters is that it belongs on the same shelf. Here is a book a light year removed from the sometimes entertaining trivia which have (in the guise of spy novels) cluttered the publishers' lists for the past year. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member alana_leigh
Considered to be one of the best spy thrillers of the modern age, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is the the novel that put John le Carré's on the best-seller list (and essentially he's there to stay. Given this fantastic piece, it is well-deserved. Published in 1963, The Spy Who Came in from
Alec Leamas is a burned-out English spy enduring his final mission so that he might "come in from the cold" and retire after a long career in the British Secret Intelligence Service. This chance comes shortly after Leamas's stint as commander of the West Berlin office where he witnessed his last decent agent get shot trying to escape East Berlin. Now, his job is to destroy his own life and give the illusion of a washed-up agent ill-used by his superiors so that he might appear to be a man who's very willing to defect to the East German Communists and sell them information. Leamas is a pro and he plays his role well -- except he does what it seems like every spy does... he gets involved with a girl. Liz Gold is a young Jewish woman who works at a library, a registered Communist who falls hard for Leamas, even though he tries to push her away (though he doesn't try very hard). Whether Leamas falls in love with Liz or simply develops an affection for her, no one should be too surprised if Liz becomes a liability in the high-stakes game that he's playing. Before diving headfirst into his dealings with the East German Communists, he makes Liz promise to not try and find him and similarly asks his British superiors to leave her alone. Yeah. Sure.
To say too much about the plot would be criminal, so I'll simply note that it's all quite worth reading. It's so refreshing to find a novel where things move quickly and the author doesn't pander to a slow audience. I actually wondered at the beginning of the book if I was going to be quick enough to follow along with everything, particularly considering my Cold War knowledge is a bit rusty, but it turned out I had everything I needed to know. The thing that's fascinating now is to be familiar with the jaded concept that neither side is "right" in a conflict, but to see the origin of this idea in the novel that best brought it to light in terms of the modern age. Clearly, this is no James Bond novel where he easily bests the bad guys in the name of Queen and country while sleeping with sexy women and drinking martinis. Leamas is a grizzled case who's been in the field for much too long and he's beyond disillusioned with it all... and yet still, he might retain his own understanding of honor. He's lived a cover for so long that who knows what is "true" and it takes a woman from the outside to prove that not everything is about lies and subterfuge... but such a perspective can hardly survive the onslaught of underhanded dealings. There is, indeed, a real villain in this story, but an individual's blackened soul doesn't necessarily represent an entire country, particularly when the only other true idealist with a good dream to improve the lives of his people is on the exact same side. Leamas, despite being disillusioned with it all, still does seem to have some moral understanding and perhaps that's what draws him to naive Liz.
My book club read this at the suggestion of a member who is writing her own spy novel and so has been immersing herself in fiction and non-fiction that pertains to the topic as research. Perhaps an unlikely choice, it made for some great discussion as we dissected the motives of various characters and sighed over just how annoying Liz was. (Seriously, it's painful how useless and frustrating she was in the face of everything.) There was a movie made of this novel that a few of us had seen, though I personally casted Jeremy Irons as Leamas as I read the book and pictured everything playing out. So much of this spy work is about calculation, planning, and nervous execution. Whenever physical force is used, it's rarely flashy and frequently fails in its objective. It's certainly not the spy thriller that we're all familiar with, but that only makes it more interesting.
John le Carré is the pen name of David John Moore Cornwell, a former MI5 and MI6 employee who was very familiar with the intelligence game. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was so successful that it enabled Cornwell to quit MI6 and start writing full time. His first two novels featured the character George Smiley, who makes a brief appearance in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold as having a role in the British side of this plan (though not an official Circus agent, supposedly), and Smiley became one of le Carré's leading protagonists. The author calls The Spy Who Came in from the Cold one of his best four novels and it's quite easy to see why. Despite having the appearance of a jaded man and a lone wolf, Leamas is an incredibly sympathetic hero. Before reading this, I had kind of passed over le Carré as a writer whose work wasn't quite my style, but such intelligent writing about the spy game is fascinating for any smart reader with the desire to be told a twisted and complicated story. I already have my eye on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as a future read for when I want to dive into le Carré once more... though I certainly hope that future female characters are a bit less irritating than poor Liz or I'll be quickly disappointed.
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the Cold was le Carré's third novel, but the first espionage thriller of its kind -- namely, the first with the painfully realistic notion that there is no "good" or "bad" side in a conflict and no one is particularly moral or just when it might come at the expense of victory.Alec Leamas is a burned-out English spy enduring his final mission so that he might "come in from the cold" and retire after a long career in the British Secret Intelligence Service. This chance comes shortly after Leamas's stint as commander of the West Berlin office where he witnessed his last decent agent get shot trying to escape East Berlin. Now, his job is to destroy his own life and give the illusion of a washed-up agent ill-used by his superiors so that he might appear to be a man who's very willing to defect to the East German Communists and sell them information. Leamas is a pro and he plays his role well -- except he does what it seems like every spy does... he gets involved with a girl. Liz Gold is a young Jewish woman who works at a library, a registered Communist who falls hard for Leamas, even though he tries to push her away (though he doesn't try very hard). Whether Leamas falls in love with Liz or simply develops an affection for her, no one should be too surprised if Liz becomes a liability in the high-stakes game that he's playing. Before diving headfirst into his dealings with the East German Communists, he makes Liz promise to not try and find him and similarly asks his British superiors to leave her alone. Yeah. Sure.
To say too much about the plot would be criminal, so I'll simply note that it's all quite worth reading. It's so refreshing to find a novel where things move quickly and the author doesn't pander to a slow audience. I actually wondered at the beginning of the book if I was going to be quick enough to follow along with everything, particularly considering my Cold War knowledge is a bit rusty, but it turned out I had everything I needed to know. The thing that's fascinating now is to be familiar with the jaded concept that neither side is "right" in a conflict, but to see the origin of this idea in the novel that best brought it to light in terms of the modern age. Clearly, this is no James Bond novel where he easily bests the bad guys in the name of Queen and country while sleeping with sexy women and drinking martinis. Leamas is a grizzled case who's been in the field for much too long and he's beyond disillusioned with it all... and yet still, he might retain his own understanding of honor. He's lived a cover for so long that who knows what is "true" and it takes a woman from the outside to prove that not everything is about lies and subterfuge... but such a perspective can hardly survive the onslaught of underhanded dealings. There is, indeed, a real villain in this story, but an individual's blackened soul doesn't necessarily represent an entire country, particularly when the only other true idealist with a good dream to improve the lives of his people is on the exact same side. Leamas, despite being disillusioned with it all, still does seem to have some moral understanding and perhaps that's what draws him to naive Liz.
My book club read this at the suggestion of a member who is writing her own spy novel and so has been immersing herself in fiction and non-fiction that pertains to the topic as research. Perhaps an unlikely choice, it made for some great discussion as we dissected the motives of various characters and sighed over just how annoying Liz was. (Seriously, it's painful how useless and frustrating she was in the face of everything.) There was a movie made of this novel that a few of us had seen, though I personally casted Jeremy Irons as Leamas as I read the book and pictured everything playing out. So much of this spy work is about calculation, planning, and nervous execution. Whenever physical force is used, it's rarely flashy and frequently fails in its objective. It's certainly not the spy thriller that we're all familiar with, but that only makes it more interesting.
John le Carré is the pen name of David John Moore Cornwell, a former MI5 and MI6 employee who was very familiar with the intelligence game. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was so successful that it enabled Cornwell to quit MI6 and start writing full time. His first two novels featured the character George Smiley, who makes a brief appearance in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold as having a role in the British side of this plan (though not an official Circus agent, supposedly), and Smiley became one of le Carré's leading protagonists. The author calls The Spy Who Came in from the Cold one of his best four novels and it's quite easy to see why. Despite having the appearance of a jaded man and a lone wolf, Leamas is an incredibly sympathetic hero. Before reading this, I had kind of passed over le Carré as a writer whose work wasn't quite my style, but such intelligent writing about the spy game is fascinating for any smart reader with the desire to be told a twisted and complicated story. I already have my eye on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as a future read for when I want to dive into le Carré once more... though I certainly hope that future female characters are a bit less irritating than poor Liz or I'll be quickly disappointed.
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LibraryThing member In_The_Flesh
A perfect book for anyone who has not been reading fiction/for pleasure for a while. It is written in a style which seems very efficient. It manages to create a sense of action and description with a limited amount of prose used.
A fiction book, very much of its time. Written in at the turn of the
This is not to say that Le Carre holds back, or is guilty of assuming an arrogant withholding of information from the reader, to play his hand when he so chooses. In fact, the skill of his writing demonstrates that we are all duped by the establishment, and leaves the reader with the impression that trust cannot be something that enters into the discourse of both international diplomacy, but even more so with your own administrative establishment, where the idea of the 'Greater Good' is a true motivation with terrible and tragic consequences for any individual in the way.
A fiction book, very much of its time. Written in at the turn of the
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1960s, it portrays this early decade and the spy business, not as a glamerous and straight forward confrontation, a la Flemming's tradition, but as a confusing, bitter and ultimately cold existance, which is utilitarian in its nature. The style and writing of the book reflects this theme well, and the ultimate multiple bluffs that the book provides is skilled, in as much as it draws you into the conclusion you believe (or perhaps hope), but lifts several more veils that are present before the end.This is not to say that Le Carre holds back, or is guilty of assuming an arrogant withholding of information from the reader, to play his hand when he so chooses. In fact, the skill of his writing demonstrates that we are all duped by the establishment, and leaves the reader with the impression that trust cannot be something that enters into the discourse of both international diplomacy, but even more so with your own administrative establishment, where the idea of the 'Greater Good' is a true motivation with terrible and tragic consequences for any individual in the way.
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LibraryThing member ctpress
Carré is a fine writer - and the first half of this novel works very well. The whole set up - a man who is thrown out of the british intelligence agency and left unwanted, disgraced - but the agency have secrets plans with him - he's to be recruited by the enemy behind the Iron Curtain and thereby
But once he gets recruited and going to Germany the novel's last part ends up in some lengthy and overly detailed interrogation that seemed, well, not that believable to me.
Also the whole story becomes a little too muddy and confusing with all the double-and-triple-agent stuff. I know that's Carré's mission - to tell us that those who's going to protect us is just as corrupted as the enemy - everything is blurred and mixed up, you can't trust anyone, there are no real heroes. The ending is of course just a reflection of this whole thing.
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working as a double, well triple-agent. The best part of the story is when he meets a girl who's a communist and they fall in love. Impossible love, we know, but it's very well told. But once he gets recruited and going to Germany the novel's last part ends up in some lengthy and overly detailed interrogation that seemed, well, not that believable to me.
Also the whole story becomes a little too muddy and confusing with all the double-and-triple-agent stuff. I know that's Carré's mission - to tell us that those who's going to protect us is just as corrupted as the enemy - everything is blurred and mixed up, you can't trust anyone, there are no real heroes. The ending is of course just a reflection of this whole thing.
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LibraryThing member 5hrdrive
Depressing but brilliant. Sums up the entire Cold War, essentially.
LibraryThing member Ameise1
This is a good spy story from the Cold War. As always, a person needs to be saved, one that can be sacrificed, and a marginal figure that is saved on the other hand, but it does not matter if they are eliminated. Only this time the 'love' to an insignificant character was more important to the spy
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than his own life. Show Less
LibraryThing member Romonko
John Le Carre is well known in the spy novel genre. He is often thought of as the grandfather of this popular form of fiction. During the course of my lifetime I have read a few of his books, but I realized that I had never read this one, which was one of his earlier efforts, but the one that
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launched his career as novelist. The book is very well-written and rings true on every page. Le Carre was in the English secret service for a number of years, and as is said throughout the book by his protagonist, Alec Laemas, he has seen it all. Alec is a jaded spy who has spent most of his career in Berlin after the Berlin wall had been built. Alec has lasted longer than most others in this dangerous career, but he's not quite ready to be put on the shelf yet, so accepts a last job from his superiors at the "Circus" to bring down an evil East German spy that has caused the deaths of many of Alec's network. Even though he thinks he's seen it all, Alec does not expect that he is a pawn in a dangerous game of cat and mouse between his superiors and a spy from East Berlin. He is angry at himself for allowing himself to be duped, but angrier still because he has brought an innocent young woman into the spider's web. This book is heartbreaking and visceral, and clearly depicts the darker side of international espionage where life is cheap, and victory fleeting. John LeCarre states in his revealing prologue which i found in my copy. He wrote this prologue 50 years after the novel--"The Spy Who Came in From the Cold was the work of a wayward imagination brought to the end of its tether by political disgust and confusion." That personal awareness that LeCarre admits to helped him create a haunting memoir of what it was like to be a member of Her Majesty's Secret Service during the height of the Cold War Spy fiction aficionados should read this book in order to fill out the background as to how modern espionage novels evolved. Show Less
LibraryThing member annmariestover
I got this from a book sale over a year ago. It met the "slender" requirement, which was the primary reason I selected this title despite it's duller than dull cover. I've never been gladder that aesthetics didn't stop me, because this book was EXCELLENT. After a certain point, it's physically
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impossible to stop reading. I spent eight hours of a Saturday on the couch trying to cram all the excitement in as fast as I possibly could. It was deceptively jam-packed (and not all that slender, as the print was painfully small and compact). Show Less
LibraryThing member Cecrow
I don't read spy novels, but I've always been curious about John le Carré and chose this as my sample of his work. He identifies it as one of his best, and it's hailed as a classic. I can see why.
I've almost no experience with the genre, so my only basis of comparison is James Bond. The
Alex has no special gadgets at his disposal, and he can't fight his way out of his problems. He shies away from discussion about right and wrong because it makes him uncomfortable. He recognizes his enemy is a mirror image of himself. He feels the toll his work takes on his life, he feels the sacrifices, and he knows fear.
With James Bond, we wish we were in his shoes. With Alex, we're very glad we're not. That difference made this novel a hit when it was published in 1963, hailed as a landmark for its very human and realistic portrayal of unglamorous international espionage that probably opened a lot of people's eyes. Maybe someone who reads contemporary spy thrillers will find nothing unique here, since I'd imagine it must have set a template for many acts to follow, but it will always remain a quick read and well told story.
I've almost no experience with the genre, so my only basis of comparison is James Bond. The
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differences are obvious. James Bond is a no-nonsense superman who any man can idolize, the 'ideal spy' in a black-and-white world. Alex Leamas, on the other hand, is an everyman, just trying to do his job and hating it a good amount of the time. He gets fired from a senior posting, only to receive a second chance as an undercover operative. He has to go to extremes to establish this cover that would be far below Bond's dignity, and must resign himself to his role as expendable pawn in an enormous game he doesn't understand the full workings of.Alex has no special gadgets at his disposal, and he can't fight his way out of his problems. He shies away from discussion about right and wrong because it makes him uncomfortable. He recognizes his enemy is a mirror image of himself. He feels the toll his work takes on his life, he feels the sacrifices, and he knows fear.
With James Bond, we wish we were in his shoes. With Alex, we're very glad we're not. That difference made this novel a hit when it was published in 1963, hailed as a landmark for its very human and realistic portrayal of unglamorous international espionage that probably opened a lot of people's eyes. Maybe someone who reads contemporary spy thrillers will find nothing unique here, since I'd imagine it must have set a template for many acts to follow, but it will always remain a quick read and well told story.
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LibraryThing member Ben_Harnwell
Great spy novel from the master himself. I really do love these types of books. The ending is brilliant.
LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Alec Leamas is nearing the end of his career with MI6. He's been the head of the Berlin unit for several years, but he's transferred to a desk job in London following the loss of a high-placed source at a Berlin checkpoint. Before he retires, he's offered a last chance to net the man at the top of
The plot twists and the building tension make it a page-turner that can be read in a single sitting. It's an ideal airplane book. Unlike in Tom Clancy novels, it's hard to tell the “good guys” from the “bad guys” in Le Carre's novels. It's all shades of gray, with one side looking much like the other. The disillusionment with the intelligence field that characterizes Le Carre's work has a similar feel to the disillusionment about the legal profession in John Grisham's novels. I suspect if I read many of Le Carre's books, they would soon lose their luster just as Grisham's did for me.
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the East German Abteilung, the man who was responsible for the deaths of several agents who had worked under Leamas. It's a long, intricately plotted, life-or-death game.The plot twists and the building tension make it a page-turner that can be read in a single sitting. It's an ideal airplane book. Unlike in Tom Clancy novels, it's hard to tell the “good guys” from the “bad guys” in Le Carre's novels. It's all shades of gray, with one side looking much like the other. The disillusionment with the intelligence field that characterizes Le Carre's work has a similar feel to the disillusionment about the legal profession in John Grisham's novels. I suspect if I read many of Le Carre's books, they would soon lose their luster just as Grisham's did for me.
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LibraryThing member john257hopper
This is the first Le Carre novel I have ever read, perhaps surprisingly as I have read a fair few non-fiction books about Cold War espionage over the years. Perhaps this is because real life espionage stories contain so much drama, excitement, tension, horror and pathos, that they almost don't need
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fictionalisation. In any case, I must confess to having been rather disappointed with this novel for much of its duration, the first three quarters dragging rather, with my feeling rather uninterested in the doings of any of the characters, until the gripping final quarter with the trial and the final dramatic escape. I couldn't decide what I felt about the central character Alex Leamas. There is quite a lot of interesting dialogue about the nature of the spy's mentality, the nature of treachery and devotion to a cause or country. Show Less
LibraryThing member BraveNewBks
Hm. I'd heard great things about this book, but it left me a little out in the cold. I would say no pun intended, but that would be a lie. Or maybe a truth that we'd pretend is a lie so that people who know the truth and tell it will look like liars so that when the liars, who also know the truth
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but don't tell it, say that the truth-tellers are lying, people will think that's the truth. And that last sentence basically sums up the book for me. I felt like it tried to be a little bit James Bond (if Bond were a cranky retiree) and a little bit Agatha Christie (if Miss Marple were a cranky retired intelligence officer), and didn't really succeed at being exciting or mysterious enough to be either. There was also a dash of something grey, depressing, and vaguely philosophical thrown in -- you know, like one of those books from the required reading list in high school in which couples go back to small shabby rooms and having uninteresting relations devoid of any real description, and then have pillow talk about communism. Show Less
LibraryThing member KennethWDavis
My favorite spy novel.
LibraryThing member Stbalbach
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a classic spy novel though it crosses outside the genre to literature. I hesitate to called it a "thriller" since there isn't much action. In fact it's claustrophobic, paranoid, cold. Yet it's a powerful story that accurately reflects (or reflected) the mood of
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the Cold War. The plot is air tight, believable and seemingly without holes. I didn't see it coming. It can be re-read as there is a lot of mundane detail that didn't seem relevant but was important in the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member benjclark
I wondered if this would age well, and it seems to. The quality of the writing is still above par for espionage novels. The main female character is a bit of a B-movie ninnie, but it was still a fun read with plenty of cold war nostalgia.
LibraryThing member siew
Much against my will, I was drawn into the complex world weaved by le Carre. This is only the second le Carre novel I've read, and I must admit I'm not normally into espionage fiction, but in Alec Leamas and his final assignment, I was riveted for the entire length of this reasonably short novel.
The text is taut, conveying the desperation of the situation Leamas is in by what is unsaid moreso than what is relayed - and the spare descriptions only lends this style more strength.
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The text is taut, conveying the desperation of the situation Leamas is in by what is unsaid moreso than what is relayed - and the spare descriptions only lends this style more strength.
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LibraryThing member Archren
This book is deserving of the mantle of “classic” bestowed upon it. It takes the spy story, strips it of glamour and infuses it with the moral ambiguity of the real world. Its prose is bleak and spare, the characters repressed and uncommunicative. The surroundings reflect the characters who
In basic plot, it follows Alec Lemas, an intelligence operative once in charge of the West Berlin operations on behalf of Britan in the late 1950s and early 1960s. When the last useful agent he had in East Germany is shot, he is recalled and seemingly goes to seed, the only brief light in his life being a brief relationship with a librarian Liz Gold. There are plot twists within plot twists as there must be in setting up the ultra-sophisticated dance of intelligence and counter-intelligence. Some twists you’ll see coming, some you might not.
This book is a reflection of the times. Some things are surprising now: the passivity of the female character, the emotional repression, the anti-semitism. However, some things are as important today as ever: the killing of good men simply because they happen to belong to the “other” side, the dichotomy between “doing a job” and being motivated by ideology, the horrible things done, justified or not, in the name of national security. The book is very slim, and packs a lot of material in a short amount of space. I’d recommend it to just about anyone ever interested in the darker side of the often thrilling and glamorous espionage genre.
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reflect the necessities of the intelligence universe. In basic plot, it follows Alec Lemas, an intelligence operative once in charge of the West Berlin operations on behalf of Britan in the late 1950s and early 1960s. When the last useful agent he had in East Germany is shot, he is recalled and seemingly goes to seed, the only brief light in his life being a brief relationship with a librarian Liz Gold. There are plot twists within plot twists as there must be in setting up the ultra-sophisticated dance of intelligence and counter-intelligence. Some twists you’ll see coming, some you might not.
This book is a reflection of the times. Some things are surprising now: the passivity of the female character, the emotional repression, the anti-semitism. However, some things are as important today as ever: the killing of good men simply because they happen to belong to the “other” side, the dichotomy between “doing a job” and being motivated by ideology, the horrible things done, justified or not, in the name of national security. The book is very slim, and packs a lot of material in a short amount of space. I’d recommend it to just about anyone ever interested in the darker side of the often thrilling and glamorous espionage genre.
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LibraryThing member dougwood57
The book that really launched le Carre's career as a writer is a classic of the 'spy genre', but also demonstrates why that genre produces so many excellent writers - le Carre, Eric Ambler, Graham Greene, Alan Furst, and Robert Littel to name a few. Human desires, principles, compromises, morality,
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold set the standard for the multi-layered spy novel. As the story unfolds, the reader must attempt to decide what is really going on. Is Alec Leamas really a defector or on a covert deception mission? Does he really know fully what he is doing? Is East German counter-intelligence master, the despicable Mundt, the target of the deception or is he really an English spy? Is it a double-game? A triple-play? Is Leamas really in love?
Highest recommendation for fans of the spy genre or fine writing anywhere.
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amorality, and sexuality are all on display. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold set the standard for the multi-layered spy novel. As the story unfolds, the reader must attempt to decide what is really going on. Is Alec Leamas really a defector or on a covert deception mission? Does he really know fully what he is doing? Is East German counter-intelligence master, the despicable Mundt, the target of the deception or is he really an English spy? Is it a double-game? A triple-play? Is Leamas really in love?
Highest recommendation for fans of the spy genre or fine writing anywhere.
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LibraryThing member name99
I generally hate spy movies, including the few movies made from LeCarre's books, but I thought I'd give the original a shot. It's clear that the problem is in the movies, not the originals.
I really enjoyed this, and I particularly liked the fact that, unlike in a movie, everything hung together
I could even see, about two thirds of the way through, how everything was going to invert on itself.
I really enjoyed this, and I particularly liked the fact that, unlike in a movie, everything hung together
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appropriately with no dei ex machinis. I could even see, about two thirds of the way through, how everything was going to invert on itself.
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LibraryThing member nakmeister
Alec Leamas is a world weary secret agent for British counter-intelligence, working out of Berlin. He has been running a network of agents in Berlin for many years, very successfully, but recently things have been going wrong, and when his last agent is shot and killed trying to crossover into the
I'd heard a lot about John Le Carre, and seen many of his books in the library and bookshops. His name seems to be synonymous with the spy novel, and so when I found this early book in a charity shop, I just had to buy it. I wasn't disappointed. The book is very tightly written. It's a short book, weighing in at just over 200 pages, but there's a lot of plot packed into those pages. Very little words are wasted on long description and narrative, but Le Carre still manages to convey very well the bleakness of the espionage business and the cold war era. The story is very clever, but I won't say any more for fear of giving away spoilers. I couldn't decide whether to give it a 4.5 or a 5. In the end I went for a 5, because while there are a few novels I've enjoyed more, there are very few I've been more impressed by.
Note - this is John Le Carre's third novel, but it's generally considered his 'breakout' novel, the first of novels to gain siginificant popularity and acclaim.
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West, he returns to England. His boss, Control, asks him to do one final very important (and very dangerous) assignment, a devious plan designed to result in the death of the powerful head of East German intelligence. Leamas agrees...I'd heard a lot about John Le Carre, and seen many of his books in the library and bookshops. His name seems to be synonymous with the spy novel, and so when I found this early book in a charity shop, I just had to buy it. I wasn't disappointed. The book is very tightly written. It's a short book, weighing in at just over 200 pages, but there's a lot of plot packed into those pages. Very little words are wasted on long description and narrative, but Le Carre still manages to convey very well the bleakness of the espionage business and the cold war era. The story is very clever, but I won't say any more for fear of giving away spoilers. I couldn't decide whether to give it a 4.5 or a 5. In the end I went for a 5, because while there are a few novels I've enjoyed more, there are very few I've been more impressed by.
Note - this is John Le Carre's third novel, but it's generally considered his 'breakout' novel, the first of novels to gain siginificant popularity and acclaim.
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LibraryThing member wendyrey
Cold war spy thriller set largely in London and Berlin in the early days of the Berlin Wall. Full of plots, deception and man's inhumanity to man. Supposed to be a classic of its genre. A very dark book, much darker than I had expected. Not the sort of book I enjoy reading and I got a bit bored
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near the end Show Less
LibraryThing member ablueidol
Classic cold war betrayals and double cross that expose the heart of darkness of both sides
LibraryThing member Bookmarque
Pretty typical of this author. No guts and inner workings – just action. No time for political reasons, except at the end. Even then, not everything was clear.
LibraryThing member LizzySiddal
The classic Cold War thriller and a masterclass in plotting, pace and manipulation of reader expectations. In just 200 pages, Le Carre achieves what most modern thriller writers need 500 pages to acheive. I think it deserves the Dagger of Daggers. Surprisingly though, my book group members were
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somewhat underwhelmed. Show Less
LibraryThing member kraaivrouw
It's been a long time since I first read this, in high school. It didn't make as big an impression on me as the George Smiley novels did - it's much less epic, more subtle, I think.
I'm reading books that were published in my birth year so when I found that this was one of them I put it on the
le Carré can write - there is no doubt of that - and his novels written during and about the Cold War are mostly brilliant. I've never been a huge fan of the James Bond-type spy novels. I much prefer the notion that le Carré lays out - of a game grounded in utter pragmatism, its heroes largely unsung. The game as it is presented in these books has no clear answers, no clear victories, nothing, but ambiguity stacked on ambiguity - that's what makes these brilliant.
The Berlin Wall came down when I was in grad school. Throughout my earlier life it loomed there in the distance, a place where desperate people were killed by their own governments, where families were separated by an ideology made real through stone and barbed wire. These days it's easy to forget what that might have been like, but le Carré definitely captures that in this book.
Spare, cynical, dispassionate, and utterly tragic this book lays the groundwork for the George Smiley books that followed. It's a wonderful read.
I'm reading books that were published in my birth year so when I found that this was one of them I put it on the
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list. I'm glad I did, it's a very different book when read as an adult. Maybe it's just that I'm in the same part of my life as the main character, Alec Leamas - I understand his growing and vague sense of dissatisfaction, of time running out before you get to do that one really cool thing. le Carré can write - there is no doubt of that - and his novels written during and about the Cold War are mostly brilliant. I've never been a huge fan of the James Bond-type spy novels. I much prefer the notion that le Carré lays out - of a game grounded in utter pragmatism, its heroes largely unsung. The game as it is presented in these books has no clear answers, no clear victories, nothing, but ambiguity stacked on ambiguity - that's what makes these brilliant.
The Berlin Wall came down when I was in grad school. Throughout my earlier life it loomed there in the distance, a place where desperate people were killed by their own governments, where families were separated by an ideology made real through stone and barbed wire. These days it's easy to forget what that might have been like, but le Carré definitely captures that in this book.
Spare, cynical, dispassionate, and utterly tragic this book lays the groundwork for the George Smiley books that followed. It's a wonderful read.
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Awards
Edgar Award (Nominee — Novel — 1965)
Crime Writers' Association Awards (Winner — 1963)
Somerset Maugham Award (1964)
Pages
240
ISBN
0143124757 / 9780143124757