clock … watching time, the only true currency

The Naïve and Sentimental Lover was the next book in my John Le Carré sequence, at least by chronology.
The problem?
The first hundred pages or so did not draw me in. Usually, I’ll plug away. I hate dropping a book unfinished. But I’m going to suspend my usual practice here. I’ve long since moved on [...]

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Where A Looking-Glass War disappointed, A Small Town in Germany restored my interest in Le Carré.
The “small town” is Bonn, the sterile capital of West Germany in those rebuilding years. Chasing down a possible defector from the British Embassy in the midst of a resurgence of German nationalism awakens the ire and interest in the [...]

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I knocked off John Le Carré’s The Looking-Glass War a few weeks ago. It’s tale of bumbling and bureaucracy in a relatively minor army intelligence department, trying to recapture its World War II prominence. According to Wikipedia:
John le Carré has stated that this novel is his most realistic portrayal of the intelligence world as he [...]

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Another John Le Carré, Call for the Dead blends espionage with procedural. Less than 150 pages in paperback, but a fine read. George Smiley’s introduction is pedestrian: even the opening chapter’s title is dry, “A brief history of George Smiley.”
Wonder if Le Carré had any premonition he would be writing novels with Smiley involved one [...]

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Peter noted my introduction to John Le Carré last month, and Santa’s wheels turned. Thank you!
I now have a box of Le Carré awaiting time to turn the pages. One is already completed: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Cold indeed. The spy in question, Leamas, is a hard man, an operator. But [...]

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The library “books you should read” table got me again. No complaints about this one, though.
John Le Carre is a known entity, but not to me. Smiley’s People is my first Le Carré read, though I did catch a recent movie.
Despite missing the first two books of the trilogy, I fell in with Smiley’s return [...]

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