A Legacy of Spies

Written in 2017, this is an interesting sequel to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Le Carré's breakout novel published in 1963, at the height of the Cold War.  The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was a masterpiece,  a dark portrayal of the cynical ends-justify-the-means view of the espionage services on both sides of the Cold War.  A Legacy of Spies revisits the events of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold from the perspective of 50 years afterwards: the children of Alec Leamus and Liz Gold (the protagonists of Spy), now grown and deeply embittered, attempt to sue and/or extort the British Secret Service (and especially the very likable Peter Guillam, right-hand junior to George Smiley) for the wrongs done to their parents. 
This backward look is an interesting idea (see Le Carré's piece in The Guardian on how he came to write Spy), and it does effectively highlight some cultural changes in attitudes toward secret services, but the issues at stake are not as powerful as those in almost all of Le Carré's other books and, accordingly,  I did not find it as satisfying. 

Update on A Delicate Truth by John Le Carré

Just re-read a 2013 Le Carré, which I had read and liked when it first came out, but had not been particularly struck by.  But this time, it hit me harder.  One of the prefatory quotes, from Oscar Wilde, was "If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out".  And without specific spoilers, the book deals with the aftermath of an operation gone very wrong and briskly covered up.  A key player, in both the operation and the cover up, is Jay Crispin, a trader in mercenaries. Here's an assessment of Crispin by our protagonist, Toby:

And for sure, wrestling with his disgust and anger, and determined as usual to reduce them to a manageable level, he gave due thought to Hannah Arendt's concept of the banality of evil, and launched into a debate with himself about where Crispin fitted into her scheme of things. Was Crispin, in his own perception, merely one of society's faithful servants, obeying market pressures?  Maybe that was how he saw himself, but Toby didn't.  As far as Toby was concerned, Jay Crispin was your normal, rootless, amoral, plausible, half-educated, nicely spoken frozen adolescent in a bespoke suit, with an unappeaseable craving for money, power and respect, regardless of where he got them from. So far, so good. He had met embryonic Crispins in every walk of life and every country where he had served: just never until now one who had made his mark as a trader in small wars.
In a half-hearted effort to find excuses for Crispin, Toby even wondered whether, deep down, the man was just plain stupid. How else to explain the cock-up that was Operation Wildlife? And from there, he wandered off into an argument with Friedrich Schiller's grandiose statement that human stupidity was what the gods fought in vain.  Not so, in Toby's opinion, and no excuse for anybody, whether god or man. What the gods and all reasonable humans fought in vain wasn't stupidity at all. It was sheer, wanton, bloody indifference to anybody's interests but their own.

A Memoir from John le Carré

The Pigeon Tunnel - Stories from my Life is a memoir of sorts composed of short chapter-length anecdotes from le Carré’s life that are amusing, head-shaking, chilling, or thought-provoking.  Several explain the origin of particular characters that appear in his books, and some describe hair-raising experiences during his trips to war zones and other exotic locations to research different novels.  For The Night Manager, he visits Panama to see a camp where the CIA trained the Special Forces from several countries, and to meet 54 year old President Endara, atop a Spanish colonial staircase, with his 22 year old mistress, newly turned wife: 

A young woman is crouched at his feet, her shapely rump pressed into designer jeans as she wrestles with a Lego palace she is building with the President’s children.
‘Darling,’ Endara cries down to her, in English for my benefit. ‘See who is here!  You have heard of….’ Et cetera.
Still kneeling, the First Lady looks me cursorily up and down and resumes her building.
‘But darling, of course you have heard of him!’ the President implores her. ‘You have read his wonderful books! We both have!’
Belatedly, the former diplomat in me stirs.
‘Madame President. There is no reason on earth why you should have heard of me. But you have surely heard of Sean Connery, the actor, who was in my recent film?’
Long silence.
‘You are friend of Mr. Connery?’
‘Indeed I am,’ I reply, though I scarcely know him.
‘You are welcome in Panama,’ she says.

 The Pigeon Tunnel is of special interest to le Carré fans, but full of striking stories and insights for any reader!

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A Delicate Truth

This most recent book by John Le Carré continues his trend of indicting, by relating a gripping episode, new practices in the confluence of international relations, espionage, commerce and crime.  Le Carre's fury at these developments is barely contained and the books are generally tense with the burden of impending doom.  This one addresses undercover operations contracted to companies similar to the now defunct (or, more accurately, re-named) Blackwater Security Consulting.  Le Carré  knows this world like the back of his hand - or at least continues to have access to people who can provide insider information.  And his characters are vivid - very likable and attractive or the complete opposite.  Terrific reading!   And, surprisingly, this one ends on what is almost an up note. (Though it seems clear that an additional 50 or 100 pages would have destroyed this temporary relief!)

Our Kind of Traitor

Just finished “Our Kind of Traitor” by John le Carre – I thought it was brand new, as I picked it up off the New Books shelf of our Library, but it was actually published in 2010. Well, it was excellent, as usual, but as I have seen in Le Carre’s other recent books, he increasingly indicts major distortions of society caused by massively outsized greed, corruption and international criminality.

In this book, a British academic and his lawyer girlfriend are drawn into helping Dima, a Russian vor or mafia-type, who wishes to defect to Britain to save himself and achieve revenge on a criminal kingpin who has killed Dima’s right-hand man. Dima is “the greatest money launderer in the world” and crusaders within the British Secret Service attempt to use his defection to clean up the financially corrupted British establishment, but they are naturally opposed by those who benefit from the corruption. The novel, intensely readable and absorbing, ends powerfully and unhappily.

le Carre asserts in comments on The Constant Gardener and Our Kind of Traitor that he does not exaggerate the extent of corruption, but if anything, understates it. Interested? Here’s a lengthy and very thoughtful interview, from Democracynow.com in which he discusses these views (http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/11/exclusive_british_novelist_john_le_carr)

A quick, thought-provoking read - highly recommended.

A Most Wanted Man by John le Carré

I have been reading le Carré for years - originally knocked out by The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and then even more enthusiastic about the Smiley novels. The Perfect Spy was a particular favorite.

The books are all about deceit in interpersonal relationships - a topic of great personal interest to me, as my father and mother divorced when I was very young and I grew up with my father and grandmother, who re-created my exceptionally savvy mother as an irrelevent no-account. Further, my grandmother was a true Victorian - born in Leicester, England in 1890 - who did not talk plainly or realistically about important things in life (sex, religion, prejudice). And finally, as I was growing up, there was an increasing chasm between the attitude presented to me by my father and grandmother that mothers were inconsequential and the fact that my dad lived almost his entire adult life, unmarried, with his own mother.

Well, but to le Carré! So the last few of his books (e.g., Russia House, Tailor of Panama) did not seem to me to be all that great. I liked The Constant Gardener, but hadn't read the books afterward. Then I heard le Carré interviewed on NPR about his new book, A Most Wanted Man , and next time I walked into my local library, it was sitting on the new arrivals shelf! So I grabbed it. Found it to be true coin of the realm - immediately engaging, with the familiar le Carré voice and world established immediately and firmly. The book doesn't contain many surprises, but was still a wonderful read. le Carré is now 77 - hope he keeps writing for another 30 years!