Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
up:: Books
- Type:fiction
- Author:: John le Carré
- Year published:: 1974
Summary/Reflection
Spoilers
For me, this book was a bit hard to get into. The many names and new vocabulary made the start confusing. So did the dry tone and jargon. Reading through Wikipedia, I was surprised to find out that le Carré made up a lot of the spy jargon. Having the Wikipedia list handy would have made reading easier initially. Interesting that he made the term “mole” popular!
Around half way through the book though, the plot became clear and I was intrigued. The author worked as an intelligence officer for some time, so the detailed descriptions of “the Circus” are no coincidence. In the descriptions of the hunt for the mole inside MI6, you can tell the effect that the real-life Soviet mole Kim Philby had on the intelligence community at the time. I like how things were described, a bit of the opposite end to Red Rising. Plenty of detail was mentioned and I think he described especially conversation and body language really well.
To me, the characters were flashed out and complex. Jim Prideaux and Peter Guillam felt real, and so did Bill Haydon. As a whole, enjoyed this book a lot and was happy to have taken the dive into the classic spy novel genre! 4½ stars from me!