What is the best John le Carré novel? | Hacker News Reader

What is the best John le Carré novel?

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47 pointssamclemens17 comments

I nominate The Secret Pilgrim.

It's a sequence of vignettes about the Service as related by Smiley during a training session for new recruits. I remember finishing the book, and feeling a profound sense of pity for the broken, fractured people working for MI6.

A lot of Le Carre's stuff deals with the same themes -- but that was the first time I ever felt what the author was trying to put across. I've not read anything with similar impact since.

"For some of us, this bleak and witty thriller was an introduction to grownup reality."

I think this sentence sums up how I feel about le Carre entirely. An introduction to grownup reality.

The Honourable Schoolboy?

It absolutely has that vast grey nothingness of expectation, hope, attempt, and when something eventually does happen, it turns out to have happened already and there's nothing to do about it any more. Betrayal, perhaps, but in the past tense.

This was my favorite of the Smiley series and my favorite of his novels that I have read so far (almost half of them). Really like the change of scenery from the cold and dreary settings of the U.K., Germany, and Russia.

Surprisingly though it is A Murder of Quality (the only Smiley novel not set in the spy world) that has stuck with me the most.

I've never read any of Le Carre's books, but saw a couple of films based on his books. The Little Drummer Girl was a pretty good film, so I'd like to read that book.

If you've not seen "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" the film is well worth it, although if you can get hold of the BBC TV series of that and "Smiley's People" . To me Alec Guinness just is George Smiley, far more then he is Ben Kenobi.

Plus as a bonus the books were still excellent reading even after knowing what happens.

> To me Alec Guinness just is George Smiley, far more then he is Ben Kenobi.

Now THAT is a superb recommendation. Downloading it now.

The Alec Guinness "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" is absolutely superb.

Agreed about the book and miniseries, but for me the problem with the film is that the book "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is one of the great character-driven spy thrillers, so while the film on its own is not a bad film, it dumped vast sections of character development to get down to 127 minutes.

I really enjoyed The Little Drummer Girl - that is my favourite Le Carre book of the ones I've read. I didn't know it had been made into a film - I'll have to look out for that, thanks!

At risk of outing myself as an Anglophile--and of then being shunned by true Brits for saying this--but I rate LeCarre with Anthony Burgess, high on my list of favorite authors. Coincidentally, Burgess took a swing at a spy novel (and at LeCarre and Ian Fleming). Worth a read for fans of the genre.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremor_of_Intent:_An_Eschato...

_A Perfect Spy_ has my vote, it's an incredible book.

I had no idea that parts of it were so autobiographical - his father was a convicted con man and associated of the Krays. I'll have to read it again!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Spy

I still absolutely love Tinker Tailor as a book. The characterisation is first rate.

Call for the Dead is a really interesting Novel too - Le Carré's first novel and shows both his evolution as a novelist and the evolution of The Circus and Smiley's colleagues. Mendel gets a bit more of a starring role.

Once you have read his early classics, "A Most Wanted Man" is well worth a read. It was the book where le Carré rebooted himself for the 21st Century; when I think of it I always think of William Gibson's "Spook Country" alongside it (both thematically and in terms of a reboot).

People who like Le Carre will also enjoy this British TV show from the '70s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandbaggers

Actually, I don't like le Carré's books. I think his writing style is tedious and overly obsessed with painfully drawn out descriptive language. There are good stories hiding in there somewhere. But the packaging isn't for me.

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