Smiley's People

Smiley's People

  - John le Carré

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third book in the Karla trilogy, where now-retired George Smiley finally gets an opportunity - a last chance - to beat his lifelong nemesis. I have read the first book in the series, but not the second one (The Honorable Schoolboy), and from the comments it appears I really missed something. Anyhow, this can be read as a standalone, though it is good to have context from the earlier one - the image of the primary characters and the conflicts that they have engaged in previously. It is fraught with a gripping tension, as the intricate web is oven, things go wrong or threaten to fail at the last moment.

This is the fourth Le Carre novel I read, but the first one read as a physical book. In the previous three that I read on kindle, I had a little trouble following his narration and plot, and I attributed the challenge to the digital version. So I bought a physical copy (a large print, beautiful, hardcover) that I found in a used book sale, since the author had been so highly recommended to me as I am fond of thrillers and espionage novels. Having read this, I concluded that the challenge I had was not not solely due to the kindle format - Le Carre often composes long, convoluted sentences and at times I had to read them twice to figure what he was trying to tell - there was one that was almost half page long!

Apart from this issue, I loved the book. It is not packed with action (think Bond movies), but demonstrates the slow and skilled and painstaking work that espionage is, which I feel is much closer to the truth. On one hand there are huge risks and intrigues, and on the other, the calm and patient way they must be carried out. I now understand why so many readers consider him to be the master of the genre - his stories resonate a lot with the true accounts of cold war espionage and counter-espionage I have read.