John Le Carre doesn’t give a shit what you want. You combine that with a career in intelligence; you’ve already got most of a writer.
John’s spy yarns, probably not that well known among the post cold war generations, leave the reader feeling breathless and abused. The events of his stories unfold with no hint of mercy, either for the reader or the characters. Le Carre’s universe, not unlike our own, is indifferent. This cosmic indifference gives the reader the sense that what he is reading has happened somewhere. It must have. It can’t be just a story. Which is Le Carre’s gift.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a Le Carre story I have not yet read. I’ve read others and I own this one, but I decided to delay after I heard Gary Oldman was playing George Smiley in a feature film adaptation. And I was right; the movie was fantastic.
Smiley is brought out of retirement by ‘The Circus’ (MI5 and MI6) to find a very highly placed Soviet mole. It looks like this occurs in the later 70’s judging by hair and clothing. He is working directly for the Prime Minister and nobody in MI6 knows he’s investigating. He is brought back because it has to be one of a group of his friends that is the mole and it’s obviously not him because he was forced to retire after losing an undercover operative. So the operation is bare bones and is only Smiley and another man who still works for the circus (the awesome Benedict Cumberbatch). One of Benedict’s main functions is to steal classified material from the circus (makes for some very tense entertainment).
Apparently there’s a classic british mini-series version of this story with Alec Guiness that I’m going to have to track down. That’s how good this movie was, I now want to track down a longer older version just to bask in the story longer. But, seriously, this film is almost nothing besides notable British actors talking in rooms. And it’s amazing.
**Spoiler (kind of)
Best line: Smiley comes face to face with the mole and asks him whether the Russians had planned for him to become head of the circus. The mole remarks,” I’m not their bloody office boy.” Smiley’s reply,” Then what are you?” with all of Oldman’s quiet thunder.
See this film, it’s good.