Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Phew. After starting John LeCarre's "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" weeks ago I finally finished the book last night. I had previously read his "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" and thought it was fantastic, and was disappointed by "Absolute Friends". Thought I should love this one. Didn't.

My biggest problem is that it was a difficult book to really get into. The story, about spies and double agents and George Smiley trying to figure out who the mole was in the British spy agency is a great idea. However, LeCarre spent so much time telling us what might be happening that he doesn't actually show us. The entire novel is Smiley talking to people, investigating, but we never get into his head so we don't know where Smiley is going with this investigation or where he makes his intuitive leaps. Not really.

I plan on reading more LeCarre, but this one was disappointing.

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