No one comes out clean

November 5, 2023 1:18 AM

Equally refreshing is the fact that le Carré's protagonists are not the dashing heroes of typical spy narratives; instead, they grapple with ethical dilemmas, are haunted by personal sacrifices, and left run down and poverty-stricken by the relentless psychological toll of their work. Leamas is genuinely one of British fiction's most hopeless and pessimistic characters. from Why John le Carré's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is the ultimate spy novel [BBC]

The secret lives of Ian Fleming and John Le Carré – the spymasters shaped by a lack of parental love [The Conversation]
Spying is Lying: How David Cornwell Became John Le Carré [LitHub]
The Secret Life of John le Carré by Adam Sisman review – the spy who loved me [Grauniad; ungated]
Novelist John Le Carré reflects on his own 'Legacy' of spying [NPR]

posted by chavenet (37 comments total)

Good stuff. The Secret Heart: John Le Carré: An Intimate Memoir (2022) by Suleika Dawson laid bare reviewed is worth a look.
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:30 AM on November 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

There’s an error morris doc about Le Carre on Apple TV, I think it’s called ‘the pigeon tunnel’
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 3:49 AM on November 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

We just watched the Erol Morris documentary - it's good but somewhat superficial. LeCarré/Cornwell talks a lot about his father (who sounds like a real piece of work, a male Lilly Dillon (from The Grifters) ) but pointedly not about much else, which is a bit of a let-down. At the same time, I didn't really care because... the portrait of his father was pretty exceptional and - what is there really to learn? He says himself that he's a confabulator and his father's son and I expect nothing less but lies and disambiguation from him... then again I don't get the joy of digging into every corner of any given artist's private life for dirt. I really enjoyed LeCarré's last few novels - partly because the politics are ones I agree with.

In the movie he says his time in the secret services was uneventful and short. More revealingly he talks about turning over some 'communist-sympathising' fellow students and how awful it made him feel, though he feels it was the right thing to do.

Now, if Cornwell had secretly been in cahoots with Philby, that would be something.
posted by From Bklyn at 4:11 AM on November 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

Of course, the almost mundane level of detail in the book meant those after more Bond-ish spectacles may have been left wanting. The Times review of the period, for example, bemoaned that there was "too much description and not enough action".

The description and the lack of action are exactly what make his books appealing, of course.

Personally I prefer some of his other books, like his Little Drummer Girl, over The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, but it is a classic for sure and when I reread it a few years ago seemed to have stood up to the test of time.
posted by Dip Flash at 5:19 AM on November 5, 2023 [7 favorites]

If you want to learn more about Le Carré's father, read his novel A Perfect Spy. As a novel, it's not as gripping as some of his other work, but the portrait of Rick Pym isn't a pretty one, and the violence of the man comes out much more than it does in The Pigeon Tunnel.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:24 AM on November 5, 2023 [12 favorites]

Every time I reread The Spy Who Came In From The Cold I'm shocked at just HOW grim it is, just the unrelentingness of it. It stays with you for ages. I love the set pieces, dialogues, riffs in his fatter, juicier books for sheer entertainment and prose but that first one is the most exceptional. Read his collected letters, much closer to the bone that the documentary obvs. You find out more about his spywork.
posted by runincircles at 6:48 AM on November 5, 2023 [6 favorites]

My middle school library had an extensive collection of Le Carré novels which my mom encouraged me to read after she saw them on the shelves during an Open House night. He's,s been one of my favorite authors ever since, to the point that I often describe other, more recent, films/books/TV through his lens, like how I recommend the Star Wars TV show "Andor" to folks as "John LeCarré in Space"
posted by KingEdRa at 7:33 AM on November 5, 2023 [10 favorites]

Loved the film (on Apple TV+ where I am) and it didn't have much in common with (my memory of) the book; although Cornwell does read passages from it as narration. it was a bit of biography, but most interesting were the explorations around bigger themes like "truth" and storytelling and how something that is clearly fiction can also be telling a true story.
posted by stevil at 8:37 AM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

The new coda to his biography is making some waves, see A new book describes John le Carré’s philandering. The book itself is a bit awkward; Sisman agreed to leave this part out of the earlier 2015 biography.

At least to begin with. Mr Sisman soon learned that writing a biography of a living subject is a tricky business. During his research, he learned of Cornwell’s umpteen extramarital affairs. He felt that Cornwell’s career as a relentless seducer of women was central to a full understanding of both the man and the writer of great spy novels. (After all, seducing and spying can both involve betrayal.) The novelist based characters on his lovers. He said the affairs were a “necessary drug for writing”, not “separate from the ‘high literary calling’, so to speak, but alas, integral to it, and inseparable.”

All the same, Cornwell implored Mr Sisman to leave out the details of his private life from the book. Only now, three years after the death of the novelist and his wife, Jane, and with the permission of Cornwell’s eldest son, has Mr Sisman published this readable, if prurient, addendum to his biography of 2015.

In vaguely related things, I just finished watching the excellent 1970s British spy TV show The Sandbaggers (Fanfare). It's not Le Carré but the writing is clearly in the same vein of dismal spy stories. Great TV. You can watch it in the US on Britbox.
posted by Nelson at 9:13 AM on November 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

I have never read any Le Carre but I do like me an espionage novel. perhaps I will try this one.
posted by supermedusa at 9:27 AM on November 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

Every time I reread The Spy Who Came In From The Cold I'm shocked at just HOW grim it is, just the unrelentingness of it.

The movie--Richard Burton at his seamiest--captures this well. Shocking is the word for it, from this period.

Prefacing this by saying that Tinker Tailor is both an excellent genre piece and somehow really moving without being sentimental, Sisley's book struck me as both peculiarly servile and lacking in insight. I didn't come away from it thinking well of either of them, and not due to any glamorous or interesting sins. (Le Carre snitched against college friends, and his repentance seems to have come a lot later. ) Going by his biography of Hugh Trevor-Roper, this seems to be characteristic of Sisley.

This article even glamorizes Le Carre's characters and atmosphere to a degree. Some of his later, post-Cold War, characters become genuine, if unlikely and reluctant, moral crusaders. Leamas, well, Leamas gives up. Smiley is a talented officer, but he's not a great genius and he's no rebel against his establishment. Le Carre's earlier work isn't really about ethical dilemmas, as it so easily could have been.
posted by praemunire at 10:56 AM on November 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

I just read "The Pigeon Tunnel" and found it well-written and evasive. I think the most interesting thing he says in it was that he couldn't figure out how to write "A Perfect Spy" until he realized that the son had to do something much worse than his father had ever done.
posted by acrasis at 11:39 AM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is up on YT since yesterday watch for free tonight before it's taken down?
posted by BobTheScientist at 12:03 PM on November 5, 2023 [7 favorites]

Could never get past my conviction that all the detail in his books was a kind of faux verisimilitude which would mislead, betray, and ultimately frustrate completely my desire to understand in general terms what intelligence services were actually doing.

I still don’t really know where to turn to satisfy that desire.
posted by jamjam at 12:39 PM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

Seconding The Sandbaggers. If you like le Carre, you will almost certainly enjoy that show.
posted by nushustu at 12:53 PM on November 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

Jamjam, he certainly made up all the slang in his books, including, probably, "mole". He also wasn't a high-level spy and quit early, so he might have made other stuff up. One thing I get from his autobiography is that intelligence people from other countries loved to talk to him, so he got a lot of information by interviewing. That was certainly true for "The Little Drummer Girl", which he researched very carefully.
posted by acrasis at 12:53 PM on November 5, 2023 [5 favorites]

I am avoiding the comments here but I just put this book on hold with my Libby app. looking forward to it!
posted by supermedusa at 1:11 PM on November 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

Hey I just re-watched the film last week. Burton & Claire Bloom are great in it.

I rate the novel version along with Tinker & Little Drummer as my 3 favourite Le Carre novels. I've always argued that his best work is as well crafted as any award-winning highbrow literature.
posted by ovvl at 1:19 PM on November 5, 2023 [3 favorites]

The Washington Post review (gift link) of The Secret Life of John Le Carré is decidedly mixed:

While there is plenty of tabloid-worthy material between its covers, the book is nonetheless complex and consequential — a portrait of lifelong duplicity and betrayal as carried out by a novelist whose work so often focused on those themes. By the end, we’re convinced that one reason le Carré wrote with such insight on these dark arts is because he was such an able and enthusiastic practitioner of them.

But also:

One can’t help but suspect that Sisman might be hiding an additional motive — literary vengeance. Not only did le Carré undermine Sisman’s previous book, he also upstaged its publication, by announcing just days beforehand that he was writing a memoir, “The Pigeon Tunnel.”
[…]
This book may enrich Sisman materially, but he seems quite aware of the cost to his reputation as a biographer. It is an implicit admission that he fell short in his initial, and much longer, attempt: “In theory I was free to write what I thought fit; but in practice I was constrained.”

I can't say I'm in a hurry to read it.
posted by fedward at 2:40 PM on November 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

He admitted up front in the first biography that he gave Le Carre approval (may have been some qualifications, can't remember at this point). Not great.
posted by praemunire at 2:44 PM on November 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

I started reading Le Carre novels when I was a young teen, starting with Smiley's People. I always liked the detailed descriptions of spycraft (never cared and still don't care whether it was made up or not) and never missed that there wasn't much action along the lines of Bond and every other 'popular' secret agent. A wonderful storyteller, albeit probably too true-life (hence grim and unrelenting) for modern readers.
posted by dg at 2:58 PM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

an excellent discussion. carsonb did an outstanding fanfare on TTSS and Smiley's people. Cyril Cusack played Control in The movie, The Spy Who came in from the cold.
brilliant work, it's as if his ASMR voice soothes the blow for setting up Leamus.A Murder of Quality, the tv film is good, great cast and a young Christian Bale does a great job.
The Little Drummer Girl is a good movie. Kinski is very convincing. I would love to see The Honorable schoolboy be made into a movie or series.
posted by clavdivs at 3:55 PM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

And of course the adaptation of The Night Manager with Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, and Olivia Coleman is fantastic. (trailer)

I just read The Spy a couple months ago, because I hadn't yet and figured I should, and yeah, it's grim and it hits hard, but I can see why it's so influential and so well regarded even now.
posted by Naberius at 4:52 PM on November 5, 2023 [6 favorites]

This thread seems as good a place as any to ask whether it's necessary/preferable to read Call for the Dead and A Murder of Quality before reading Spy Who Came In From the Cold?
posted by terretu at 5:00 PM on November 5, 2023 [1 favorite]

It isn't necessary. Call for the Dead and A Murder of Quality aren't really espionage novels. They're murder mysteries. That being said, the more you know about the Circus and its denizens the better. A few comments back clavdivs mentions The Honorable Schoolboy, the middle book of the Karla trilogy. I love that book.
posted by kingless at 5:12 PM on November 5, 2023 [4 favorites]

I found HS hard to read coming off the heels of TTSS, I guess it's Jerry's fate that just made me turgid.
"In the aftermath, it is revealed that the British government (Lacon, Collins and Saul Enderby) made a deal behind the scenes where the CIA will interrogate Nelson alone, freezing out Smiley and the Circus. The success of the operation yields top promotions for Enderby, who becomes Chief, and Collins, who becomes Head of Operations"

The Secret Pilgram is a bit of a nostalgic touch for Smiley.

but if I were going to read The Spy Who came in from the cold for the first time I would probably follow it up with the secret pilgrim.
posted by clavdivs at 5:34 PM on November 5, 2023 [2 favorites]

I wouldn't recommend jumping directly from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold to The Secret Pilgrim if one hasn't read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It's been a little while since I last read The Secret Pilgrim, but I'm certain the identity of the mole in TTSS is mentioned at least once.
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 5:43 AM on November 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

I've read the russia house, and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and loved them both. What should I do first, read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or watch it?
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 6:35 AM on November 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

If your going to watch TTSS, I highly recommend the original 1980 BBC version. The remake with Gary Oldman (2011) isn't bad, but cutting the story to fit the running time of a movie does the story a great disservice.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:48 AM on November 6, 2023 [3 favorites]

I highly recommend the 2018 BBC miniseries adaptation of Little Drummer Girl, starring Florence Pugh. It feels much closer to the novel than the Diane Keaton movie. Michael Shannon is pretty great in the miniseries also.
posted by slappy_pinchbottom at 7:12 AM on November 6, 2023 [4 favorites]

cutting the story to fit the running time of a movie does the story a great disservice

It really depends on whether you're more interested in the puzzle or the vibes. The 2011 version does an excellent job at the latter, the only real misstep being the incomprehensible choices made about Ann.
posted by praemunire at 7:15 AM on November 6, 2023 [2 favorites]

Can we talk about Ann? I love that character. A competent woman and not romantically entangled with the hero / author stand-in character! At least no longer, by the time we meet her. She's so well written.

So I'm disturbed to think about her in the context of the new biography, where we learn Le Carré cheated on both his wives and the women he had affairs with turned into grist for his novels. I hate to think Ann is really just some former conquest of his. She's not, she's better written than that. So is she modelled after his own wife? Women he knew but didn't philander?

Really I'm asking for the character of Angela Burr in The Night Manager, so well acted by Olivia Colman in the TV adaptation. She's another Le Carré type, an older woman who is highly competent and does the necessary despite no support from her intelligence superiors. And she's not played at all as a love interest in the TV show. I wrote more about her on FanFare.

I guess I'm going to have to break down and read this new biography coda to understand how Le Carré folded his romantic escapades into his writing. I fear it's going to make me like the women characters he wrote less. But maybe instead it will let me respect that he was able to write women in various ways despite his caddish behavior.
posted by Nelson at 7:24 AM on November 6, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you're going to watch TTSS, I highly recommend the original 1980 BBC version.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [BBC 1979] -- all six episodes.

and when you realize you need more ...

Smiley's People -- all six episodes
posted by philip-random at 8:00 AM on November 6, 2023 [8 favorites]

Can we talk about Ann?

"Poor George, life's such a puzzle to you isn't it"

She's not, she's better written than that. So is she modelled after his own wife? Women he knew but didn't philander

She's not. Ann in the books comes from the declining minor aristocracy, non the less, the two contected by their time in the war. She is no fool to Intel it just with-in' her station.

the poor George line is from the series of TTSS episode 6, the very last scene and she has the last word. somehow Smiley tolerates the infidelities but the look on his face played by Guinness was one of resolute answer and she gave it. I'm quite convinced that Ann married George because of his honesty and lack of flair. it's also note worthy that, in one way or another, Ann led to KARLA' capture, the lighter in the television series version. but more importantly in the line of questioning. I personally think Ann is a character of someone he knew and himself and himself I mean the philandering self.
my two favorite characters are Connie Sachs and Peter Guillam.

Someone up thread asked about purpose of an intelligence service. I don't really know but my favorite book is the Russia House and that taught me that love can almost undo anything.
posted by clavdivs at 3:36 PM on November 6, 2023 [6 favorites]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy [BBC 1979] -- all six episodes.

This must be the US cut; the original UK version comprises seven episodes (details as to how each episode differs available at Guinness is Smiley: Episodes 1-3 and Episodes 4-6).
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 1:14 AM on November 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

John Le Carre writing about his dad Ronnie, ungated New Yorker piece from 2002.
posted by goo at 3:44 PM on November 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Really I'm asking for the character of Angela Burr in The Night Manager

A MeFite was kind enough to write and tell me that Colman's TV role is gender-swapped. The character in the book is Leonard Burr, a man. There's a good article interviewing Colman about the change.

Colman hopes that redressing the gender imbalance continues with more programs. “It’s a start, and I’m very pleased and proud of them all for doing it, because it really works,” she says. “There’s this powerful woman, and there’s something about her being the opposite sex, and she comes from a different place [from] the men. My husband said, ‘Imagine how freaked out the lions would be by a zebra that’s not scared.’ The fact that she is completely opposite to them in every way I think really adds to their mistrust of her and fear.”

Also...

Colman is so in demand that when she told Bier that she was pregnant and would be during the proposed shooting schedule, the director had the pregnancy written into the role.

Her character and performance are great. FWIW, it's coming from somewhere beyond just the Le Carré source material and the TV character I saw on screen is not directly tied up into the author's philandering.
posted by Nelson at 7:23 AM on November 16, 2023 [1 favorite]