Jan
16
“Still, there are differences between the three versions. Le Carré makes up in atmosphere for what he hasn’t got in suspense, and creates a whole rackety secret world, a place where English public school boys gang up with con men and racketeers around the world to keep Britain safe. There are internecine conspiracies, a spy master losing his grip, murders in Czechoslovakia, and above all a Smiley who feels bad about his job – not because he’s lost it but because of the meanly ambiguous nature of the trade – so that his comeback feels especially sour. It’s a novel about the death of romance, the end of all fantasies of empire and adventure, although no one in the book can say just when the dream died.”
Michael Wood reviews Tinker, Tailor at the LRB
