# RIP John Le Carré



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I just read that John Le Carré, the king of spy novelists, has passed away.

A great loss for all of us -- but a fitting time to tell anyone who has not read _The Spy Who Came in from the Cold_ to consider doing so.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

And all of the George Smiley books and basically anything he wrote.


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

I recall trying to read his books just after watching the UK TV adaptation of 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' and finding them too dense - almost too much detail. I just wasn't ready. 
I have since returned to them and with the benefit of age can appreciate them for what they are - superb works.
RIP John.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I always say that _The Spy Who Came in from the Cold_ has the best ending of any suspense novel I've ever read. When the big reveal happens, and the plot is twisted around, there is no new information -- the reader already had everything needed to solve the mystery, but no one does, and then when it's explained to us everything makes perfect sense for the first time.

It's just literary craftsmanship of the highest order.

Throw in the relentless moral ambiguity and I'm a goner.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I have read my copies (paper) of the Smiley books--Tinker and Smiley's People--into rags and tatters over the decades; they are utterly addictive. Just pick one of them up and it starts all over again.

The attempts to make film versions of Tinker, Taylor have been flops, and predictably so, because they have either warped the story well beyond the approval of Smiley enthusiasts (I certainly am one), or have failed to adequately mirror the physical characteristics of the major figures in the books. While a great fan of Alec Guinness, he was no more George Smiley--short, podgy--than was, say, Alec Guinness. Guinness towered over the figure he was to play; likewise the same miniseries choice of Toby Esterhase did not convince. Le Carre was meticulous, detailed, in his descriptions of his characters--some were quite well-cast: Bill Haydon, for one--, and the British cornucopia of actors is huge enough to fill any requirement easily, so one wonders at the lack of vision displayed so far in the making of Tinker, Tailor. They should have let a Tinker fanatic do the casting, or at least have veto power.

But it would be interesting to have several Tinker enthusiasts compare notes on the hypothetical ideal casting of Tinker, Tailor.


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## Guest (Dec 14, 2020)

This might be of interest:

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/12/14/john-le-carres-cold-war/


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

Sad news. I liked the fact that he was so self-effacing; when one of his novels became a standard text for A-level English Literature, he considered it "bloody ridiculous"!

And a character in his final novel seems to have managed to reflect the opinions of so many when they say:

"It is my considered opinion that for Britain and Europe, and for liberal democracy across the entire world as a whole, Britain’s departure from the European Union in the time of Donald Trump, and Britain’s consequent unqualified dependence on the United States in an era when the US is heading straight down the road to institutional racism and neo-fascism, is an unmitigated clusterfu**k bar none"

Good man!


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