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Book Reviews of The Looking Glass War

The Looking Glass War
The Looking Glass War
Author: John le Carre
ISBN-13: 9780743431705
ISBN-10: 0743431707
Publication Date: 3/1/2002
Pages: 288
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 10

3.6 stars, based on 10 ratings
Publisher: Scribner
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

4 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed The Looking Glass War on + 9 more book reviews
Anxious to regain its status as a Whitehall player, an outdated and out-of-fashion intelligence department conceives & launches a covert operation to penetrate the Iron Curtain. Unforgiving bureaucratic satire about the boys-school mentality of the secret world and its often costly games.
reviewed The Looking Glass War on + 3389 more book reviews
Among other things, the description of running an Agent (Fred Leiser) through the Iron Curtain at night remains one of the best I've seen.

On a larger scale, this is a story of the mounting bureaucratic infighting between a military intelligence operation and the emergent power of the "Circus", Control and George Smiley. Like most good LeCarre novels it is also a story of more primal human emotions and their impact, in this case, on espionage operations. Very much worth the read.
kimeriksen avatar reviewed The Looking Glass War on + 24 more book reviews
Cold War spy tale set between English spys and the Germans.
reviewed The Looking Glass War on + 813 more book reviews
Long on the recruitment and training of a spy, in this one he comes in from the cold in a different manner. No fluff, straightforward prose; read easily at a single sitting (320 pages).