Jeff P. (jeffp) reviewed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (George Smiley, Bk 5) on + 201 more book reviews
Good stuff. I hadn't read any Le Carre before and I really enjoyed this. It's the first of the series in which George Smiley (in his retirement) comes back to combat Karla, the Soviet spy master.
It turns out that Le Carre (Actually David John Moore Cornwell) really worked in two British spy agencies (MI5 and MI6) so he's got a nose for making his fiction sound like truth.
I, of course, can't tell you if it's really possible - not being in the spy business myself - but I can tell you it reads well, and that's what counts in this case.
Recommended.
It turns out that Le Carre (Actually David John Moore Cornwell) really worked in two British spy agencies (MI5 and MI6) so he's got a nose for making his fiction sound like truth.
I, of course, can't tell you if it's really possible - not being in the spy business myself - but I can tell you it reads well, and that's what counts in this case.
Recommended.
Al V. (TraderAl1) reviewed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (George Smiley, Bk 5) on + 63 more book reviews
This is true to LeCarre's tortured hero. You'll like this one if you like LeCarre's treatment of MI-6
Reed B. (transatlantic) reviewed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (George Smiley, Bk 5) on + 7 more book reviews
Probably LeCarré's best, and one of the best espionage novels ever written, both defining and transcending the genre.
Le Carre's spy novels are the best of the genre I've read, and George Smiley is my favorite character. As with many/most/all of Le Carre's books I have read, _Tinker_ is not action-packed in a Tom Clancy sense, concentrating instead on the characters, what they are thinking, and what aches and pains are bothering them. Riding along with Smiley as he pushes along to solution is a thrill.
This installment of the le Carré canon has George Smiley trying to uncover a Soviet mole in the British Secret Service.
very good
Robert M. (shotokanchef) reviewed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (George Smiley, Bk 5) on + 813 more book reviews
Its spy versus spy as British Intelligence moves to ferret out a mole from its ranks. Piece by piece the story is pulled together from documents and memories. Stay carefully tuned to the storyline, the names (both given and surname), and codes or youll be as lost as MI-6 appears to be. The opening chapter at once seems to be irrelevant, and it is not until much later that it begins to fall into place: not all at once but piecemeal, as does the rest of the story. Thus begins George Smileys quest for a mole in the British intelligence community.
