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Loading... Smiley's People (1979)by John le Carré
   No current Talk conversations about this book.   ) Pauntley | Jun 17, 2024 |  ”For all these reasons then, ‘Smiley’s People’ was intended to be a requiem for the old spy, and to me that is what it remains. . . . The grand finale takes place in divided Berlin. . . . For his last act, Smiley would return there, and in his heart beg Karla not to leave the East. Smiley wins, Karla loses. But at what cost to both of them? Facing each other, they are the two no-men of no-man’s land. Karla has sacrificed his political faith, Smiley his humanity.” Smiley’s People is the classic Cold War espionage novel. A Russian emigre is accosted on the streets of Paris by a Soviet intelligence officer as we slowly begin to learn more of her story when she seeks help from a well-placed contact, there is a young Estonian boy thrown into the world of espionage without the proper training as he attempts to be courier in Hamburg, and George Smiley is summoned in the dead of night in London to a grisly murder scene of a retired agent. He is briefed to bury the crime, not to solve it but Smiley becomes haunted by a cast of many ghosts from the past. There is mounting revelation and suspense as we race from Switzerland, Hamburg, Paris and Berlin. John le Carre is the master of espionage with his wealth of books. I am looking forward to reading the last two books in the Smiley’s People series. ( ) MsSymphony | Mar 31, 2024 |  ) mattbonner | Feb 25, 2024 | It is a suitable and satisfying conclusion to the Karla trilogy, but, although I did not feel this during the reading of it, in retrospect it is perhaps a little anticlimactic as a story in its own right. ( ) thisisstephenbetts | Nov 25, 2023 | This book, follows a retired George Smiley as he investigates the death of a former source in mysterious circumstances and uncovers an important conspiracy in which to achieve his ends Smiley is forced to use the tactics of his nemesis, the shadowy Karla head of Russia's thirteenth directorate. The book is set at a gentle pace, one could argue at Smiley's pace, but that only adds to it's charm. If you are looking for a pacy thriller then I don't think this is the book for you. I would however recommend it to lovers of literary fiction who appreciate detail and description. ( )1  Cotswoldreader | May 2, 2023 |
In "Smiley's People," Smiley works both worlds, is both detective and agent at risk. I won"t disclose the oblique, slow-moving plot, except to say that a trail of murder and camouflage leads Smiley to Hamburg and Paris and Berne, and that the stakes are especially high for him, since his old archenemy, the daunting mastermind in charge of the Thirteenth Directorate of Russian Intelligence, appears to have made an uncharacteristic slip. Smiley's boss in London jokingly refers to Holmes and Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls, but even Smiley himself hears "the drum-beat of his own past, summoning him to one last effort to externalise and resolve the conflict he had lived by." That's a touch too literary, sounding more like le Carré's problem than Smiley's, and Smiley's next image catches a little more of the case: "It was just possible, against all the odds, that he had been given, in late age, a chance to return to the rained-out contests of his life and play them after all."  The story’s progress is funereal, and there are times when Smiley appears to have lost not his marbles but his memory. Some of the narrative involves Smiley digging to unearth bits of the past that we know already (as in the long, long revelations of a messenger’s activities), and we see him prompting the memory of others with information that he apparently already knows. In a talk with Connie Sachs — we have met her in other books - Smiley induces her to emember things about Karla and the girl. ‘And the child? There was a defector report - what was that about?’ If Smiley knows so much about the defector report, and indeed about most of what Connie has to tell him, what is the point of asking her questions? Is contained inHas the adaptationAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Fiction.
Suspense.
Thriller.
HTML:From the New York Times bestselling author of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Our Kind of Traitor; and The Night Manager, now a television series starring Tom Hiddleston. Tell Max that it concerns the Sandman A very junior agent answers Vladimirs call, but it could have been the Chief of the Circus himself. No one at the British Secret Service considers the old spy to be anything except a senile has-been who cant give up the gameuntil hes shot in the face at point-blank range. Although George Smiley (code name: Max) is officially retired, hes summoned to identify the body now bearing Moscow Centres bloody imprimatur. As he works to unearth his friends fatal secrets, Smiley heads inexorably toward one final reckoning with Karlahis dark grail. In Smileys People, master storyteller and New York Times bestselling author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Our Kind of Traitor John le Carr brings his acclaimed Karla Trilogy, to its unforgettable, spellbinding conclusion. With an introduction by the author. No library descriptions found. |
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