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I actually bought this book about 12-15 years ago, back when the Cold War was still a recent memory, and it's been sitting on my book shelf (in fact many bookshelves throughout 7 or 8 residences at least) ever since. Not sure what made me buy it originally but I apparently wasn't ready for it when I did. Now, after seeing The Constant Gardner a film based on a LeCarre novel I was ready to get into the novelist's greatest work.

The book is about Alec Leamas, a British spy stationed in Berlin, who is brought in from his post and then sent out for one last dangerous mission - pretending to defect into Communist occupied East Berlin. There are a lot of twists as we meet characters whose allegiances are unknown and the nature of Leamas' mission is kept murky for us. LeCarre examines the moral ambiguity of the spy business as even our protagonist's motivations are in a gray area between right and wrong.

One of the most interesting parts for me was when Leamas is first brought back to London and must take a job in a library where he becomes romantically involved with a librarian who is actually a card-carrying Communist. This was a small part of the book but the story of a decommissioined spy trying to make it in the real world, working menial jobs and seducing bookish women would be a great book on its own.

Posted at November 3, 2005 05:12 PM