Books 2009

[etherealfionna]

3) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré

Another of the 1001 Books, coincidentally instead of deliberately read, because I read it as part of my fascination with the Cambridge Spies Scandal, and the repercussions from that. I'm reading around it, so TTSS fits in there perfectly

Comments

[greyarea]

I'm a big fan of Le Carre's novels. I love the way they reflect (what I imagine to be) real spy work - 95% of them is slow, nothing happening, and then it all explodes towards the end.

Also Alan Bennett. The senior partner of the firm I work for gave a speech at the xmas party. Short and sweet, and acknowledging the financial problems facing us: "I saw a man pissing in Jermyn Street today. I thought to myself - is this end of civilisation? Or just a man, pissing in Jermyn Street". And then he sat down.

Cue mass confusion, but I thought it was hilarious.

[etherealfionna]

The senior partner of the firm I work for gave a speech at the xmas party. Short and sweet, and acknowledging the financial problems facing us: "I saw a man pissing in Jermyn Street today. I thought to myself - is this end of civilisation? Or just a man, pissing in Jermyn Street"

Ah ha ha ha!! Brilliant, both the quote and the context!

I love Alan Bennett too, although this particular collection is not doing that much for me. Though I have an ulterior motive which might be distracting me, I'm curious about how you could make Bennett's plays Pinteresque.

[uglychicken]

LeCarre's the bee's dog biscuit, indeed. Read Honourable Schoolboy when I was sixteen and most of it went over mu head, but I loved the atmosphere and the characters and the subtlety. The adaptations of Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People are worth seeing after you've read the books. Smiley's was adapted by LeCarre himself and is utterly faithful to the book, to an amazing degree. I've found Robert Littell to be the closest American equivalent, so far. The Company is an epic fictional history of the CIA and has a section about Philby and the repercussions of his betrayal on the Agency.