The Secret Pilgrim

The eighth book in the series, written more than a decade after the previous entry, Smiley’s People (which has since been declared the final book of the “Karla Trilogy”). But le Carré was nothing if not willing to play with the expectations of his readers, and if the nine Smiley novels (until son Nick Harkaway’s recent addition) don’t always feature George Smiley as the central character, he is at least in there somewhere influencing events…

Which is not strictly true here. Or rather, it is. Sort of.

The narrator of The Secret Pilgrim is an ex-agent of the Circus, active during the events recounted in the Karla novels, and now the director of the Service’s spy school, Sarratt. He has invited Smiley, long since retired, to show more give a talk to the graduating class. And each reminiscence and bon mot uttered by Smiley during his after-dinner speech triggers a recollection by the narrator of a past mission for the Circus…

It’s a good read, and typical le Carré, in as much as it makes an impressive number of serious points about British society and its over-reliance on the inbred scions of its over-educated and under-gifted upper echelons… but it still feels a bit like filler material from a campaign module for Smiley’s World™.

And if that sounds unfair, then it likely is, if only because The Secret Pilgrim is presented as if it were part of the Smiley story arc when it is at best a pendant to it. Again, it’s a good read, and on a par with other books in the series, but it’s only just a George Smiley novel.

Le Carré has been praised by many, but is still I think under-appreciated. He was popular, in the way popular crime novel series are popular, which leads many to underestimate just how clever, and how critical of the UK establishment, his novels were. It’s easy enough to dismiss him as a writer of spy fiction, and especially convoluted spy fiction at that (compared to, well, Fleming), if the response to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is any indication.

Like Fleming, le Carré wore his politics on his sleeve. Unlike Fleming, they weren’t the usual Tory reactionary bollocks by those sucking up to, with a complete lack of self-awareness, the aristocracy, but an educated, thoughtful and critical view of British society and the establishment. When Fleming told some dowager duchess he was writing a novel, she told him not to because “You’re not clever enough, Ian”, which tells you how the aristocracy viewed themselves and how they viewed those who sought their company and approval. But then the British have always confused education with intelligence, much as the Americans have always confused wealth with intelligence. Le Carré was intelligent - and the proof is there in his novels. Fleming wasn’t - and, again, the proof is there in his novels.

Guess which has earned the most money…

Read le Carré. You can’t go wrong with his novels. You might even learn something about being British as well (although you may not like being British afterwards). show less

Le Carre uses the framing device of a retiring spymaster, teaching novice spies, to tell short stories about the moral ambiguities of espionage during the Cold War. My favorite is the second-to-last, where the narrator recollects when he confronted a lonely clerk who gave secrets to the Soviets. In the last short story, the narrator asks a Secret Service-connected businessmen to stop selling arms to parties in ethnic conflicts, only to be rebuffed, forcing him to ask if he was really on the side of angels after all. I liked this quite a lot, since it does not get bogged down in complicated mystery stories as a lot of Le Carre's novels do, and allows the characters to breathe.

A very welcome, nostalgic return for Smiley. But this time he is reminiscing for the students of the service. This is essentially a framing device for a bunch of short stories. As such, it is probably one for those already into le Carré, not one to create converts. That said, there are some beautiful passages here — it kinda feels like pieces that he couldn't work into the novels (there is one which feels like it emerged from the writing of The Honourable Schoolboy for example). Written in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet regime there is a lot which still feels very highly relevant —toward the end of the book Smiley reflects on the negative effect that untrammeled capitalism has on democracy, which feels incredibly relevant show more at the moment. Recommended, but don't start here. show less

Written in 1990, when the world found itself at the close of the Cold War and uncertain of the future, The Secret Pilgrim finds Ned, an aging spy, put out to pasture to teach the new recruits at Sarratt how to spy in a world where spying just might now be a second-rate trade. He invites our old friend Smiley to talk to his class, and as Smiley talks, Ned revisits his life as a spy.

As Debra, one of the astute members of our reading group, observed, “this is a spy coming-of-age story.” It is indeed, just that. It traces the decline in innocence of one spy, and in doing so, highlights the deterioration of a system that I believe began in decency and hope and ended in futility and sometimes corruption.

In the words of Smiley, "We show more concealed the very things that made us right. Our respect for the individual, our love of variety and argument, our belief that you can only govern fairly with the consent of the governed, our capacity to see the other fellow's view--most notably in the countries we exploited, almost to death, for our own ends. In our supposed ideological rectitude, we sacrificed our compassion to the great god of indifference. We protected the strong against the weak, and we perfected the art of the public lie. We made enemies of decent reformers and friends of the most disgusting potentates. And we scarcely paused to ask ourselves how much longer we could defend our society by these means and remain a society worth defending.”

I think these might be observations and questions just as worthwhile asking in 2019 as they were in 1990--perhaps more so.

I believe this was meant to be Smiley’s last appearance in print at the time it was written, although in 2017 John le Carre decided to visit him once again. Had this been Smiley’s last words on the subject of his life, they would have been profound ones. And yet, I wondered as I closed the book what Smiley would have done differently, given the same set of circumstances, and I decided the answer would have been, “nothing”. For Smiley did his best in a world that contained more evil and duplicity than he could ever have imagined--and what more can a person do? show less

In [b:The Secret Pilgrim|46462|The Secret Pilgrim|John le Carré|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1170330461l/46462._SY75_.jpg|876061], Le Carré has given us something different in structure but similar in tone and perspective to the other books in the George Smiley series. Ned, near the end of his career with the British intelligence service, is now head of their training school, Sarrat. In this capacity he has invited Smiley to speak to his students, and to his surprise, Smiley has accepted.

A lesser novelist might allowed the book to take its form from Smiley's reminiscences in his after-dinner speech. Le Carré instead uses Smiley's commentary to trigger Ned's memories, which then form the core show more of the book. Once again Smiley controls the narrative from the sidelines.

Ned's career has been long and varied, and given the starting point of the book we know that he has survived - at least in the physical sense. The lack of a central plot allows Ned's reflections to focus primarily on the individuals he has encountered through the years. And as always, Le Carré combines an acute understanding of human nature with brilliant descriptive gifts; reading these character studies is richly rewarding.

But again as always, Le Carré shares clear-eyed observations on politics and power. The book was written immediately following the end of the Cold War, and Smiley speculates on what would be the appropriate attitude going forward of the West, the British specifically, toward the Russian Bear. Should it be feared, or embraced and nurtured back onto its feet and the world stage?

In Ned's last official act as an intelligence officer he is asked to convince a wealthy arms dealer who has purchased his extremely comfortable place in the world in part by plying his trade for the benefit of "the Service", to back off. To stop making the world a more dangerous place by making it better armed. His efforts are futile, and the venal, self-serving commentary of this ultimate capitalist presages a different danger for the future from the one Ned has struggled against.

Seen from the vantage point of 2020, Le Carré is remarkably prescient, as there has been a merging of greedy capitalism and political power in both Russia and the west. Putin is not only an autocratic ruler but wealthy beyond measure. The US is enduring an onslaught in all three branches of government against the ordinary man, promoting instead the welfare of an oligarchical class that controls as much as 98% of the wealth of the country.

There is one more Smiley novel, A Legacy of Spies, published just 3 years ago. I look forward to completing the cycle before the end of the year. show less

This was the next unread book on my shelves, published in 1991 and picked up in a charity shop somewhere in England. There are nine novels in the George Smiley series and this is the eighth and the first that I have read and so I have come rather late into the sequence. In fact Smiley is close to retirement and has headed out onto the lecture circuit, where he is giving a speech to young trainee spies. The secret Pilgrim is Ned also coming up to retirement who has been in the service as long as George Smiley, sometimes working for him and at other times their paths have crossed, but Ned has always seen Smiley as a mentor. Smiley's speech brings back memories for Ned who is sitting in with him, and it is these memories that are welded show more into the stories in this book. They cover much of Ned's career from his first assignment, where he made a bit of a fool of himself to assignments that were life threatening to him and to the spies (Joe's) that he controlled. There are thirteen chapters and each tells a story and/or takes the reader back to Smiley's lecture.

The stories take us around the world: Berlin, Hamburg, London, Poland, Cambodia, Lebanon where the British secret service battles both foreign agents and American spymasters, sometimes winning sometimes losing. Although much of their work is routine they are never sure who they can trust and they run considerable risks much of the time. The novel does not only feature these stories, but sketches in a history of British intelligence in accordance with the world peopled by the spies of John Le Carré. It also allows Smiley to contemplate the part the intelligence service played in winning the cold war: wondering if they did win or if the other side just lost. The time span covers the cold war, leading up to and beyond the fall of the Berlin Wall and the revelations of the double agents working for Russia. Near the end of the book Smiley is getting to grips with his own motives for working in the intelligence services and passing on his words of wisdom to the students.

The world of the spies and their masters portrayed in this book is very British, one would not be surprised if those at the top of the hierarchy, had all gone to the same school. Their methods and gadgetry hardly advance over the time period, they continue to keep doing the same things with equipment that sounds just a bit dated. As in many occupations competition can be fierce, but this is laced with suspicions at all levels, where trust is at a premium. Le Carré dwells on this, creating a world that will be recognisable to many readers. He is good at creating dialogue and gives his characters enough time to think through their actions. I enjoyed immersing myself in John Le Carré's world and sometimes thats all you need; I have got more novels by Le Carré and I am looking forward to reading them. 4 stars. show less

This is a collection of vignettes, start to finish along the path of Ned's career. It's really focused on the human side of the business, and ends with an explicit claim that it's the human side that really matters. Not the mass of humanity, but personal relationships, commitments, values, etc.

Very nicely written, a pleasure to read.