The Looking-Glass War (1965)

The Department and the Circus have never been the closest of friends. So when the Department has an opportunity to do its own bit of intelligence work in East Germany (what’s that you say about a missile base?), it seizes the chance. A former agent from the war is trained up and sent over the border, and it’s all rather bleak and world-weary. It’s written well, as is usual with a John le Carré novel; “polished” is the word that comes to mind often when I think of his writing. The structure of the book is neatly done, and the details well chosen as always. But I didn’t really feel as though there was much point to the story. Unless the point was that the whole exercise of sending Leiser in was pointless. Weirdly, I felt like I’d read this before, but perhaps I’m mixing it up with A Small Town in Germany (will have to read that one next). ( )

I know I read this years and years ago, but I didn't remember anything about it. In his introduction to a newish trade paper release, Le Carre says that he wrote this to offset the romanticized view people developed about the spy trade from The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (a view he neither meant nor expected). I can understand how readers turned Alec Leamas into a tragic hero and the story into a romance, but I can also see how that wasn't the author's intention.

So with this book Le Carre allows no doubt and writes about a past-it, self-deluded, incompetent Department (never named) which has been essentially mothballed after the war and replaced by the Circus. He over-eggs the pudding a bit, with no one being likable, happy, or in stable personal situations. We have three main characters in the Department (the hubristic Head, the jaded Old Hand, and the young, still idealistic postwar New Boy). When their courier is killed picking up a film that ostensibly shows the Soviets building missiles in East Germany, the Department sets up a mission to infiltrate an agent into the area. Except they don't really have agents anymore, let alone networks or equipment.

For reasons of its own, the Circus lends the Department expertise and equipment, nothing new but just enough to let the latter continue its dreams of glory, and they recruit a long-retired agent from the war days. There is a lot of detail about the setup and training, too much sometimes, but it is effective in creating context and atmosphere. Most of the action takes place in offices, safe houses, and in Finland, where the original drop was supposed to happen, along with a running subplot featuring the idealistic John Avery and his unhappy marriage.

A bit on the nose at times, and the dialogue can verge on caricatured, but Le Carre captures the dangerous delusions of bureaucrats whose agencies have outlived their purposes, as well as the immense tedium that characterizes everyday spycraft. ( )

This novels is about a spy who goes behind the iron curtain looking for inteligence of some rockets, but what I found more interesting is the way Mr. Carre shows the humanless work that espionage is. ( )

Another well performed Smiley book. The storybis told in le Carres usual understated style, evoking more strongly than previous books the bureaucracy and petty rivalries of the secret world. The characters are very plausible and well developed. ( )

Certainly not my favourite John le Carre. I found the training section in the middle of the book particularly tiresome. ( )