Hopscotch

This book was published in 1975 and a film based on its story was released in 1980. The film, also entitled, “Hopscotch”, starred Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, Herbert Lom, Ned Beatty, and Sam Waterston, and was directed by Ronald Neame. I have to confess this film is one of my favourites and I am sure my fondness for the screen adaptation has coloured my view of the novel. If you can live with that then so can I.

It was only about six weeks ago I realised the film was based on a novel and that Brian Garfield, someone I had never heard of, was the author. I only discovered the existence of the novel when I watched the “additional material” on a DVD of Hopscotch. The additional material was interviews with Ronald Neame, the show more director, and Brian Garfield, author of the novel and screenplay (Bryan Forbes also worked on the screenplay).

The film is a comedy about a very experienced CIA field operative, played by Walter Matthau, who is being taken out of the field and given a desk job. He resents the CIA boss who is doing this to him and decides to retaliate in what turns out to be an hilarious fashion. For what is a relatively basic story the cast assembled was amazing and everyone gave wonderful performances. Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson were particularly wonderful and Ned Beatty played the arrogant, irritating, pompous boss to perfection. The head of the KGB was admirably played by Herbert Lom.

Having seen the film several times I found it difficult to not hear the voices of Walter Matthau and Herbert Lom as their characters were talking in the book.

The book did not disappoint but I do not think I would have read the book had it not been for having seen the film. If I were to recommend one over the other it would have to be the film. There were changes made to the plot in the translation from book to screen. The book cannot of course have the benefit of the excellent performances of the cast and given the cast gather for the making of the movie it is not surprising that the screen version delivers a better punch.

I will be hunting down more books written by Brian Garfield. show less

Miles Kendig was a top field agent with the CIA. But when a spy reaches a certain age, he is moved to a desk job. Feeling he was being forced into retirement, he quit. And he took a lot of secrets with him.

Depressed from the beginning, a meeting with a Soviet agent; the meeting inspired him to play a game. He is writing a book full of secrets, chapter by chapter he is sending them to the CIA and publishers around the world. It is an open challenge to his former colleagues to stop him before he can finish.

The book is written well. It is in third person yet getting inside Miles' head. We watch him set traps, not knowing how they will play out. Then we get to watch the action. Miles anticipates every action his colleagues do and works to show more not only stay ahead of them, but taunt them at each step.

The writing is good and reflects the mood on the page. During his early depression, Brian describes a meal as "he ate something in a café and had two Remy Martins." The tone changes dramatically after the meeting with the Soviet providing a harbinger of action to come.

The book is a fast read and fully enjoyable. show less

Competent story, the characterization is almost all told, and the viewpoint character other than the central character is well chosen. A version of spy against the system, it moves well, but the pay off is on the limp side.

Audiobook. Lots of fun. If you watched the movie with Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson you'll have the broad idea. If not, it's the story of how a CIA field agent, Miles Kendig, put out to pasture and retired to office work, decides it's time to spice up his life a bit. He writes a manuscript with details of intelligence service operations and then sends chapters to multiple publishers enticing the CIA and KGB to come after him before he can release more insidious details. He's clever and rubs their noses in it several times, before realizing the game might be getting just a bit too serious.

Hopscotch by Brian Garfield
Starts with definitions of the word and then we find them in Paris.
FBI, espinoage, spies, revealing secret papers to the public, all kinds of action make this an interesting read.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).

Great