
What is the best John le Carré novel? - samclemens
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/best-le-carre-novel
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kchoudhu
I nominate _The Secret Pilgrim_.

It's a sequence of vignettes about the Service as related by Smiley during a
training session for new recruits. I remember finishing the book, and feeling
a profound sense of pity for the broken, fractured people working for MI6.

A lot of Le Carre's stuff deals with the same themes -- but that was the first
time I ever _felt_ what the author was trying to put across. I've not read
anything with similar impact since.

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ris
_" For some of us, this bleak and witty thriller was an introduction to
grownup reality."_

I think this sentence sums up how I feel about le Carre entirely. _An
introduction to grownup reality._

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Arnt
The Honourable Schoolboy?

It absolutely has that vast grey nothingness of expectation, hope, attempt,
and when something eventually does happen, it turns out to have happened
already and there's nothing to do about it any more. Betrayal, perhaps, but in
the past tense.

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wj
This was my favorite of the Smiley series and my favorite of his novels that I
have read so far (almost half of them). Really like the change of scenery from
the cold and dreary settings of the U.K., Germany, and Russia.

Surprisingly though it is A Murder of Quality (the only Smiley novel not set
in the spy world) that has stuck with me the most.

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aceperry
I've never read any of Le Carre's books, but saw a couple of films based on
his books. The Little Drummer Girl was a pretty good film, so I'd like to read
that book.

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chr15p
If you've not seen "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" the film is well worth it,
although if you can get hold of the BBC TV series of that and "Smiley's
People" . To me Alec Guinness just is George Smiley, far more then he is Ben
Kenobi.

Plus as a bonus the books were still excellent reading even after knowing what
happens.

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will_pseudonym
> To me Alec Guinness just is George Smiley, far more then he is Ben Kenobi.

Now THAT is a superb recommendation. Downloading it now.

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Bulkington
At risk of outing myself as an Anglophile--and of then being shunned by true
Brits for saying this--but I rate LeCarre with Anthony Burgess, high on my
list of favorite authors. Coincidentally, Burgess took a swing at a spy novel
(and at LeCarre and Ian Fleming). Worth a read for fans of the genre.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremor_of_Intent:_An_Eschato...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremor_of_Intent:_An_Eschatological_Spy_Novel)

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regehr
_A Perfect Spy_ has my vote, it's an incredible book.

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arethuza
I had no idea that parts of it were so autobiographical - his father was a
convicted con man and associated of the Krays. I'll have to read it again!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Spy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Spy)

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Angostura
I still absolutely love Tinker Tailor as a book. The characterisation is first
rate.

Call for the Dead is a really interesting Novel too - Le Carré's first novel
and shows both his evolution as a novelist and the evolution of The Circus and
Smiley's colleagues. Mendel gets a bit more of a starring role.

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alexatkeplar
Once you have read his early classics, "A Most Wanted Man" is well worth a
read. It was the book where le Carré rebooted himself for the 21st Century;
when I think of it I always think of William Gibson's "Spook Country"
alongside it (both thematically and in terms of a reboot).

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akkartik
People who like Le Carre will also enjoy this British TV show from the '70s:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandbaggers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandbaggers)

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bborud
Actually, I don't like le Carré's books. I think his writing style is tedious
and overly obsessed with painfully drawn out descriptive language. There are
good stories hiding in there somewhere. But the packaging isn't for me.

